Over 148 Construction companies apply to be on the CITB BE FaIR Framework pilot - CITB’s new industry-approved accredited framework for fairness, inclusion and respect in the workplace

The CITB BE FaIR (Built Environment Fairness, Inclusion and Respect) accreditation framework developed by CITB (The Construction Industry Training Board and sector skills council for construction) in partnership with  Constructing Equality Ltd, (The leading provider of construction-specific equality and diversity training and consultancy) supports the construction industry in addressing fairness, inclusion and respect.

Following a successful test of the first six strands in Summer 2012, CITB and Constructing Equality Ltd have received the interest of 148 companies to undertake the pilot, which runs from now until December 2013, of the Main Contractor and Sub-contractor strands and have just offered places to 110.

“Having a diverse workforce is beneficial to a company’s productivity, profitability and growth.  It is great to see the level of interest the framework has generated and the opportunities it presents for demonstrating business practise within the Industry. As an organisation we are committed to attracting and supporting the best workers to the construction industry, reflecting the diverse society we all live in.” – Matt Valentine-Pyle, CITB

The 110 companies range from small sub-contractors like Highwire Ltd, Macform Ltd and Cullins Ltd all the way up to large main contractors like Vinci plc., Wates Group, ISG plc. and Graham.

With 13 main contractors, largely drawn from UKCG members, and the declared support of this framework from the Industry Leadership Group for Fairness, Inclusion and Respect chaired by Judy Lowe, CITB Deputy Chair, this new approach to diversity, that sets a baseline of fairness for everyone, seems to be really hitting a key note with companies across the industry.

Graham, one of the test companies, is part of the pilot and has already identified that they are seeing improvements across their business, especially amongst their workforce on site, in morale, motivation and commitment to fairness, inclusion and respect for everyone.

Taking on the CITB BE FaIR framework enables companies to develop and progress as they move through accreditation levels from simply complying with the law at Level 1 right the way through to being a leading light for best practice in the sector at Level 4.

This (CITB BE FaIR) is a construction-specific accredited framework that has been designed to support the industry’s wide range of companies and organisations in addressing equality law and public sector equality duties through encouraging and developing fair practices in the workplace for all.

The CITB BE FaIR Framework is written in “strands” that segment the sector into its different types of organisations   and help identify and support the relevant challenges and needs.

Companies wishing to find out more about how they can adopt the BE FaIR framework should contact their CITB local office or the CITB website.

Constructing Equality Ltd. Newsletter survey feedback...

At Constructing Equality Ltd. we are always on the look-out to improve our business and services, as well as the news that we deliver in our monthly newsletter and weekly blogs.

Sponsored by CITB, the newsletter now has over 6,000 subscribers, and is the leading source of trusted information on diversity and equality in construction. It is a simple way to keep abreast of the latest news and articles, as well as current trends and best practice within the 
sector. In turn, its aim is to provide our readers with lots of links to useful sites and stories, and we also include job opportunities from around the sector.

We recently asked our readers and subscribers to participate in a short survey that would enable improve the newsletter and feature more of the stories and articles that are relevant to our readers.

To begin with we asked participants to give their opinion on what they thought of the newsletter content in general:

‘’The newsletter has greatly improved with the redesign, however it could be improved further by shortening the articles and giving readers a "read more" option - there is so much great content but it can look overwhelming at first glance.’’ – Anonymous. 

This is a very positive response; 96% of participants were happy with the general content of the newsletter. The 4% that selected ‘other’ simply expressed their opinion towards the presentation of the newsletter; an issue that is being dealt with currently with the design team and the host website.

Participants were then asked to be more specific in what they like to see in the newsletter, the following results were found: 

The most popular sources of information are news, case studies and best practice examples. As a result of this we have identified a need to increase the amount of best practice case studies that are featured in the newsletter each month. We are now taking a more proactive approach to ensure that at least two industry best practice articles are included in every newsletter.

As part of this process we try and cover a wide range of case studies from a vast array of different organisations within the sector. It is for this reason that we encourage organisations and individuals to send in case studies that they feel will be of benefit to the industry and the reader alike. 

