By Tom Austin-Morgan

CIHT’s Routes to Diversity Toolkit was launched in 2015 and was the first toolkit designed specifically for and with the highways and transportation sector. “It was intended to stimulate debate and was just the first step towards embedding an EDI culture. The EDI landscape continues to rapidly evolve as do the wider priorities of the sector in order to fulfil existing work programmes and to respond to future challenges ahead,” says Emma Carruthers, EDI Manager at CIHT.

“The Institution launched an enhanced EDI Charter last year and the first Charter Signatory Network event earlier this year where the appetite was clear for establishing an active community of practice to nurture an EDI ecosystem whereby good practice case studies, resources and learning opportunities can be shared across the sector around what works as well as what doesn’t, which is vital during a time when resources and priorities may feel misaligned despite a clear intention and commitment to shifting the dial on EDI.

“We will be developing an EDI Hub, an online repository of current, bitesize resources and tools that will help organisations of varying sizes and complexities to really accelerate meaningful change at pace.”

Constructing EDI in infrastructure

After implementing its ‘Value Everyone’ diversity and inclusion (D&I) plan in 2017, Balfour Beatty - a CHIT strategic partner - has recently refreshed its goals for the next three years to keep in line with the latest best practice, legislative changes and the needs of the businesses and communities in which it works. 

The four strategic pillars for 2023-2025 are to embed D&I across the company and positively influence the sector, attract, develop, and retain the best diverse talent, develop an inclusive culture and workspaces, and increase diversity across the business’ client base and supply chain.

“Value Everyone starts at the very top with the business strategy and purpose, values and behaviours,” says Sam Eastman, Head of Employee Engagement, Balfour Beatty. “It's about ensuring that we all value and respect everyone in the workplace so that everyone can be themselves and perform at their best, and that we're aware and respect each other's differences.”

The company undertakes various initiatives aimed at increasing diverse representation and engagement, such as attaining a menopause-friendly employer accreditation and work around maternity and paternity conditions for all employees. 

The company’s 'Right to Respect' programme and five affinity networks (Ability and Allies, Gender and Allies, LGBTQ+ and Allies, Multi-Cultural and Allies, and Neurodiversity and Allies) run alongside the Value Everyone strategy. These emphasise the importance of addressing unacceptable behaviours in the workplace, particularly those affecting minority groups.

Feedback from these network groups help to highlight barriers that employees and potential employees have faced and informs action plans to address them.

The Right to Respect programme began in the highways arm of Balfour Beatty as the ‘Inspiring Women Conference’ which highlighted site culture as an area for change and has since been adopted across the company from offices to the HS2 Old Oak Common and M25 Junction 10 project sites.

Julia Buckland, Head of Benchmarking for Balfour Beatty’s Major Projects & Highways business, says: “As much as it impacted a lot on women, it also impacted on other minority groups and people as a whole when people see behaviour that makes [others] feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or intimidated.

“Right to Respect is addressing all behaviours that are not acceptable or appropriate in the workplace. We piloted it in 2022 on six sites across the UK and got some really good feedback, and we launched it properly last year.

“It’s come from a working group that was very much project based and has now been aligned to safety and used as a model to try and shift mindsets and the culture of not just us, but everyone that works with and for us on our sites to try and build change across the industry.”

Sign up to CIHT’s EDI Charter and read more about CIHT’S EDI model.

Newsletter image: Balfour Beatty’s Value Everyone campaign; credit: Balfour Beatty.