Inclusion and diversity are at the heart of our values and we believe that building an inclusive culture is everyone’s responsibility. We define such a culture as one of openness, fairness, trust and respect, where we care about and speak up for each other.
Inclusion allows us to leverage the diversity within our teams to create stronger performance together. Skanska is focused on creating an inclusive working environment for everyone, which in turn will make our business more diverse over time and reflect the communities in which we work.
We are on a journey to be better. In 2021, we surveyed over 180 colleagues about their lived experience at work. In places, the results were hard to read, but they were a catalyst for change.
Since then, we have developed actions plans tailored to foster inclusion at Skanska and build upon our progress each year. We have delivered several measures as a result of these plans which are making a genuine difference for all our colleagues. Some of these measures are outlined below.
We have developed a nine-month inclusive leadership programme to support the creation of site cultures which are welcoming and inclusive to under-represented groups. We are analysing the impact of this initiative and the results will inform how this programme is expanded over the coming 18 months. This reflects our commitment to developing long term, sustainable organisational change, and using evidence to inform our future diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Members of our six employee-led networks have been paired with members of our senior management team. This provides an important opportunity to discuss career paths, progression and gives those colleagues exposure to senior members of the business. The programme also enables our senior leaders to further understand different lived experiences. Over the next 18 months we plan to expand the number co-mentoring pairings to increase the number of leaders, and members of underrepresented groups, who can learn from one-another.
We’re committed to fostering an inclusive workplace culture, which is reflected in our decision to extend our inclusion action plan to continue making progress. We understand that a truly integrated, diverse workforce delivers multiple benefits, including increased wellbeing and greater learning and operational performance.
We have a long journey ahead of us. But we’re taking thoughtful and purposeful action to make improvements for all our colleagues, both now and in the future.