Page 19 - A4 Journal 2019

The Company

Company Members …

Diana Chrouch, a Freeman of the Company, has recently joined the Membership Committee and is
leading its sub-committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She, along with the Master and the Company as a
whole, is determined to recruit as members those who are currently under-represented in the
Company, the wider City livery and the construction industry as a whole.

She writes:

“The Worshipful Company of Constructors has a pivotal role as a leading beacon of good practice and has traditionally been
widely accepted in its position as a representative of the construction industry.

However, women, ethnic minorities, LGBT, disabled and younger people have historically been under represented, not just in
the Worshipful Company of Constructors, but across the livery movement as a whole. Absolute figures on the
underrepresentation of these groups are difficult to report due to a lack of systemised monitoring. However, a recent survey
of the number of females in the Worshipful Company of Constructors showed that there are only 12 % women.
The Constructors have historically recruited new members by word of mouth among their peers and these recruits have
tended to hail from a similar ethnic, social and economic background as the recruiter. As a consequence, the membership is
largely made up of white-collar workers at more senior levels in their careers with a demographic profile of predominantly
white, male and over 50.

Moving forward into the 21st century, maintaining a lack of inclusion would undoubtedly be a high-risk strategy in the face of
an increasingly diverse construction sector that is struggling to attract talent to the industry. This is especially the case when
the Company depends on maintaining a thriving membership base that has traditionally been attracted by the Company’s
prominence and relevant position in the sector. Without a doubt, a modern and diverse industry will expect to see an
organisation in such an important position that is in step and representative of the people in the sector.
Diversity and Inclusion sub-committee

In recognition of the need for change it was agreed at a planning meeting last year that it was time to take action to increase
diversity levels amongst the membership through the creation of a dedicated Diversity and Inclusion sub-committee.

The sub-committee is being led by marketing and diversity specialist Diana Chrouch who has written a proactive strategy for
the recruitment of under-represented groups by adopting the following two-pronged approach:

Firstly - an outreach programme to raise awareness of the benefits of membership of the Company to under-represented
groups via organisations that already engage with them. Planned outreach activities including collaborative events and
marketing campaigns will target women, younger people and people from BAME backgrounds that work in the sector. There
are also plans to develop a related outreach strategy for disabled and LGBT people.
Secondly - a New Member Welcome Ambassador programme to encourage existing members to volunteer to invite and
support people from under-represented groups.
This planned roll out of an informal soft skills approach to recruiting people from under-represented groups, adopts a
common sense way of removing barriers to entry. It also aims to provide potential new members with the encouragement
and tailored support that they may need to apply for membership.

Once joined, the plan is to encourage existing members to provide additional informal mentoring to new members.
Mentoring support will include personally inviting new members to accompany them to events, or flagging up and
recommending taking part in committees and charitable activities during their first year to ensure that they feel properly
welcomed, engaged and included in the life of the Company
Build On Do What Constructors Do Well

The objective of the New Member Welcome Ambassador approach is to build on do what Constructors do well.
That is to use their well-established word of mouth influence to reach beyond their peer networks to engage women and
minorities in the construction sector. This approach has already been tried and tested by the Diversity and Inclusion sub-
committee and, so far, it has successfully led to an increased spike in membership applications amongst women and
minorities with many more in the pipeline.

Continued on next page...

Autumn 2019 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Page 19