Building inclusivity: Celebrating Pride 2024 in the property & construction industry

In recent years the property and construction industry has made great efforts to implement change and become more progressive in terms of inclusion and equality for the LGBTQ+ community. 

More and more of our clients are adopting non-discrimination policies that explicitly protect LGBTQ+ employees, including protection against harassment and equal benefits for same-sex partners.  Some of the larger construction companies are establishing employee resource groups who work to support LGBTQ+ employees by providing networking opportunities and advocating for inclusive policies.  There has also been an increase in training and development programmes aimed at reducing biases and educating employees about LGBTQ+ issues.

Our clients are very conscious that their recruitment and selection processes are fair and fully inclusive. We're seeing an increased focus on prioritising inclusive recruitment practices to attract and retain a diverse workforce. This involves implementing strategies such as unbiased job descriptions, which use gender-neutral language and emphasise skills over specific backgrounds. Some clients are also leveraging diverse hiring panels to mitigate unconscious biases during the interview process.

Some larger practices are investing in diversity training for their HR teams and adopting blind recruitment techniques, where candidates' names and other identifying details are removed from applications. Partnering with organisations that focus on underrepresented groups and participating in career fairs aimed at diverse talent pools are further steps being taken. 

The industry is still widely under-represented and a number of people still experience discrimination within their places of work.  To combat this the industry has implemented a number of initiatives and supported current trends such as increasing awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion.  

Continuing the efforts toward education, policy development and cultural change are essential to ensuring that the property and construction industry becomes a place where everyone can thrive, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Carriera is proud to support Pride 2024, as our values and policies are committed to making sure that everyone has the right to work in a place of employment that has diversity, equality and inclusion at the forefront of their company culture.