The recruitment gap in DE&I-focused hiring for construction

Every construction and infrastructure group we speak to carries social procurement and workforce diversity targets. Every recruitment partner we speak to, the recruitment agencies and labour hire companies supplying their people, wants to help deliver against them. Yet when a recruitment agency submits a tender response, it rarely finds out how its social procurement answer was assessed, or what the client actually weighs up.

So on 12 October we ran a roundtable with procurement, social procurement, social impact, inclusion, resourcing and safety leads from Parklife Metro (Webuild), John Holland, Seymour Whyte and Helix Impact Solutions to discuss how to close that gap. This is what came out of it.

Diversity is now rated before the tender is scored

Workforce diversity now sits in the pre-qualification questionnaire, so it is assessed and rated before the tender itself is assessed. That did not happen ten years ago. One contributor's pre-qualification carries about ten questions on it, from whether a supplier has a social procurement plan to whether it can take on apprentices.

It does not yet outrank the top three: capability and delivery, cost, and compliance, risk and safety. In the roundtable's words, it gets you in the room but not a seat at the table. Pippa Harrison, Social Impact and Workforce Integration Manager at Parklife Metro (Webuild), was clear about where it is heading: "It is becoming a requirement upfront, not a nice to have. Winning a package could now rely on that diverse workforce."

A missed target costs money, and the record follows you

Enforcement is uneven across groups, contracts and states, but it is real. Morgan Rooney, Director of Impact at Helix Impact Solutions: "In New South Wales, if you don't meet the Indigenous business spend targets in the Aboriginal Procurement Policy, the State Government withholds the shortfall from your final payment claim and donates it to an Indigenous charity."

A missed target is technically a contract breach, retention money can be at risk, and state governments are now pooling data across departments, so a contractor's record follows it from project to project.

Nobody is taught this

Builders and project managers are asked to meet DE&I targets they were never trained to recruit for. And each state asks for the same thing in its own words: Queensland runs a social procurement policy, New South Wales an Aboriginal participation policy, and the next project may call it social value.

"You don't know what you don't know," said Morgan. "We ask builders to meet DE&I targets, or you are talking to a project manager who knows how to build a shopping centre, not how to recruit in a meaningful way... So: education, education, education."

Opening the door is the first step only

The hardest work is keeping people in the job. The roundtable was clear that without the right interventions, people are lost within the first six months. Some of the biggest gains come from teaching workplaces how to support the people they have hired, and planning that support before the start date, not after the first wobble.

What clients want from recruitment partners

Clients want recruitment partners who are educated, aware and trained, with the initiatives, processes and partners to be noticed as leaders in diverse hiring and inclusive practice. That means putting what you already do on the tender and the capability statement in plain terms: the pre-employment programs you take candidates from, your give-back initiatives, the make-up of your own workforce, any Kinaway, Supply Nation or Social Traders registration, and your DE&I recruitment processes.

"Initiatives go such a long way when they come across our desk," said Pippa. "Put it on your tenders, put it in your capability statement, because the people reading it will notice."

Read the full report

The full report also covers vetting and psychosocial safety, and closes with a 30-day plan for recruitment partners and the employers who hire through them. Read the report

Book a call with us to discuss the report.

Talk through what it means for your hiring, or the inclusive recruitment training we run for teams and the recruitment partners they hire through. Book a time with us

In Sydney?

Join us on Wednesday 11 November to unpack the findings live and ask your questions directly, with speakers from Webuild and CIMIC and more to be announced. Secure your seat

Samantha Philpot is the Director of Find Your People, a DE&I-led hiring marketplace connecting recruitment agencies to employers, starting with the construction industry. She has been facilitating since 2010, with 10+ years in recruitment, HR and DE&I.

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make HR Leader a preferred news source on Google.