Tarmac Inclusion and Diversity Journey
Louise Houston, Tarmac - head of talent, diversity and inclusion
At Tarmac, we believe in celebrating people’s differences and knocking down any barriers that stand in the way. So we’re getting serious about building an even more inclusive and diverse business where everyone’s welcome. We’re a business that cares about moving with the times and always doing the right thing. That’s why we’re putting a real focus on making Tarmac a more inclusive, diverse and fairer place to work.
We’re already doing some great things. Our partnership with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, 5% Club, Future Leaders programme and Diversity Hut are all focused on finding and developing potential. In 2019, we’re planning to make even bigger strides on Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) – and here are five ways we plan to do it.
1. Becoming inclusive by being inclusive
We’re in the early stages of our Inclusion andDiversity (I&D) journey, so we’ve been carrying out a lot of research and thinking about the best way forward. What’s clear is that no business has all the answers, so we’ve decided to take a collective approach. We’ve set up an external group of organisations and we all meet regularly to discuss our plans, challenges and successes. This helps us maintain momentum in our push for a fairer future.
2. Rethinking how we think
We’re training our people to get the better of ‘unconscious bias’. These are the snap judgements we make about people based on things like their ethnicity, gender, social background or sexual orientation. By understanding and beating our biases, we can make sure we spot potential, treat everyone fairly and get the right people into the right jobs.
3. Listening to what employees have to say
We want all our people to be at the heart of our I&D journey. And we’ll be giving employees the chance to do that via an anonymous employee survey. To help understand our current employee demographic, we’ll also be asking inclusion and diversity clarification questions, so we can make sure our data is as robust as possible.
4. Allowing everyone to be part of our story
Before we can make major changes, we need to make sure our business is ready for them. We’re working on a range of new policies and tools that will help create a culture of acceptance and support. This includes the development of areligious holiday policy, which means people can enjoy important holidays with their friends and family, and importantly support and give line managers the information they need. We’re also designing flexible working policies that support families, carers and others at different times of their lives.
5. Breaking down even more barriers
We’re also looking at the language we use in our recruitment advertisings. We want to make sure that what we say is encouraging and inclusive and doesn’t exclude anyone with the potential to do a brilliant job for us. We’ll also carry out an audit of our on-site welfare facilities and the design and options for Personal Protective Equipment. Our audit will tell us where we can do better and make sure everyone feels welcome on our sites.