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Month: April 2023

The UK government has published new guidance for employers on how to measure, report on and address ethnicity pay differences within their workforce.

This resource assists employers to start reporting on ethnicity pay gaps, which we know is a key area for improvement based on our 2022 Diversity Data Benchmarking Results. The guidance is particularly relevant to those operating in the construction and built environment sector.

Our most recent Diversity Data Benchmarking Report found that only 4% of companies surveyed collect ethnicity pay gap data. Whilst it is promising that close to 28% intend to do so in the future, the vast majority (almost 68%) of companies in the sector had no intentions of reporting on ethnicity pay gaps.

Yet, at the same time, we know that people from ethnic minority backgrounds:

  • Make up nearly 40% of all applicants for jobs in our sector
  • Are significantly less likely to secure a job in the sector – on average, it takes 50 applicants to achieve 1 successful hire from an ethnic minority background, compared to 16 white applicants (for some ethnic minority backgrounds, this ratio is as high as 78 applicants to 1 successful hire)
  • When working in the sector, are subject to an 8.3% pay gap
  • Generally receive smaller bonuses (25.3% lower bonuses than white workers)
  • Leave their jobs in higher proportion than their representation in the sector itself, particularly if they are women or part of the LGBTI+ community

We know the sector needs to do better with recruiting, attracting, promoting and rewarding people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Businesses must understand their workforce across diversity metrics to identify areas for improvement and start to take meaningful action to close the gap.

This excellent resource assists employers to start collecting and reporting on ethnicity pay gaps, in addition to gender pay gap reporting.  It covers common queries such as confidentiality, aggregation and location of employees, provides recommendations regarding collection, calculating and reporting, and includes step-by-step instructions to ensure a consistent approach and allow for meaningful comparisons. Finally, it supports an evidence-based approach towards designing actions to improve, following data analysis and reporting.

The School’s Fairness, Inclusion & Respect (FIR) Programme provides an extensive range of training, tools, guidance and resources to assist organisations in addressing workplace culture challenges and building inclusive and respectful environments.

Our resources are free and accessible to anyone working in or aspiring to work in the built environment.  FIR is one of the arms of the People Matter Charter, a workforce strategy for the built environment.  Businesses can set learning pathways for staff and track progress on their dedicated corporate dashboard and can complete our FIR Growth Assessment, a structured maturity assessment tool which delivers a bespoke 10-point action plan suited to where they are on the FIR journey.

Explore the FIR Programme here.

 

Written by Cathryn Greville, Head of Fairness, Inclusion & Respect.

A new report, published by the Supply Chain Sustainability School, reveals that 9 significant opportunities exist for offsite manufacturers to help their clients in their drive for low carbon construction projects, both new build and in the retrofitting of existing buildings.

The built environment industry needs to rapidly decarbonise existing and new buildings, as well as reduce embodied carbon produced in production of building materials and elements, construction, and maintenance of assets. The ability of offsite construction processes to reduce whole life carbon is often expressed, but evidence of this has been patchy. 

Drawing on the experience of more than 40 organisations working across homes, commercial, public and infrastructure, the new report, ‘Whole Life Carbon Guidance for Offsite Construction’ highlights opportunities and challenges for carbon management and reduction for the offsite sector. 

This includes common benefits around the material and resource efficiency of premanufacture, reduced fuel and energy use in logistics and on site, as well as greater confidence in operational energy performance with standardised designs.  

Some of the strongest evidence for carbon reductions exist in energy and fuel use for transport and construction processes, with studies finding savings of 30-40%, even when factory energy use is included. However, most of the embodied carbon within construction projects comes from materials and manufacturing: the product stage.  

The report proposes that there is a big opportunity for Design for Manufacture and Assembly to drive emissions savings in this stage, sharing evidence for this across homes, schools, and commercial projects. It recommends early collaboration between manufacturers and design teams in order to fully realise low carbon design options. This collaboration will also aid robust whole life carbon estimates, which are likely to become mandatory in the coming years. The report also encourages manufacturers and contractors to embed processes for the collection and communication of activity data.

Andrew Shepherd, Managing Director at TopHat Communities, said “We all know carbon is a problem, but without knowing how much of a problem, it is very difficult for us to start addressing some of the key problem areas. This report provides guidance on how to start assessing whole life carbon and understanding the impact each stage of the development cycle has on the environment about us.” 

Naomi Pratt, lead author of the report and Consultant at Action Sustainability, said: “It’s been really encouraging to see projects cutting embodied carbon through offsite techniques. What these have in common is design approach driven by material and carbon efficiency. What we need to see now is more organisations adopting this focus and sharing data.” 

Ian Heptonstall, Director of Supply Chain Sustainability School, said: “The good news from this report is that yes, offsite and MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) can help us tackle the climate emergency. However, as the evidence suggests, we are currently missing many opportunities and it’s clear as an industry we need to think and act differently.  My challenge to those not at the forefront of tackling carbon is: will you act now and make a difference, or be left behind whilst your customers transition to a low carbon economy?” 

The examples of best practice highlighted in the report are crucial for whole life carbon reduction and the journey to net zero. The authors encourage organisations working within the sector to show leadership, take advantage of the opportunities, and share data and experiences.  

Access the report here. 

Offsite carbon report marketing logos

The Supply Chain Sustainability School partnered up with business improvement specialists BBI Services to present the ‘Delivering in Challenging Economic Times’ Business Byte, leading on from the ‘Procuring in Challenging Economic Times’ Business Byte.

Hosted by Mark Worrall, CEO of BBI Services, the 2-hour discussion was broken down into three panels of industry experts, who helped highlight the scale of the current challenges facing the sector and how to ‘make the boat go faster’. Mark mentioned how important it is to not get caught up in just ‘being busy’, and to instead step back and review everything the industry is doing, spotlighting every opportunity to improve and ultimately whether we are adding value.

The three panels were titled: ‘Onsite Delivery Performance Improvement’, ‘Offsite and Delivery Performance Improvement’ and ‘Preconstruction, Design and Setting Up for Success’. Speakers included experts from CECA, Etex, Laing O’Rourke, Octavius Infrastructure, WSP, NG Bailey, Expedition and Morgan Sindall.

The discussions by the three panels highlighted the importance of change to deliver more efficiently and effectively not only during challenging economic times but at any time.

Key takeaways from the discussions included:

  • the importance of engagement, communication and collaboration
  • the benefits of offsite construction in relieving labour shortages, cost saving and reducing health and safety risks
  • the need to focus more on value-adding activities

Ed McCann, Senior Director at Expedition, commented: “We need to embrace the complexity and make strategic choices within that.”

Mark Worrall added, “We need to improve performance and it’s within our grasp, so let’s get on with it!”

Did you miss the session? Check out the full webinar recording here.

For more information on the BBI Services team and how they can enhance a team’s personal growth and build team engagement and involvement, visit: https://www.bbiservices.com/what-we-do/training-services.