We are committed to translating our ambition into meaningful action on the ground.

Graeme Clarke, group head of people

A global vision, regionally implemented

Our new equality, diversity and inclusion strategy is responsive to the needs and challenges of specific geographies.

While our new equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, ‘Everyone’s business,’ set out our vision and global priorities, we were mindful that each of the regions we work in requires an EDI approach that’s locally appropriate. In 2022 we recruited four regional EDI managers to lead a nuanced approach for each of the regions that we operate in.

EDI regional initiatives and successes

Here is just a sample of our regionally led EDI activities. Please note, we use region-specific terminology that respects cultural differences and recognises variations in acceptable practice across our global footprint.

Highlights in our Asia Pacific, New Zealand and Australia business saw our Trusted Allies initiative support LGBTQIA+ interns during their transition from university into the corporate workplace. Our Sydney office led a collaboration with the Aboriginal Business Forum, which resulted in 25 indigenous Australian businesses being added to our supplier list.

In the UK and Europe we continued our work with the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers to provide careers events for university students and young people in schools. We also took part in the 10,000 Black Interns initiative, consequently recruiting one of our interns to our ‘Buildings and Cities’ business.

In India we launched a returners’ recruitment campaign called ‘We Don’t Mind the Gap’. It aimed to encourage women who had taken career break back into employment. The campaign included mentoring and upskilling to re-energise their skills.

Among several programmes in the US and Canada was a focus on representation of women and people of colour that increased their representation to 29% and 25% of our workforce respectively. It is notable that the latest statistics from the US Department of Labor show that only 16% of employees in the engineering industry are women and just 15% are people of colour.