What do you do?
Our aim is to improve the Built
Environments approach to the people it employs, we do this in a number of ways
at a number of different levels for example.
Affecting change at strategic
level by sitting on boards and responding to government consultations of behalf
of organisations such as the CIOB.
Delivering training that
understands the working lives, concerns and passions of your employees so that
they can “buy in” to the equality agenda.
Not only raise awareness of the
challenges faced by industry but of the successes it enjoys so that the industry
can move forward and be celebrated as it does so.
Helping companies use equality,
diversity, fairness inclusion and respect to build their businesses, retain their
employees ad create a happier more diverse workforce.
We are a private business but we
do try and commit 10% of our resources to helping the industry without cost,
some of the things we do are visit school, give talks, help SMEs find support.
How will this make a difference?
As an industry we believe that
construction is often led by clients and government who are not always aware of
the challenges we face. Our work is aims to educate these groups and create initiatives
that recognise the good work the industry is doing now, as well as working with
individual firms to create something better for the future.
There is a strong argument for equality
and diversity in business and we believe that by treating your employees with
fairness, inclusion and respect you can save yourself improve bottom line, save
on resources and employ the best people.
Do you expect to change everybody’s opinion?
Not even a little bit, and it’s
not something we particular want to do either. Opinions are held deep and
whilst we aim get you to think about your reasoning we don’t think a half day
training course will change the socially ingrained views of a life time. What
we do instead is explain what is and isn't appropriate in the workplace, how inappropriate behavior can have a negative effect on your business and what you can do to manage it.
How would this benefit my business?
In lots of ways, from helping you
to meet legal requirement, to strengthen your PQQ tender submissions. More importantly
though we can help you create a inclusive and diverse workforce that attracts,
progresses and retains key talent having a positive effect on your bottom line.
More specifically the BE FaiR
frame work which we have partnered with construction skills to design and
deliver will enable you to develop your organisation in a way that understands
your resources, fits in with your existing processes and provides a wide range
of supportive documents to help you fill the gap. At the end you get an accreditation
which you can use to strengthen your PQQ’s.
If this is proven to work, why isn't it put into other
industries as well?
It is, some are much further
ahead than construction especially those linked to the public sector, and
unfortunately few are further behind. Our concern is that whilst other industries
reap the benefits of a diverse workforce attracting and retaining the best
talent we as an industry continue to fall behind in the race for employer of
choice.
That’s one of the reasons why the
sector skills council – Construction skill, commissioned us to design the BE
FaIR framework to give the industry a “leg up”. We firmly believe that if
industry gets behind this initiative we can become a future industry of choice,
after all the work we do is amazing too often it’s the way we are treated that’s
off putting.
Will there be negative effects to my business if I can’t provide
E&D training to my workforce?
Possibly, more and more public
sector clients are asking for management staff to be trained in equality. We
know this can be a costly business and while we would love everyone to book
training with us we know this is not always an option. This is why we are
working with construction skills and the UKCG to develop toolbox talks around
equality and diversity that will be made available to every site for the cost
of the ink and paper. We are also developing online equality training to keep
time and cost down – especially for the subcontract trades.
I own a small micro company (5 people) & we are a family
run business that all get on fine and have no issues-do we still require
E&D training?
We think so, equality can affect
us no matter how small the business, but I think it’s important to understand
that this does not mean you should be doing as much as the large organisations.
Not just because you don’t have the resource but because it wouldn't necessarily
be of any use to you.
The BE FaIR frame work is
bringing out its micro strand next year which allows small businesses to
benefit from the framework without being overwhelmed by it, in fact the initial
feedback has stated it to be very useful giving access to policies, processes
and feedback that would have otherwise been out of reach.
Our background in construction
means we know where the majority of the risk usually falls and we are always on
the lookout to protect the SMEs first.
What is meant by an E&D issue?
Usually this would mean that you
have a situation in your organisation where someone has treated someone else
less favorably because of something that is unrelated to their ability to
carry out their work.
If I pay for E&D training this year will I be required
to review this every year?
No, not legally at least. You
should keep in mind though that different clients want different things so we can’t
make an absolute statement. We find that
different approaches are required for different companies so we would always want
to advise individually; there could be circumstances that require you to have
additional training.
What is the difference between positive discrimination and
positive action?
The most important difference is that
positive action is legal and positive discrimination (except in the most rare
of cases) is not. You cannot legally choose to employ someone over someone else
due to a protected characteristic (race, sex, disability, religion and belief, sexual
orientation, gender reassignment, age, pregnancy and maternity) but you can
enact positive action. Positive action is where there is an under representation of a group in your work force (can vary with geography ) or in a set of roles
and it works by trying to make things a little fairer. For example if you had no women as site managers
but lots of women in admin roles who were interested in finding out more you
could set up a training day to find out if their skills were suited. Think of
it as bridging a gap not crossing a line.
Do I have to have to have toilet/ changing facilities for
both sexes on all sites?
No, you only need provide a
lockable door; or if you are working on a temporary site access to toilet
facilities. Of course if you have the means and the motive separate toilet
facilities are always welcomed.
Where can I get help from to support in employing a new
worker with hearing disabilities?
Have a little look at this site access to work its funding from the government to help people
living with disabilities pay for the practical support they need to help them
do their job.
