Building a Better Workforce
Women in Property is committed to spearheading change for our industry and bringing about better equality and diversity for everyone. In 2017 we embarked upon a survey of not only our members and supporters but as many people in the construction and property sector that we could, in order to better understand the challenges that women face at all stages of their career. With the help of gender pay gap specialists Gapsquare, those survey results became our applauded ‘Building: A Better Workforce’ vision which has been widely viewed and quoted in both local and national press.
We looked at what barriers there were to young women entering the industry, why there is a retention problem at mid-career and how we can break the glass ceiling to achieve better diversity on boards. We also explored whether men wanted diversity and flexibility too and how businesses can have a more creative mindset with a more diverse workforce.
In 2018 we re-visited the original survey alongside company gender pay gap reports and held an open workshop where participants of all backgrounds discussed how their companies, large and small, could encourage diversity, resulting in a better industry for everyone. There were many stories shared at that workshop, of positive action and lessons learnt that others could benefit from and so the idea to create a toolkit where case studies could be shared was born. Below we have a number of examples of companies and individuals who are breaking down barriers to diversity and working towards building a better workforce.
We encourage you to share your own examples too so that others can see positive action being made.
A full review of the 2018 event is here https://www.womeninproperty.org.uk/branches/south-west/events/2018/better-workforce-ideas-forum-2018/
Link to the report is here https://www.womeninproperty.org.uk/media/1050784/bg520-women-in-construction_final-30-10-17-2.pdf
Click below to read quotes submitted by the companies who participated:
University of the West of England
Pictured: Rachael Sherratt of JLL and Women in Property South West
Photo credit Guy Traynor Photo
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