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.

HR director for Property & Facilities Solutions, Charlene Ryan, has worked at Royal Mail for 11 years, having started on the HR graduate scheme.

‘When I graduated from Reading University with a degree in history, a career in HR didn’t seem like an obvious choice,’ said Charlene. ‘As a student, like many people, I had a part-time job waitressing in a bar. Not wanting to go home after I graduated I became a supervisor and stayed in Reading. From there I carried on working in hospitality and eventually became the general manager of a bar in Hammersmith in London.

‘Although I really enjoyed the role and had a lot of success in a short time period, the unsociable hours led me to decide to switch careers. I started thinking about what I might do and having taken responsibility for people activity while working in hospitality, I decided that a career in HR would be a good move for me. 

‘After doing various temporary HR assistant roles I applied for a number of graduate schemes, including Royal Mail’s. I must admit that the best assessment experience I had was with Royal Mail and fortunately, I was offered a role. 

‘Black History Month is important to me as understanding history provides context and helps reinforce a sense of identity and belonging. To know that people of colour have played a major part in the history of Britain is important. It is a great way to raise awareness and counter the often negative perceptions and stereotypes that sadly, still exist today.

‘I am passionate about individuals being able to fulfil their potential and I really believe that Black History Month can play a part in tackling the barrier of bias, as well as celebrating the achievements and contributions of black, Asian and minority ethnic people.’

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 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.