John Sisk & Son’s three core values - Care, Integrity, Excellence, underpin everything we do from how we conduct ourselves on our building sites to creating the kind of workplace where everyone feels valued equally.
Our industry faces enormous systemic and legacy issues in promoting diversity and inclusion. This is why we were one of the first to commit to the Construction Industry Federation’s (CIF) Diversity & Inclusion Charter this year. The charter holds us accountable for implementing a number of initiatives over the next year, against which we will measure ourselves.
Pat Lucey, managing director of our Civils business in Ireland and president of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), explains that “we must look to best practice and delve deeper into the barriers to entry or indeed retention issues, which have affected our potential or current female colleagues for far too long.”
Innovation is at the heart of our business and if we want to continue this tradition we know that a diverse workforce is a must. We’ve taken a number of steps towards this in 2019:
- Our new diversity and inclusion action group came together for the first time. One of their main initiatives has been the establishment of a Building Gender Balance Network, which was created in direct response to feedback from our staff.
- The roll-out of unconscious bias workshops for 25 key influencers across the business.
- In a break with industry norms we have implemented an enhanced maternity leave policy (six months, full pay).
We established our diversity and inclusion action team with the stated mission of fostering an inclusive environment, to ensure each person can reach their full potential and that everyone is valued for their unique contribution
The construction industry is currently facing talent shortages so it’s more important than ever that we access previously untapped resources. It’s our ambition to be the employer of choice for our industry and our approach to Diversity & Inclusion is part of that vision.
Encouraging women to work in construction is one of our sector’s greatest challenges. We are committed to doing everything we can to create a level playing field, where all employees feel supported and able to develop the career they want with Sisk.
Our goal is to create an environment where inclusion is part of the fabric of our business. We recognise that our proposed actions on levelling the playing field will only succeed with the right culture along with support from our senior leadership, the commitment of our Diversity and Inclusion action team and clearly defined targets.
We established our diversity and inclusion action team with the stated mission of fostering an inclusive environment, to ensure each person can reach their full potential and that everyone is valued for their unique contribution.
We believe in appointing the best candidate to the job, regardless of gender or any other factors. We will actively seek out opportunities to attract more females into our sector and into Sisk to create an improved gender balance. We aim to have greater female participation in future graduate programme intakes. This is an ambitious goal, and we will work with local schools and colleges to encourage female participation in STEM subjects and to promote our sector to future students.
We will continue to take an active role in industry wide campaigns such as those led by considerate constructors. We were the first Irish construction company to sign up for this scheme in Ireland. We have been active members in the UK for many years and roll it out on all our sites there.
Getting the message out
As part of the company’s focus on diversity and inclusion, two events were recently held in central Dublin and London in September and early Oct respectively, to launch Sisk’s new internal employee resource group – Building Gender Balance Network.
The purpose of this employee-driven network is to provide another platform in the business for our people to grow their networks across different business areas and functions, build new skills, and champion our agenda on gender equality.
One attendee at the London event said they "thought it was a positive workshop and I enjoyed speaking with others from the business. I think the mentor/mentee relationship could organically happen through more of these events.”
The first of the series of workshops included an internal panel of senior colleagues sharing their views and experiences of diversity in the workplace, external speakers to inspire and provide another perspective to how careers are built and navigated, and a practical session on Emotional Intelligence and Strengths in the workplace.
An attendee at the Dublin event commented: “I enjoyed the group session at my table on emotional intelligence & hearing all their different experiences."
Mental Health continues to be a key focus area
Mental Health is on the agenda as one of the biggest challenges facing our industry in Ireland, UK and beyond and it can have a huge impact on people.
As part of our ongoing commitment to our people we work very hard to encourage them to talk about stress and work life balance. We have been very active in trying to help and encourage our people to look for help if they need it and we have developed a programme to help people understand that It is ok not to feel OK, and it's absolutely ok to ask for help. It will help everyone in the company to support our people across our business in how they offer help to those who are struggling.
We are delighted to again co-sponsor the Mental Health & Wellbeing Summit this year held recently in Croke Park, Dublin. The event was a huge success last year and provided a wealth of insights on mental health through informative world class speakers, workshops and exhibitors, on how both companies and individuals alike can tackle this difficult challenge.
For more on the event visit www.mentalhealthandwellbeingsummit.ie
About John Sisk & Son
Based on a strong financial platform, Sisk’s strategy is to create value for its customers, partners and people through technical knowledge, ability and experience to:
- Collaborate with customers and its supply chain to provide technical and delivery solutions in an open and can-do way to meet aligned objectives.
- Offer a full range of solutions where safety, innovation, quality, efficiency and value are integral to everything Sisk does.
- Deliver projects and programmes in key sectors such as Data and Technology, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, Infrastructure, Transportation, Healthcare, Commercial, Residential, Retail, Industrial, Leisure, Education, Water and Energy.