Five Ways to Increase Diversity in Your Housebuilding Business

By Human Capital Group

12th February 2020

1. Make the women in your organisation “high-vis”
2. Invest in Talent
3. Mentoring
4. Take a Stand
5. Deconstruct the Industry

Gender Diversity has been a hot topic in many industries for many years. In housebuilding and construction, the recognition for the need for diversity has only recently begun. And how to attract and retain a diverse workforce appears to be another issue altogether.
How does gender diversity help create a successful business?
Aside from the obvious, moral reasons for gender diversity, there is a proven business case – especially when it comes to the all-important leadership team.
Studies have shown that organisations who have diverse leadership make better business decisions and are better performing than their less-diverse counterparts:

The “war for talent” in the housebuilding sector is another business case for why gender diversity is important.
But does the war for talent exist, or is your company just not attracting it?
And what can you do to resolve this in your housebuilding business?
We’ve collated five ways you can help increase gender diversity by attracting and retaining females.

Making the current women in your organisation visible to others and highlighting their successes is one way to attract and inspire the next generation of female leaders in housebuilding.
Whether this is through promotions into senior positions and non-executive board roles or “employee of the month” recognition – make sure the women in your organisation are examples of the great things other females can achieve while working for you.

Whether it’s helping to provide initial training, to retrain, or to progress someone’s career: learning and development are essential in breaking down the barriers for entry into skilled roles.
Displaying career prospects is also highly important for young females who are now entering the workforce. Having learning and development opportunities internally that will help progress careers is fundamental to show that your business takes the career progression of your employees seriously.

Mentoring provides experienced workers with the opportunity to become a role model for those who have less experience but are looking to progress their careers.
This mentor should be someone that the mentee can relate to, who demonstrates progression and success within your organisation.
Offering mentoring to women can open up opportunities and increase visibility within the organisation too.
Mentoring holds benefits to the mentor too, displaying managerial skills and can be a rewarding experience for those who enjoy helping others.

Taking a stand against negative behaviours is our next recommended action.
Whether this is refusing to speak on panels that are not diverse or calling out bad behaviours, making a stand against situations which do not provide an equal opportunity or further the perception of the industry is vital to promoting change within the wider industry.
What’s important here is to use your judgement and influence to embrace diversity – both within your organisation and the wider environment.

It is widely regarded that housebuilding and construction is a game for white men – from senior executives to the typical “builder” stereotype in the UK.
A report by NHBC shows that some of the major challenges for the industry to attract women and young people include:

• The belief that all work in the industry takes place outdoors in all weathers
• Fears of a sexist environment, especially the language and behaviour of male workers on site
• Poor hiring and recruitment practices which see an over-reliance on gender-biased recruitment literature and advertising, plus an over-use of personal contacts and networks to recruit workers

What can you do about this?

• Dispel myths in your marketing activity and social media.
• Outreach programmes to schools/colleges about the opportunities available in the housebuilding sector.
• Actively ensuring your workplace is inclusive and has procedures in place to limit sexist behaviour.
• Reviewing your recruitment practices and getting advice on these to ensure they’re inclusive. As a recruitment company, Human Capital Group helps housebuilders ensure their recruitment process is as inclusive as possible. Our practices provide a solution to issues such as biased personal networks. For example, our digital platforms work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year to ensure we are engaging with the whole industry. This total market coverage means that not only are we sourcing the best talent the industry has to offer, you can also attract a diverse workforce.