Improving Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Construction Sector Assignment Sample

Improving Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Construction Sector

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Introduction - Promoting EDI Through Literature Reviews and Recommendations in Construction

The project report focuses on the given topic “Equality, diversity, and inclusion within construction sector ” which entails the attention on greater acceptance and understanding the benefits that are Inclusion, Diversity and Equality (EDI) play in wide society and workplace. The construction sector is considered to remain one of the male-dominated industries around the globe, which results in a greater focus on improving diversity and inclusion for the industry bodies and employees. The report focuses on a literature review with the strategy created of how there can be an improvement in inclusion and diversity.

Literature review on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within the construction

According to Naoum et al (2020), the authors focus on gender in the industry of construction, with a comparative survey and review of literature of Women's and Men's perceptions in consultancies of UK construction. The leaders of the construction industry have made several attempts in attracting women into the professional roles for reading the shortage of skills and workforce diversity. This includes that still, the number of women working in the sector has not yet improved. The authors focus on reviewing the previous year's studies on gender diversity in the industry of construction and also focusing on the findings from the survey. The study has focused on improving the variations of how men and women are equal and how there should be proper retaining of the women workforce in the organizations. There has been the focus on the reinforcement of the innovative strategies and plans which can change the culture of the construction profession and also modernize the practice of working which has been existing from the traditional structure. The focus on the innovative strategies has helped in increasing the awareness among women and also towards control in following the best methods that can retain women in the following sector.

In the views of King-Dejardin (2019), the authors focus on the social construction of the care work of migrants which includes the intersection of gender, migration and care. The study mainly discusses the focus on the interconnections between the migrant labour internationally, gender relations and care work in light of issues. There has been major attention in focusing on the following issues which include working conditions and characteristics, migration patterns of men and women, and also how they are interrelated to institutional and normative destinations with focusing on the implications of male and female migration in the care economy on the position of gender and women equality and action areas. The authors also lay the focus on the migrant worker's situation with an understanding of the interconnections that are closely related to their families as well. The authors focus on the relations which include the care providers and care recipients which are highly complex that include relational and personal with the political and economic impacts of the same.

According to Loosemore et al (2018), the authors lay the attention on comparison of practices related to corporate social responsibility in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore construction industries. The study emphasizes offering new insights into practices of CSR of the construction firms with focusing on the results reflecting the compliance approach based and focusing on the safety and environmental issues. There has been a major knowledge lack ineffective management of the supply chains for minimizing the environmental impact. The CSR strategies in construction are widely growing which includes the comparative research between various countries and their research criteria. The authors focus on the various research criteria which include adoption of the cultural perspective that includes the practice of CSR in the supply chain and how different countries are using their supply chain for increasing the social dimension and welfare of the industry. CSR strategies are mainly related to the employees and their welfare and with an approach that is compliance-based and will help in influencing the workforce demographics and structure, cultural factors, institutional factors, and regulatory imperatives. The findings also include that there should be major attention on adding the understanding of various interactions between the informal and formal policies of CSR and different practices in the context of culture with an exploration of the issues further.

According to Wright and Conley (2020), the study examines the main attention on advancing gender equality in the sector of construction through the public procurements with making use of the effective regulation responsive. The segregation of the labour market continues to be the major barrier towards gender equality, in the construction industry which is mainly an example of the sector which is male-dominated. The evidence from women in construction projects focuses on the establishment to increase the opportunities on working in construction, with the study arguing that public procurement is mainly a potential tool for breaking the segregation of gender. This is considered to be effective when the new forms of reflexive and responsive legislation focus on requiring the contracts of the private sector for achieving the social objectives. The authors also focus on arguing that this should be made effective through the powers of gender engagement for the stakeholders, which includes the trade unions. The main focus of the authors was to focus on gender equality and how women are not being involved in the sector with proper rights as men have and how the procurement of the public sector should be given the major regulation that is responsive to all effective use. Therefore, the authors conclude that there should be the formulation of new norms and strategies which should help in increasing the engagement powers for the women by addressing the issues with the relevant stakeholders.

Strategy created 

Diversity, inclusion and equality focus on ensuring fair opportunity and treatment for all. They mainly aim at eradicating discrimination and prejudice on basis of group or individual of all the individual characteristics protected. One of the serious issues and challenges which is currently faced by the construction industry is the tight supply of skilled labour. The shortage is considered to have a variety of long term and short-term causes (Dennissen et al 2020). The major side effects of the healthy economy include unemployment which includes the low levels, driving the cost of the skilled labourers, labour shrinks of the pool and the forcing of the companies in hiring the less inspiring pool of labour. The business for the inclusion and diversity in the workplace is considered fiercely important across the industries. The following are the strategies that can be introduced in the sector of construction for improving inclusion, diversity and equality-

Recruitment- the sector of construction should focus on the approach of recruitment being considered as one of the effective drivers for improving the diversity in the workplace. There should be proper focus on the process of recruitment without any bias which includes focusing on the diverse candidates and focusing on the leadership issues and dealing with the management attention. There should be proper attention on recruiting the best candidates who fit the job and focusing on diversity and equality while recruiting (Kirton and Greene 2021). 

