Mott MacDonald operates within a challenging sector. The lack of diversity in the profession is a long standing and well-documented problem. Moreover, the sector faces an engineering skills crisis/gap. We recognised early on that diversity of thought and fully inclusive practices are strategic imperatives for us and we are working hard to deliver positive EDI outcomes.
As highlighted in our Global EDI strategy, “Everyone’s Business”, our ongoing commitment to EDI is fundamental to the realisation of our purpose. Respect and integrity are two of our PRIDE values, accompanied by clearly defined inclusive behaviour expectations, embedded in all training and guidance. We have regional plans, targets and metrics to measure the impact of initiatives along with a data driven approach to measuring progress. Mandatory EDI and unconscious bias training sessions are delivered to all. We have developed resources to support learning for staff, managers and senior leaders and deliver specialist training (e.g., inclusive recruitment for hiring managers and reasonable adjustments for line managers). EDI moments are used in teams across the business to highlight the importance of EDI. In 2024 are delivering a 9-month inclusive behaviours campaign that includes the delivery of sessions; communication of key resources, such as “Addressing Microaggressions” and an “Inclusive Etiquette guide”; a new EDI e-learning module; development of case studies and role playing scenarios and video input from colleagues.
We have schemes in place to support positive inclusive outcomes and diversity in our management pipeline while building inclusive styles of leadership -e.g., mentoring and reciprocal mentoring schemes and women future leaders programme.
We have supported our five Advance EDI employee networks with time, budget, training and a regional board-level sponsor who champion the network at executive level. They educate, mobilise action, inform decision making and offer peer support.
A key element of our EDI strategy is the design of inclusive hiring practices. Our job ads clearly highlight our commitment to EDI and our agile working ethos. Inclusion decoders are used in our job ads to ensure that their language is inclusive. We have created new Job Description templates and inclusive guidance for hiring managers.
To ensure we can more effectively target individuals under-represented in the sector we actively target diverse candidates with our attraction and campus activities. We ensure that we are including non-Russell universities, with greater diversity. At graduate level, we have removed the requirement for a 2.1 degree, as well as Master’s degree in most roles.
We also work with a range of partners (e.g., 10,000 Black Interns, the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers and Leonard Cheshire) to offer paid internships, transition events, mentoring pr/and permanent positions for individuals under-represented in the sector. In 2023 we partnered with Breakthrough, who support individuals leaving the prison system or at risk of offending, offering roles within our organisation. We are also currently delivering a STEM returners programme, with the aim of supporting women and others on career breaks back into the workplace.
Our agile working philosophy supported by flexible and family friendly policies also helps support our wider EDI aspirations by offering better work-life balance
Crucially, we believe that EDI is Everyone’s Business and we work to build levels of accountability. Each of our Business Units have local EDI plans that align with the regional strategies – delivery is supported by Unit specific EDI champions and committees which held deliver the agenda. The units are held accountable for the delivery of the agenda and EDI is a key feature in both organisation wise and Unit wide board level meetings. On an individual level, we have introduced EDI performance goals as part of our performance reviews – while not mandatory, the take up has been encouraging and increasing year-on-year, 23% in 2024.
We are a disability Confident leader; Gold Armed Forces Covenant holders and we also hold Clear Assured silver accreditation (all achieved in the past two years). We recently signed up to the Living Wage Foundation and have membership with a number of bodies (e.g., Business Disability Forum, Women’s Engineering Society, Stonewall).
Currently, we have 34% female representation (higher than the sector average and up from 29% in 2019) and 19.37% minority ethnic employees (in line with Census average and up from 15% in 2019 ). In recent years, we have seen improvements in the representation of women at all levels, including at management levels, with women less likely to leave and more likely to be promoted. We report on our ethnicity and gender pay gap, and in 2024 started reporting on our disability pay gap. EDI is one of the highest and most improved scores in our staff engagement surveys