One important issue that we are currently working towards a remedy for is the format of the newsletter. As some people may know, Constructing Equality Ltd. went through a re-branding later last year and as part of that re-branding we also changed the layout and design of the newsletter. Although we have had some technical difficulties the overall feedback of this has been very positive.

The additional comments around length of articles will be addressed in the next newsletter by shortening the length of articles and including a ‘read more’ option as suggested. It has also been agreed that articles will generally be around 250 – 300 words in length and must not exceed 400 words.

In addition to providing the industry with construction specific equality and diversity news, resources and opportunities, one of the reasons the newsletter is created every month is to provide people and organisations with beneficial sources of information that they may not know about previously; this can range from providing people with job opportunities to making organisations aware of funding prospects.

To better understand what resources people consider to be the most beneficial, we asked participants to select how they feel the newsletter benefits them:

As part of the newsletter we have a monthly quiz that allows readers to answer three short questions that are topical to the newsletter articles of that month. The quiz also offers participants a chance of winning a £20 high street voucher. Just like the newsletter itself we understand the need to continually improve the quiz, one way in which we intend do this is by improving the content quality.

                    

Those that answered ‘no’ provided responses that generally followed a pattern of wanting the quiz to count towards some form of continual professional development (CPD). This is something we are taking very seriously and currently we are in talks with various institutes to see how we can improve the quality and value of the quiz questions so that they prompt research and investigation by the reader but also provide a degree of CPD. We aim to have this firmly in place by September 2013. If you would like us to get in touch with your institute to include the quiz as CPD then please contact Kyle.

Overall we are very happy with the feedback and positive responses we received around the newsletter and would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person that took the time to fill out the survey; all feedback received is taken very seriously and used to develop our services further.

If you disagree with the changes we are making or would like to add your own feedback the survey is still open via Survey Monkey. Alternatively you can email Kyle with any feedback you feel that will improve this resource.  

Construct away,

Kyle 

The middle management minority; using the 6 principles of project management to progress your career.

This blogs borrows from the PRINCE2 seven principles of project management blogged about by projectmanuk; it shall attempt to put the emotional aspects of your career to the side in order to help you progress and achieve your ambitions and goals. It is particularly aimed at minority groups, as they are significantly more likely to face challenges in their work life.  But that being said, the principles can also be applied to a career less likely to face these challenges - quite often the people who would be best placed to lead organisations don’t do so because they place organisational improvement before individual politics; in this circumstance nearly everyone misses out.

1. Business justification: 

Consider your career as a range of short-term projects

·         Undergraduate to graduate,

·         Traineeship to chartered,

·         Chartered to senior, etc.

Then work out how what is required to get you there, how much this will cost and what additional time you will need to put in. Compare this to the return on your investment - and by return I don’t just mean the average salary you are likely to make, but also the value you place on doing your job, the experiences it will give you and the opportunities it will open up. Keep a check on this at certain key points in your career as circumstances can change, ensure you’re are getting what you need and reassess if you are not. If your career is no longer worth the investment it might be worth finding out why and possibly moving firms or changing careers.

2. Defined roles and responsibilities: 

Find out exactly what your job role entails and what the job above you requires. Check yourself against your ability to undertake these tasks. Don’t wait for an internal appraisal be proactive so that when your appraisal does come around, you can justify why you think you are ready for that promotion or rise. If the promotion comes around before you have ticked all the boxes still put yourself forward if you have 60% complete. If nothing else it will give you good experience, but being able to show how you have taken hold of your own development, and the skills you have learned over a given period, can prove that you have what is required to do the job even if you’re are not 100% fighting fit. Also, find out the roles of your managers - I don’t advise that you poke a bear with a stick by pointing out where your managers are going wrong, but rather help where you can - show you are an asset that will move the company forward. In short, make sure you really are doing your job and push to achieve the skills you will need for a promotion. Most importantly, make sure people know about it otherwise there really is very little point - I don’t know about you, but I’m too busy trying to manage my own life to be able to notice every detail of someone else’s.