Company policies- there should be proper attention on the management which is day to day and promotion of transparency in clear development, regular updating of policies and standardization are considered to be crucial in managing business diversity. The company policies should be written in a manner that adheres to effective equality purpose and also control towards following the best methods for improving diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Environment and culture- there should be proper focus on the cultivation of a positive workplace environment and culture are considered to be key for fostering diversity and also ensuring that the employees of all cultures and backgrounds should be included and also able in playing the valuable organisational part. The culture of the organization should be in a manner which should focus on increasing the cultural requirements of the employees and they should feel wanted in the organization (Riccucci 2021). 

Staff engagement- the engagement of staff is considered to be the essential criteria which are based on working for retention of employees and working in favour of them. There should be major attention in increasing the engagement of the staff which can help in getting involved and also getting the major purpose attention in being included in the organization and their control. There should be proper management criteria that should focus on addressing the issues that they are facing and focusing on the promotion of workplace diversity (Noghabaei et al 2020). 

Being more innovative- the companies which should focus on the following diversity should be more innovative and also address the attention on following the best practices of management that should aim at being diverse. There should be proper focus on the market operations which should range at the market customers. The employees should be allowed from the innovative range which should be in the multidimensional areas and also the one which should lead towards following the best appropriate measures for increasing the workplace awareness and diversifying the demand in the workplace (Oke et al 2019).

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the report concludes that the construction management project should focus on understanding the benefits that are equality, diversity and inclusion. The construction sector should focus on improving diversity and inclusion which should aim at developing the employers and industry bodies. The report concludes that there should be effective attention on following the literature review which adheres towards maintaining diversity, inclusion and equality in the workplace that aim at developing the sector and also reduction in the disparities. There should be an effective focus on the creation of a strategy that should outline how the construction sector can focus on improving inclusion and diversity. It concludes by focusing on the strategy creation which will aim at reducing the issues and challenges in the workplace.

Recommendations

The following are the recommendations that should be taken into consideration for improving equality, diversity and inclusion in the construction sector-

Establishment of the sense of belonging- there should be proper focus on establishing belonging sense which is crucial for the employees for bringing the best out of them. The employees should feel connected and they should properly focus on psychological needs which should treat all the employees fairly and feel accepted and valued. This will help in maintaining diversity, inclusion and equality in the workplace which will lead to a healthy culture in the workplace and also an increase in diversity (Naoum et al 2020). 

Offering equal opportunities growth- this is considered as the major factor which focuses on keeping and attracting talent in the company. The employer should focus on being careful and focusing on career development and equal growth to the employees. There should be a proper focus on offering the management equal growth opportunities which should consider advancement in the conditions of working. There should be a proper focus on educating the employees on inclusion and diversity in the organization and the best practices that should be supported with the initiatives (Loosemore et al 2018). 

Supporting creativity and innovation- for building a diverse workplace, the companies should focus on supporting creativity in the organization. If creativity and innovation should focus on the business goals which should focus on maintaining diversity. Innovation and creativity should be in a sense towards enhancement in the construction sector for improving the upper-level management for building the reputation of the company (Xia 2018). 

 References 

Dennissen, M., Benschop, Y. and van den Brink, M., 2020. Rethinking diversity management: An intersectional analysis of diversity networks. Organization Studies, 41(2), pp.219-240. 

King-Dejardin, A., 2019. The social construction of migrant care work. At the intersection of care, migration and gender. International Labour Office: Geneva, Switzeland. http://fnope.org.pl/dokumenty/2019/03/wcms_674622.pdf

Kirton, G. and Greene, A.M., 2021. The Dynamics of Managing Diversity and Inclusion: A Critical Approach. Routledge. 

Loosemore, M., Lim, B.T.H., Ling, F.Y.Y. and Zeng, H.Y., 2018. A comparison of corporate social responsibility practices in the Singapore, Australia and New Zealand construction industries. Journal of cleaner production, 190, pp.149-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.157

Naoum, S.G., Harris, J., Rizzuto, J. and Egbu, C., 2020. Gender in the construction industry: Literature review and comparative survey of men’s and women’s perceptions in UK construction consultancies. Journal of management in engineering, 36(2), p.04019042.

Noghabaei, M., Heydarian, A., Balali, V. and Han, K., 2020. Trend analysis on adoption of virtual and augmented reality in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Data, 5(1), p.26. 

Oke, A., Aghimien, D., Aigbavboa, C. and Musenga, C., 2019. Drivers of sustainable construction practices in the Zambian construction industry. Energy Procedia, 158, pp.3246-3252. 

Riccucci, N. M. 2021. Managing diversity in public sector workforces. Routledge. 

Wright, T. and Conley, H., 2020. Advancing gender equality in the construction sector through public procurement: Making effective use of responsive regulation. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 41(4), pp.975-996. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0143831X17745979

Xia, B., Olanipekun, A., Chen, Q., Xie, L. and Liu, Y., 2018. Conceptualising the state of the art of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the construction industry and its nexus to sustainable development. Journal of cleaner production, 195, pp.340-353.