Black History Month
This month the UK celebrates Black History Month - a time to recognise and celebrate the culture, history and people of our black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.
Waltham Cross delivery office manager and vice-chair of the BAME steering group, Mark Morrison, has worked at Royal Mail for more than 25 years in various operational roles.
‘I was born in Greenwich in South East London and grew up in East London,’ said Mark. ‘Both of my parents came to the UK from Guyana in the 1960s. They were both hard working people and really instilled in me the same work ethic.
‘I started as a postman and spent 11 years in the west central postcode in London. I then worked at Mount Pleasant on processing before moving onto collections. Following a 12-month stint as a reserve manager in Watford, I became the collection and network manager for the Enfield, St Albans, Watford and Luton postcodes. After gaining my CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) I stayed in this role for seven years, during which time, I managed to improve the working environment and change the culture of the unit.
‘When the business started to restructure the processing plants I decided to take my career in a different direction and moved to deliveries at Borehamwood delivery office. At the time, this was quite a difficult unit to manage. Fortunately over the next four years, I was able to engage with the teams, improve the office and change the demographic of the unit, bringing new ideas and cultures into the operation.
‘When I moved to Waltham Cross in 2016 I began working on changing the layout of the floor. This included moving the special delivery locker into the enquiry counter area to improve security, moving offices into operational areas to enlarge available floor space and redecorating the kitchen and rest areas.
‘I’ve also tried to improve the female and BAME population in the office to better reflect the local community. At present, 25% of the delivery team are female and this has really helped change the culture. We’ve come a long way in the last few years and I’m pleased to say that the office is a much better place now.
‘Since joining the BAME steering group three years I’ve been involved in supporting various BAME colleague engagement events. For last year’s Black History Month, we managed to get David Lammy MP to come to our event at the Phoenix Centre in London, which was brilliant. We also held an event in Wolverhampton where we were able to tell colleagues about some of the things we had achieved and what the group’s aims were going forward.
‘As a Business in the Community (BITC) - trained mentor I have helped a number of frontline colleagues and managers. Having been through the process myself, I’ve been able to help support four colleagues gain promotions which I’m really proud of. I believe passionately in helping BAME colleagues realise their ambitions – this is one of the key reasons why I became involved in the BAME network. I remember what it was like for me starting out as an acting manager and the mistakes I had to make and learn from. If there had been someone at the time who I could talk to or just bounce ideas around with I definitely think it would have helped me in my development.’
Supporting BAME colleagues
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Making our business a place where black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues can achieve their potential remains a priority.
Career progression is a key focus as we work towards improving the representation of colleagues from BAME backgrounds across all levels of the business. We need to build greater awareness that the network exists and is there to support our people and shine a light on all the good positive things we are doing across the business.
If you are thinking about holding a BAME cultural event in your unit, and need some help please reach out to us. To contact the BAME steering group, or volunteer to help out with their activities, please email bame@royalmail.com.
