My name is Oliver Nkosi and I work as a Consumer Relations Manager at CCW. My role involves managing the frontline team who are the first point of contact for our customers. Our organisation is the voice of the consumer. In my department when things have gone wrong, we endeavour to work with water companies to put them right.

I was born in Malawi - a small country in Africa which most of you will probably need to Google unless you are a Madonna fan! I came to the UK in 2003 and lived in Nottingham until February 2020 when I moved to Birmingham and joined CCW. I am relatively new to CCW and the water industry, with my background being in home insurance.

This was a massive change for me; not only did I have to navigate a new job, new faces but adapt to an alien industry. Up until this point, my wife and I had lived an hour away from each other, and now we're in lockdown together 24/7 and finally adapting to homeworking. I am a strong believer though that there is one constant in life and that is change.

As someone who has experienced a lot of change over the years, I have found that the way people can react to it can be just as impactful and disruptive as the change itself. Take, for example, the panic buying as the pandemic took hold. We saw supermarket shelves emptied and who can forget the great toilet roll rush of April 2020. The reason for this wasn’t primarily due to a lack of goods. It was the nation’s reaction to news of the pandemic. People changed their buying habits and decided to bulk buy items in preparation for the ‘apocalypse’. This led to the very thing people were afraid of – running out of essentials.

Change can be daunting and disruptive but it is how we make progress and how the human race has continued to achieve unimaginable things. Working from home is now second nature. Jobs we normally associated with needing an office can now be done in your own home. Video conferencing has become a routine part of our day – as has positioning our camera to avoid a glimpse of our pyjama bottoms! We have also seen a huge change in the way people view Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion – both personally and at an organisational level. I would urge you all to be proactive and contribute to this change and shift in mindset.

Another point of reflection for me is October when we dedicate a whole month to black history. In Malawi - as with most other places where the majority of people are black - there is little emphasis on Black History Month. Learning about the achievements of black people was just another day in history class for me. I feel that water companies are now making a conscious effort to be part of the equality conversation and show their support for different minority groups. United Utilities shared a powerful video that celebrates people’s differences in their organisation which is worth a watch.

There are areas where I think the water industry and CCW are leading the way in terms of equality. Just look at the impressive number of women in prominent positions across the industry. CCW, Water UK, Northumbrian Water, Severn Trent Water, MOSL, Yorkshire Water, South West Water, and Waterwise (to name a few) are all led by female chief executives. The sector still has more to do to ensure diversity across its breadth of activities. Women remain a largely untapped pool of talent for certain job roles, with the low number of women in water-related technical roles reflecting their low level of representation in these types of jobs.

At CCW we started our EDI journey in May 2020. We have three focus groups that cover all aspects of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. These are Unity - standing together embracing our commonalities as well as what makes us diverse. Individual needs and flexibility - which looks at the flexibility of our organisation for everyone’s individual needs. Finally, Uniqueness and Respect - which is about nurturing an environment and community where everyone feels able to be themselves.

Our whole organisation has pledged to embed Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in the heart of our culture. We want to celebrate and value all of our people and their differences and strive to reflect the diverse community we serve. Every member of staff has also made an individual pledge on how they plan to support our EDI initiative. We are taking small steps that will eventually lead to big changes in the water industry and beyond.

To better promote EDI, I think organisations need to aim for small steps and manageable goals that involve as many people as possible in their organisations. They also need to focus on consistency and aim to sustain these initiatives for many years to come.

I hope that everyone in the water industry has Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at the heart of everything they do. So many things now fall under this umbrella; we are all impacted and affected by one if not more aspects of EDI.

The question we all need to ask ourselves is, "Am I happy not being involved with Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion and instead just being a spectator to change?’’

And if that is the case, "If I was to be impacted or experience something to do with inequality, lack of diversity or lack of inclusion, how would I feel if people did nothing?"

I long for the day when EDI groups or initiatives are not needed because people already live and breathe these values. Until then I want to encourage you all to be part of the right change. Let’s not make the kind of decisions that will leave us with no toilet paper on the shelves.

For more information on CCW's EDI journey, click here.