Gender Pay Gap

We continue to recognise the need to increase the number of females we employ to improve our gender balance and become a more diverse workforce. Each year we invest in education and training, including our apprenticeship, traineeship and graduate opportunities developing the talent of engineers, quantity surveyors and other construction professionals. Our focus is on encouraging more females into careers in STEM disciplines through our educational partnerships using females already employed in the business as STEM Ambassadors in our local schools.

Bridging the gap

The construction industry in which we operate is traditionally a male sector, particularly at senior levels. However, we are committed to equal opportunities and fairness in our recruitment, development, promotion and reward practices with a target of increasing the number of females in our business and industry. Overall there has been a small but positive change in the figures being reported this year, there is a 1% increase in the overall number of females within the business. There has been a 1% increase in the percentage of females in the upper quartile and significant rise of 11% in the lower middle quartile. In order that there is a shift in the number of females working in the industry we are working with schools and universities to raise awareness of the wider job opportunities in construction and provide students with an understanding of the qualifications required to perform one of these roles. The number of females studying in construction related disciplines is significantly less than the number of males which results in females being under-represented within the construction industry. A higher proportion of females working in our business fulfill roles of functional support which are typically lower paid than qualified occupations and this can be seen in the breakdown across the four quartiles. Bonus opportunities are available equally to male and female employees.