3. Manage by exception: 

Learn to trust your colleagues and sub-contractors whilst still holding them accountable for their work, in other words let go a little. No one will thank you for micro-managing, and at a professional level you shouldn’t have to. Rather, build relationships and trust and empower those around you to want to produce good work - you’ll be surprised how often people do when given the chance. This doesn’t mean you should be “soft”, if people don’t deliver hold them to account, ensure they redo work and let them know what is and isn’t acceptable – just don’t start a relationship with them as if you have already made up your mind that they will fail, or it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Make sure you record the results of your success; soft skill approaches like this can make managers seem “lucky” as there is no visible cause and effect - so show the long term gain in your approach by measuring how often your projects/contractors come in on time/budget/quality and present this to your managers at appraisal. As previously mentioned, they often only know what you tell them, so tell them more.

4. Focus on skills: 

Think about the skills you want to develop; realistically these should tie into your career plan. Working on the development of these skills can provide you with a way of talking about your development that avoids an emotional situation. For example, instead of talking about how you would have liked to have progressed further and feel unhappy that you haven’t, you can work to develop additional skills that will get you there and use the sum of these skills as evidence for promotion.

5. Learn from experience: 

Don't risk making the same again and again no matter how unfair the situation might be; consider why certain aspects went well or badly, then incorporate the lessons learned into your approach to your next project. Humans have an amazing capacity to learn, but when it comes to repeating errors made during previous projects, we all too often fail to learn the lessons. If you are not being taken seriously or getting promotions, consider the message you are putting across, learn to manage upwards and sideways as well as down and don’t expect that anyone will notice what you have done just because you have done it.

6. Tailor to suit the environment: 

Understand how your boss and colleagues work tailor your approach. That doesn’t mean changing your personality, rather working to help them achieve their agendas. It can be too easy to base the world of work upon our own ethics of what is right and wrong; how people should and shouldn’t act - in reality, this is rarely the case - we all have our own moral compass and it’s surprising how much they differ.

The biggest problem with discrimination that two-thirds of minority groups in construction are likely to face is that we will never know about it. From unconscious bias to paternal instincts, discrimination rarely makes a grand entrance these days preferring instead to sneak about in the shadows having a subtle, but important, impact on a career that we don’t usually notice until we feel like it’s too late.

By taking firmer control of your career you can at least be sure you are guiding it in the right direction, and whilst this will not always enable you to overcome discrimination and bias, it will at least give you a way forward. 

Happy Building, Chrissi. 

For all things construction and equality, get yourself over to the Constructing Equality Ltd. website. 

The business of site: 10 things running a site can tell you about running a business.

Last week when we spoke about the reasons why we felt a career in construction was worth it, we started thinking a little about the link between working on site and running a business.  After all building sites might have the support of head office, but more often than not you’re pretty alone out there and the process you follow of setting up office, managing work and closing the site down is pretty similar to any small business with an exit strategy. So for those who have been caught out by the recession, or others seeking new opportunities, why not think about your skills differently and see how you can apply them to your own business.   

This week let’s consider 10 things running a site can tell you about running a business.   

Please note, I've written these from the point of view of a setting-out engineer/site manager, so please feel free to comment on how other roles might see this transition: -

1.     How to start.

So you've got a site and an idea of what needs to be done, but how do you do it? Think like a site and get a plan, establish contacts, collate the right information and find out what the critical path is. You already know how to ring people you don’t know, so just do it; try to imagine yourself as a business, not an individual, and this will be a lot easier.

2.     Managing finance

I know unless you work in America most sites will have a QS that handles this work, but that doesn't mean there is no financial interaction; the basics are there - collecting information for contra-charges, checking day rate sheets and information learnt from progress meetings. Trust me, you know this stuff and, whilst some of it gets a bit more complicated, for about £100 a year you can hire an accountant to take the pain away.

3.     Managing staff

If you can motivate sub-contractors who don’t work directly for you, you have already got more skill in this area than you’re giving yourself credit for. Do be careful though, it’s much more difficult to manage people directly; you are paying them with money that could otherwise be going into your own pocket, which is why it’s even more important to build up trusting relationships and empower your employees.

