Leading the change!
14 May 2020
Following the recent publication from Dr Jenni Barrett from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) around gender parity in construction, we took the opportunity to reflect on what we do at RMF and our team.
With the undeniable change to our working lives for now and the foreseeable future, we have been forced to adapt to a very different stance on working lives. We have been thrust into a new home based 'office' that includes, for many of us pets, children and all the demands of home life. With all challenges, it poses the opportunity to reflect and assess what positives we can draw from the circumstances.
In the construction industry we have made positive changes prior to the pandemic with the increase in female led events, the championing of female leaders and a steady shift towards gender parity. However, we remain behind the curve with 19% of the professional workforce being female and less than 1% in construction trades. The sector is repeatedly the worst offender in UK gender pay gap data, where women earn only 76p for each £1 earned by their male counterparts.
With this in mind we reflected on the culture and the team we have at RMF and we are extremely proud of many things. Firstly our culture, we operate with an open door policy, our directors ensure that the team are kept up to date with their future plans and at a time like this that is more important now than ever. We also calculated that women represent 41% of the contracted team at RMF again bucking the trend against the industry standard, whilst this wasn't a concious point on recruitment as our team were employed on their merits and skills we are pleased to have women well represented in our team across a variety of roles.
Like many employers we have faced many challenges during the current crisis however thanks to our teams hard work, understanding and ability to adapt we have continued to operate as a business and this has undoubtedly bought us closer together. We have embraced technology to continue to communicate regularly and Simon and Ian vote that Teams is better than Zoom for meetings - the jury is still out on that one although the virtual backgrounds have provided great amusement!
So whilst our future meetings won't continue to feature our pets and children on zoom, surely now is the prime opportunity to realise we can take many important lessons from our current circumstances and we will continue to champion the use of technology and the benefits of a diverse team.
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