Launched in 2013, the Fairness Inclusion and Respect (FIR) Programme at the Supply Chain Sustainability School is committed to empowering organisations in the construction and built environment industry to attract, retain, and engage a diverse workforce. It was launched in response to a direct call from key partners across the industry who were concerned about our ability as a sector to tackle workplace cultural challenges and create environments where all people, regardless of background, are able to thrive at work.
The FIR Programme today has over 550 free resources, from short and snappy Toolbox Talks, to longer e-Learning modules and videos, case studies and guides showcasing best practice to help organisations embed fairness, inclusion and respect into everyday behaviours across the built environment. We also produce regular workshops, webinars and conferences that are also . The Programme also boasts over 1200 FIR Ambassadors, highly engaged individuals who embody the principles of fairness, inclusion and respect in the workplaces and with the Programme’s support help create positive cultures in their places of work. Beyond this, we are especially proud of our Diversity Benchmarking Report, the largest in the construction and built environment sector and a true collaboration across the industry. Our most recent report includes the anonymised protected characteristic data for over 376,000 employees in the sector from 275 organisations. Through the report we hold the sector to account and provide insight into key diversity metrics outlining the industry’s makeup and trends in representation across demographic characteristics.
Our annual report tells us that if something does not fundamentally change, our industry could be in crisis. The estimated % of women in the industry has remained the same for the last 8 years, despite the industry’s concerted efforts to drive change, with 49.6% of the women who join the industry leaving before the age of 35. Representation of disabled people has also stayed largely stagnant over time with very minimal gains, while we are seeing increases in the number of members of the LGBTQIA+ community choosing ‘Prefer not to say’ in response to questions about their sexuality. While there have been increases in representation from those in minoritised ethnic groups, numbers are still well below ONS working age benchmarking data, with 52.9% of people from minoritised ethnic groups leaving the industry before the age of 35. It’s also 4.5x more difficult for someone from a minoritised ethnic group to be hired in construction. Something clearly has to change – and soon and the FIR Programme is excited to be a part of that change.
When we looked at who was accessing FIR Programme content, we noticed that we weren’t reaching site workers at all, and they are a critical part of the cultural change we so desperately need as a sector. We went on site and connected directly with workers to explore why we weren’t reaching them and what we needed to change to be more impactful. They told us that our learning sounded too corporate, like it was written for a Head Office Team and not for them, that our examples didn’t resonate, that even our 15-min modules were too long especially for workers who are compensated based on completed units, so every minute they spend learning affects the money they take home. They told us that we needed to express things in simpler ways and make them real, practical and actionable for people on site. We learned that most of them did not have access to a laptop, weren’t issued company email addresses and in many cases did not have a personal email address which also restricted their ability to use the School’s platform. We also learned that a significant number of workers did not have English as a first language. The nominated project is our solution to the issues raised.
We launched a ground breaking app, funded by the Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) Industry Impact Fund — the first of its kind in the sector. In partnership with site workers we built 13 modules, each under five minutes, focused on issues affecting inclusion and belonging at work. The content has been written by site workers for site workers and features site workers, with scenarios grounded in real on-site experiences. Site workers don’t need a laptop or email address to access the app, all they need is a mobile phone. The app’s content is available in English and the five most commonly spoken languages on site, enabling more people to learn in their native language. And because we sought external funding, the app and learning within it is free to download and use to benefit of everyone in the industry. The impact is clear as we have achieved over 3500 module completions through the app to date, which boasts 5-star feedback on the App Store & Google Play Store. Ultimately, the FIR app goes beyond training, it is a catalyst for culture change and worthy of this nomination.
