THE Sustainability Tool, in collaboration with the Supply Chain Sustainability School’s Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR) Programme, has unveiled the outcomes of what has been described as the largest ever employee diversity survey in the UK.
The survey, encompassing more than 526,000 individuals, has been an annual fixture in the built environment sector’s progress tracking since 2016, offering a record of diversity data and pinpointing areas for improvement.
The 2023 survey results, covering employees across 537 supply chains of eight major companies and two membership organisations, highlight a ‘substantial’ increase in participation, with a 55% surge in employees covered and a 99% rise in participating companies compared to 2022. The inclusion of contributions from SMEs played a significant role in this expansion.
This year’s findings reveal a surge of women in the industry, rising from 23% in 2022 to 29.1% in 2023. This increase is primarily attributed to first-time reporting by several Tier 1 organisations.
Despite constituting 52.5% of industry applicants, the representation of ethnic minority groups in the workforce decreased slightly to 13.6%. The application to hiring ratio was notably higher for ethnic minority groups (90:1) compared to white applicants (28.4:1), on average making it three times as challenging to secure a job this year. Depending on background, ethnic minority groups found it between 1.2 to 6.4 times harder to be hired than their white counterparts.
The survey also found persistent data gaps around disability, with 35.2% of respondents’ data not being collected. The ‘prefer not to say’ option increased from 3.2% to 6.5%.
While disclosure is increasing, only 2.04% of employees identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, below the ONS UK population average of 3.14%.
Findings from the survey were initially shared at the Supply Chain Sustainability School’s ‘Diversity Data Benchmarking Conference’ last month. The conference emphasised the importance of organisations contributing to the survey to enhance the transparency of the sector and improve diversity and inclusion in areas such as gender and ethnic diversity. Pay gaps were also highlighted as areas for attention to achieve a more transparent industry view.
Cathryn Greville, head of fairness, inclusion and respect at Supply Chain Sustainability School, said, “The survey demonstrates the critical importance of quality data in addressing equity, diversity and inclusion issues across the built environment sector. Without relevant data, organisations simply cannot identify, understand and address the real issues they face in their businesses and supply chains, and they cannot track the success of any initiatives put in place to make the workplace more inclusive and successful.”
The Diversity Survey is set to reopen in March 2024, allowing anyone in the built environment to participate anonymously for free.
