Data on the social background of UK companies’ employees is hard to come by. If it was available, construction would surely score highly. There are few industries where so much money is made by people who did not go to university.
In a society where social mobility is on the decline, the construction sector remains a shining beacon of class meritocracy. A degree is not to be sniffed at — but in construction, a lack of one is no barrier to success.
Data on ethnic and gender diversity is easier to find. Sadly for the industry, the picture here appears less rosy. In our feature, Construction News has crunched the numbers and has discovered — perhaps to nobody’s surprise — that the industry’s boardrooms are dominated by white men.
It would be easy to rush to conclusions about sexism, racism and unconscious bias here. It is certainly possible that both play some part in the situation. However, this is not the only — and possibly not even the main — issue.
Most construction firms that I talk to are eager to improve the diversity of their workforces, and have implemented programmes to do achieve this aim.
Such efforts are reaping rewards. On gender in particular, a good number of construction firms are achieving intake rates at apprenticeship and graduate levels of around 50/50.
Construction may be lagging behind other sectors of the economy, but on its own terms it is making good progress on gender representation at the top table.
In 2021, CN reported on the Rebuild Project, which set a target that women should make up 30 per cent of executive boardroom roles by 2025. CN’s research reveals that number has now reached 28 per cent. Just one company in our sample has no women on its board.
These encouraging signs do not remove questions about why it took the industry so long to wake up. And it does not mean the sector can rest on its laurels.
Increasing female representation further in the most senior positions will require further efforts to retain and nurture this talent, and patience as they
gain top-level experience.
On race, the figures are slightly more worrying, with just over 4 per cent of board members coming from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. This compares with a FTSE100 average of 19 per cent, roughly equivalent to the proportion in the overall population of 18 per cent.
Not least to help solve the industry’s skills shortage, the construction sector needs to consider putting as much effort into this area as it has into catching up on gender equality.
