Inclusion update for the built environment and renewables industries
Newsletter 54: EV Chargers, The Class Divide and a quick word from us
Constructing Rainbows advises built environment, facilities management and renewables organisations across the globe who have an aim of making our industry inclusive for all. To find out more visit www.constructingrainbows.co.uk This newsletter will provide you with some updates on what others are doing, within the built environment, renewables and in other industries.
It's been quite the week hasn't it. As Trump makes his mark in the US by scrapping government DEI programmes, and rolling back trans rights, there has been some nervousness across the world, including here in the UK. We have been having many conversations with our clients and industry about what impact it may have on EDI over here, and the resounding answer has been - Keep Calm and Carry On. The UK is very different to the US both politically and legally. We have the world-leading Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty and the new Procurement Act which will ensure that EDI is being considered within the public sector and their supply chains. We also have a government who is looking to strengthen equality legislation not weaken it. There may be some companies who are headquartered in the US that may look to rollback some of their EDI, but for the most part we have progressive leaders who understand the real business and personal benefits to EDI, and that true values do not change just because of a political change in leadership. Finally, we want to offer our support to the trans, non-binary and intersex community, who will be particualrly feeling the impact this. We see you, we hear you and we will always stand up for you! Keep fighting the good fight. Until next time. Sharon & Emma
As I was looking through a couple of websites from top contractors and expressing my disappointment in the lack of visible diversity in their executive teams, I stumbled across this Construction News article from July which had assessed the board make-up of the top 20 UK contractors with regards gender and ethnicity and it does not make great reading.
- "the boards of 13 out of the 20 contractors are all-white and just seven of the 194 board members are from a BAME background. Of the seven, only one identifies as Black." - "Just over 28 per cent of the 194 board members in our analysis are women."
Have contractors stopped trying to diversify their boards and their executive teams?
The disability employment gap is closing in Scotland however “most of the progress is down to more people already in work reporting a disability, not more disabled people finding work.”
This sounds like positive and negative news at the same time. If more people are reporting their disability this could be down to work places creating safer spaces to do so, this is a positive. But the negative is we’re not progressing in more disabled people finding work. We have to do better. We can do better. There are many programmes out there that will help support you with finding the right roles for some disabled people to excel, reach out to them.
Latest research from the Young Women's Trust shows discrimination in the workplace is increasing for young women, particularly for racially minoritised women.
The survey of HR professionals also highlights that equal pay is an ongoing issue, even though it is illegal to pay men and women differently for the same role.
A new report from the UK National Audit Office has highlighted that the rollout of public electric vehicle chargepoints to date has not met the needs of drivers with disabilities, and there is a risk that their needs will remain unaddressed as chargepoint numbers increase.
By 2035, 1.35 million disabled drivers are expected to be partially or wholly reliant on public chargepoints. However, many current chargepoints, or their surrounding environment, have features which make them inaccessible to drivers with disabilities.
Mothercare, who many people expecting new babies go and visit on a regular basis to buy their baby products, discriminated against its employee who was on maternity leave.
Pregnancy and maternity discrimination is an ongoing issue which causes a lot of distress, at a time when finances are often tight.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission research shows that around one in nine mothers (11%) reported that they were either dismissed; made compulsorily redundant, where others in their workplace were not; or treated so poorly they felt they had to leave their job; if scaled up to the general population this could mean as many as 54,000 mothers a year.
When reading this article, my initial thought was that if the CEO knows there is a risk of women working at home missing out, but they need to work at home because of the flexibility of childcare etc, why don’t the leaders/ managers of the organisation adapt their way of working to ensure they don’t miss out.
The automatic response for many leaders recently has been - everyone back in the office. But actually if they think smarter they look at how opportunities can be given equitably - remotely and in the office.
Socioeconomic background is not included as a protected characteristic within the UK Equality Act, but it has a huge impact on life outcomes.
If companies are recruiting from the same prestigious universities, where they have a high proportion of private school educated students, no matter the ethnicity, or gender, is a company getting a true reflection of diversity?
When looking at improving social mobility, companies need to be considering routes to entry, barriers to career progression and direct/ indirect discrimination. And as with all elements of EDI, relevant data to track progress.
There has been a huge increase in women taking sick leave to care for children, partially fuelled by return to the office mandates. Once again highlighting the importance of flexible working for improving gender balance.
The article also notes that if parents and carers take paid sick leave to look after children, it means they are left with less paid sick leave if they are ill themselves, which can obviously have a negative impact on their own health and wellbeing.
Employers need to continue to enhance their flexible working policies to ensure women's career ambitions are not disproportionately impacted by them.