4.     Managing programs

This is, kind of, our thing, which makes life easier - though do be prepared to find out that Microsoft Project Professional costs about £900 per computer; like me, you might have to go old school and use excel for, at least, the first few years.

5.     Producing a quality product

Again, you know what to check for and how to ensure quality; you know when a line needs to be drawn to mm thickness and when a can of spray will do. Apply this to your business to help you prioritise and not waste time on work that doesn’t need to be perfect; trust me, when you’re running your own business, time is not a luxury you will have to waste.

6.     Marketing yourself

Ok, so this is where my plan falls down a little. Most builders I know are not great marketers, but they do have a great base of hard work and quality product to build upon. The industry needs to up-skill when it comes to telling people how much it achieves so don’t take lessons from it here, instead look outside of the sector and see how other companies brand and sell that brand.

7.     Added value

Another thing we do a lot in construction. We look at the big picture; the building needs to get built so we put in extra hours, skills and money to make it happen, often without really considering it – it’s just got to be done. Think of your business in the same way, without being taken advantage of, and work with your clients to achieve their goals. If this means a small bit of additional work, weigh up what’s best in the long run.

8.     Entrepreneurial spirit

On site we find ourselves problem-solving as a matter of course, which is a great stepping stone into business management. Knowing how to overcome issues, seeing the bigger picture and knowing what needs to be done are tools you can’t afford to be without.

9.     Managing risk

In business you need to know which risks will provide a return and which are best left alone.  Again this is something we learn through health and safety training and the day to day experience of life on site.

10. Leadership

Running a site means leading a team. If you can get a site to follow your vision you should appreciate that as a valuable skill that is not as common as you think, and being able to apply that to your own business is a key factor in success.

Happy building, Chrissi

For all things construction and equality; get yourself over to Constructing Equality Ltd.

Is it all worth it in the end? Twenty things construction taught me…

Yes, no and maybe. You see, this question depends upon the role you work in, the people you work for, the company you work in, your personal support networks, your ambitions and your views on work/life balance. 

It can be worth it; examples like Anna Stewart show that it is possible for a woman to rise to the top of a major construction company on her own merit.

It can also not be worth it; there are unfortunately a lot of people who have left the sector because of the way they were treated, not because they did not enjoy the work.

Maybe; because there are many people who have found themselves somewhere they did not expect - in education, training or running a business, as a result of the environments they worked in.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I feel it was worth it. Whilst I was not able to achieve my original ambitions of building flagship projects and winning the Construction Manager of the Year Award, I have been able to accomplish many other things that I would never have thought possible, such as running my own business, undertaking a PhD and speaking in the House of Lords. Without my career in construction, good and bad, I don’t believe I would have been able to create the varied, challenging and rewarding career I have today.

So whilst I can’t tell you if it will be worth it in the end, I can tell you what working in construction has taught me: -

1. People don’t always know what they are talking about, or care.
2. There is a point when you get so wet in the rain that it ceases to matter.
3. What hard work really is.
4. The best sentence in the world is “I built this”.
5. Some people will go a long way out of their way to help you progress, and never ask a thing for it.
6. How to multi task.
7. How to problem solve.
8. How to manage, cold, wet, angry people.
9. How to get up really bloomin’ early.
10. That the impossible can be achieved as long as you have a programme and a good team.
11. The importance of being kind, especially when someone is stressed
12. How to run a business, before I ever ran a business.
13. I cannot drink as much alcohol as ground workers.
14. You can tell the amount of concrete in a wagon by the number of wheels it has.
15. How to handle complex and interesting work.
16. Trigonometry isn’t that difficult.
17. Some people like being nasty.
18. People will do extra work for you if you give them Jaffa cakes.
19. Most people just want to be appreciated.
20. Floating concrete is one of life’s small joys.

If you look at life as a journey and don’t consider the experience of working on site as an end point, but look instead at all the experiences that make up that picture, I personally think it’s worth it. If you get a good company and good managers that will help you achieve your ambitions - then brilliant, we wish you well. If you’re not so lucky, there is still a lot that can be taken away from the experience that will help you succeed.

