Establishing your corporation as a frontrunner for EDI
Before attending the Wellbeing & Diversity in Construction & Property Conference, we spoke to Faithful + Goulds Associate Director and EDI Lead Dara Jafari….
Q. How is Faithful + Gould establishing itself as a leader in equality and diversity?
Leadership buy-in is key. At Faithful + Gould we have leaders who are passionate about real change in our industry and understand how it can affect society as well.
At the corporate level, we are committed to a strategy to achieve Clear Assured accreditation by 2023. This is managed by our sister company Atkins and their ED&I director Sendra Sylvester with the Clear Company.
There are many other aspects to becoming an industry leader; The priority is that you have to be open to adopting methods outside of your own industry. You need to create excitement in your workplace too. Celebrate the positive impact you have on your employees and society, and make everyone in your work environment proud to do their part.
To be a leader in space here, all of your employees must pull in the same direction. At Faithful + Gould, one of the ways we have achieved this is by incorporating ED&I goals into the performance reviews of all of our employees.
Q. There is growing emphasis on wellbeing in the built environment, how has Faithful + Gould promoted a supportive workplace?
In May we launched our Wellbeing Hub for our employees as we realized that the most important issues around health and wellbeing are physical, mental and financial wellbeing. The Wellbeing Hub is a place where our employees can find information and support in these areas in one place. There are techniques and training videos that you can access all about wellness, as well as physical tips and financial advice. We also have psychiatric first aiders who are trained voluntarily and are the first point of contact for people who suffer from mental health problems themselves or who are worried about colleagues or family members. Our Employee Assistance Program is also the first point of contact for our employees when it comes to support such as access to advice, etc.
Q. Faithful + Gould has advised on some of the country’s top development programs – how did you emphasize inclusion in your consultancy?
Equality Diversity and inclusion is not just a hooked exercise for us. If the entire local community and society benefits from a development that we are working on is a disruption, then we as advisors have not fulfilled our duty.
That’s why we’re now also looking at our supply chain and assessing its diversity in order to introduce more diverse supply chain partners. We will also be taking our entire supply chain across all of our sister companies and divisions on our ED&I journey. Our key suppliers must stand up for ED&I just as much as we do, and they will soon have to prove that.
At the beginning of our meetings, also with customers, there are also ED&I moments on all topics related to the topic; These moments help to raise awareness and get conversations going.
Q. There is research that has shown the coronavirus pandemic has affected up to 75% of the UK’s mental health – how have you supported your employees during this challenging time?
The past year has been a challenge for many. We were able to be flexible with our employees in terms of working hours and agreements, but that’s just the bare minimum. We have a very mature wellbeing staff network that runs mindfulness sessions with training and tips that all staff can access. We emphasize that prevention is the key. I’ve suffered from anxiety before and it’s really debilitating. But at least I can now see the signs and can usually catch it before it gets bad.
We also have mental health and wellbeing champions in each of our offices who are there to promote and promote wellbeing and mental health awareness. At F + G, we have also been fortunate to have some incredibly passionate staff who have reached out to share their own stories and experiences about mental health and what they have done to prevent and protect it to treat. These stories are really moving and inspiring and get people talking about mental health and that is a huge plus for me.
Q. What is Faithful + Gould most excited about to be the event partner for the upcoming Wellbeing & Diversity in Construction & Property Conference?
To be able to tell our story and meet new people with the same passion for wellbeing and diversity that we have. We want to be able to work with other companies, customers, industries and individuals. The ED&I space is changing rapidly and is the catalyst for all of us to come together and work together.
