Supporting LGBTQ+ employees and caring for mental health at Skanska

Created by VERCIDA for Skanska

Sam Blanchard shares her journey with Skanska, a company that she felt was calling to her with its values from the beginning.

I first came across Skanska when I applied for a scholarship offered by the Institute of Civil Engineers. The scholarship team matched undergraduates with construction companies. Out of all the interviews I had, the only one I really remember was with Skanska – I felt like they were calling out to me with their values.

Skanska has a strong focus on sustainability and on only working in regions where it’s possible to work ethically. That really resonated with me and I was fortunate to be chosen by Skanska. After my first year of university, I did a summer placement working on a small substation upgrade project in South London, where I gained really valuable experience.

My next industry placement with Skanska was a complete 180 from the substation project – for a year, I worked in what was at the time Highways England’s largest project. I went from working with five people to working with thousands. This project taught me that site work wasn’t for me. I found it very stressful and demanding and realised that sort of role would cause me to burn out. 

In my third year of university and again during the pandemic, I took some time out from university to work on my mental health and when I came back to my studies, I was refreshed, rejuvenated, two years older and wiser. I had a really good final semester and graduated with First Class Honours. 

When I was job-hunting, I really wanted to work for Skanska again, in the north of England in a role that did not involve site work. This was quite a specific wishlist, so, via LinkedIn, I approached people who worked for part of the company that is based in Doncaster to ask about opportunities. I was sent a link to job vacancies and while most were for site engineer roles, I came across an advertisement for a planning engineer job that was closing in two days. This sounded ideal, so I applied for it right away. The recruitment process was so supportive. When I had my interview, I had a clear idea of what to expect, I could relax – and I got the job.

One of the great things about working at Skanska is that I’ve always been able to be upfront about my mental health and about being a queer person in a long-term relationship with a woman. I was involved with a graduate project where we came up with recommendations on how Skanska can improve workplace inclusivity through the lenses of Gen Z entering the workforce and LGBTQ+ inclusivity. I’m so proud that I won an award for this project. It was a ‘Living Our Values – Recognition Award’ for commitment to building an inclusive culture for all.

We undertook a survey to ask people about their knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues and any experiences they have had. This produced a mix of results – there was clearly a need for better understanding among some employees and I wanted to get involved, so the first thing I did was to deliver a lunch-and-learn session, which had a lot of positive feedback. So many people said my session helped them learn new things. It was such an empowering experience for me.

I was on a webinar panel where we discussed why Pride matters, which was another positive and empowering experience that sparked conversations across the whole business. My involvement with Skanska’s Pride Network has become a really important part of my work. I have a really supportive manager who helps me balance my engineering responsibilities and my Pride responsibilities. It has never been an issue. I don’t have to hide why this is important to me from my boss.

One of the biggest things that has happened recently is the roll-out of Skanska’s first trans inclusion policy. We are supporting managers to understand and implement the policy – it should be something managers can reference rather than a document that just sits on a shelf and gathers dust.

Skanska is a great place to work, especially as a queer person. The company’s values have always been important to me. One of my colleagues has just celebrated 40 years with Skanska – it’s not uncommon for employees to reach these milestones, which is a great sign that this is an inclusive company with happy team members.

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