Whilst I no longer get to build buildings, something that I miss very much, I get to run a business and possibly change an industry - two things I am only capable of because of my career in construction.

So yes, I think it’s worth it.

Happy building, Chrissi.

To view previous Constructing Equality Ltd. blogs please visit:

Constructing Equality Ltd. Blogspot.

Why should women choose construction? 8 pertinent questions from a woman that did.

Part one - Why should women choose construction?

Following on from the “business argument for diversity in construction” blog that we wrote back in April 2012, we recently found this comment hidden in our approval archives.

Chrissi - I was searching for some answers about women in construction when I came across your blog. I'm so glad to see a blog about women in construction. I've been in the industry for 4 years and am only now reconsidering my choice. I never imagined it would be such a struggle. Now I'm trying to answer some questions that I've realised since facing adversity. Perhaps you could answer these with the research and knowledge you have already done. Why should women choose construction? Why shouldn’t women choose construction? Why are men hostile about women being in construction? If the industry is so hostile to the idea of women being in construction, why would / should women choose it? If men don’t even like the construction industry, why would women? What do women have to gain by going into the construction industry instead of another industry that is already accommodating to her special needs? What are the risks and what are the potential gains? Is it worth it in the end?”

Becky, the writer raises some important points so; I shall do my best to answer them.

There are 8 questions here which I shall look to answer over the month so that you are not swamped with too much information at once.

Why should women choose construction?

That’s a question that really is determined by a number of factors, first you need to consider the reasons why people choose any job; we thought of nine -

• ·         Financial

• ·         Greater good

• ·         Leaving a mark

• ·         Passion

• ·         Progression

• ·         Parental influence

• ·         Existing knowledge

• ·         Peers

• ·         Chance

Then we need to consider how construction motivates these decisions -

Financial - the construction industry is often a well-paid industry, obviously at the moment in the midst of the recession that’s a difficult point to haggle; but that’s because we have a traditional boom and bust cycle. What’s important to understand is that roles dominated by women (known as the five Cs Catering, Caring, Cashiers, Cleaning and Clerical) are the least well paid and in a recession they suffer even worse. So from a financial perspective you are better off as a woman choosing a  a non-gender-traditional career – so why not construction? (I’ll cover that in the next blog post)

Greater good - Women are often linked to what’s called greater good roles, such as nursing. This is a big nature / nurture debate and I’ll admit I’m not sold either way especially since most people look to achieve greater good later in their worklife, so I think it would be a mistake to tar a whole gender with this brush (and un-tar the other at the same time). I would argue that working in some construction roles such as environmental consultant could be seen as greater good but it would be the individual who decides if that’s the change they want to make in the world.

Leaving a mark - Find me a builder who hasn’t dragged a poor uninterested spouse / friend / stranger half a mile out of the way to look at a warehouse / office block / bus station to say “I built that!” and I’ll insist they show me their CSCS card as proof of their profession. The feeling of building something is remarkable and a biological attraction for humans; we seek to be remembered once we are gone and whether that’s through our children, our ideas or building a great, big, chuffing building is pretty much just gravy.

Passion - Sometimes people just really, really, really love building stuff

Progression - The construction industry is great at many things and one of them is progression; day release programmes and apprenticeships, whilst not what they were, are still options. It’s an industry where you can leave school with basic qualifications and end up a director. Personally it’s one of my favourite things about construction; the way that it transforms lives, and I credit it for transforming mine (though in a slightly roundabout way I will admit)

Parental Influence - It used to be that 60% of people in industry made their choice because someone close worked in the sector, but this number is estimated to have fallen.

Existing knowledge - The careers we often choose are those we know of or have heard about, though this is a barrier to most people without a family or friend in the sector. I once asked a room of 15 connexions officers (careers advisors) to name careers in the built environment; they could only name Brickie, Plumber and Architect – I kid you not.

