ESG Report 202223 - Flipbook - Page 46
Enabling our people to excel
Enhancing opportunities for women
In the last 12 months, we have been doing a lot of work to promote diversity and inclusion,
and a significant part of this has been the great work some of our trailblazing women have
done to enhance career opportunities for women and challenge assumptions about traditional
gender stereotype.
One example of this is the initiative from the Water Division Women’s Network, to create an active
and thriving Allyship Programme. This began at the start of 2022 and is already gaining traction and
generating interest. They aim to run one session each quarter, focusing on a different key topic each
time. Allyship is crucial in the workplace to help us create a more inclusive environment that will
consider a wide range of values and principles, and compliment our EDI/ESG commitment. The group
will be open to all our people to create a better understanding and awareness of important social
issues whilst recognising that being different does not mean you cannot add value. During the year
ahead, this network hopes to gain enough momentum to enable its activities to be replicated and
shared across other areas of our Group.
More positive work is also being pioneered by the Rail and Aviation EDI Group, ENABLE, which
is helping to break gender bias and under-representation across a wide range of different social
groups in their sector. The network is working at site level to challenge issues such as the lack of
adequate female toilet facilities and badly fitting PPE.
Charlotte Robinson, (pictured right above) at Dyer and Butler explains:. “I was visiting sites five years
ago, and realised something should be done to make our working environment more welcoming for
women. Over time, this has evolved into our Diversity Charter, showing what good looks like at site
level. Although the charter addresses all sorts of diversity and inclusion issues, it also sets out a
minimum standard, making sure everyone can expect a good level of facilities and feel valued and
welcome on site, regardless of their characteristics.
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