So no one really knows about the wonderful career choices available in the sector, which is a pity as I am a firm believer that construction holds a career for just about everyone. I cannot think of a general discipline that can’t be catered for -

Maths               Site engineer, structural engineers, civil engineer

Art                    Architect

Psychology      Site manager (I stand by that)

Science                        Geotechnical engineer

Finance             QS

History              Restoration and heritage

English             Contracts law

This lack of knowledge is something that is seen as a barrier not just to girls, but to boys as well.

Peers - Most people at 16 don’t want to be too different; they want to do what their friends do. So whilst this is usually a reason why women don’t pick a career in industry, I have seen examples of where it has worked the other way with groups of girls embarking on joinery courses together.

Chance - Sometimes we just need a job, and somehow we get one.

Personally I chose it as I simply loved building things, figuring out puzzles, working with teams and, of course, saying “I built that!” 

Women on boards, Anna Stewart and Quotas.

Whilst the news of Anna Stewart’s appointment as CEO Laing O’Rourke from April 2013 is not unexpected, it is certainly welcomed.

Especially since the statistic regarding women on FTSE 100 boards show that whilst numbers have increased from 12.5% in two years up to 17.4% the majority of these have been non-executive appointments, with only a 1.2% rise in executive roles.

Some papers have taken the notion that Stewart's appointment will bring equality to the sector, but we should not be blindsided by such simplistic views, whilst I have every confidence that she will make a fantastic CEO; putting the weight of industry diversity on her shoulders might be a little too much for anyone to deliver.

We should rejoice that there is a woman in a prominent board room position with an industry background (she is MRICS) at exec level; because whilst there are a number of women in non-exec positions, exec positions in SME’s or exec positions in HR roles there are very few role models for women working in construction roles within large organisation

Why is why if I was still a site manager I know where I would be sending my CV.

Back to boards, Maria Miller the minister for women and equalities  has announced that she thinks the proposed 40% quotas from Brussels are “dreadful”, here’s why we disagree,

The majority of people I know are concerned about talk of quotas for women on boards. There is a worry that they will water down skills, give a leg up to people who don’t deserve it and undermine the achievements of those that have worked their way up on their own.

I can understand how people got to that conclusion but my experience has shown that logic to be a little backward and here’s why:

I sit on a few boards and talk to other women who sit on a few more and we have found the same thing. Quite often in meetings when we are the only women present we make a point and people nod and move on. Then 5 minutes later someone else raises exactly the same point word for word and it is applauded. Worse, it is then minuted as the idea of the person who repeated it.

Usually I’m happy enough that the point was being considered but there are times I feel it’s important that my contribution is seen as mine. When I have voiced this, I have been told I probably didn’t speak loud enough, or wasn’t forthright or confident in my opinion. Problem is, no matter how loud, confident, forthright or downright rude I am the outcome doesn’t often change.

But that’s not really the point, what I find interesting is this:

It has never happened to me on a mixed board and it has never happened to any of the other women I spoke to on a mixed board either.

Not once; not even a little bit.

And this makes me wonder why this happens.

When I’m the only woman on a board or in a meeting I do sometimes get conscious of that fact and have been known to wonder if I’m there as a token, even when I know I’m not. So if I’m thinking that and I know the reasons why I am there – what might the rest of the group be thinking; it’s not unreasonable that the thought might have crossed their minds?

It seems to me that whenever there is just one of someone we look at what they represent not who they are; one women will always be a woman in a group of 11 men no matter what her reasons for getting to that position in the first place. It’s all about numbers.

If you have three women, no matter how they got there, they stop being women and start being members of a board. Once we achieve a critical mass tokenism stops being an issue and we start to take the opinions of all board members seriously.

In layman’s terms, a woman on her own will be perceived as a quota even when she is not, conversely, a group of women will not be seen a quota even when they are.

Before we make the mistake of putting this down to good/bad, sexist/non-sexist people, in my experience, this is a subconscious action carried out by considerate, personable and usually supportive individuals. 

We cannot overestimate the extent to which we behave subconsciously, and until we get our heads around that notion it is likely that we will not appreciate the skills of women on boards, we will fail to see the benefit in appointing more and we will undermine the achievements of those who got there on their own merit by ignoring their contribution… …Exactly the things we are worried that quotas might do.