The Win-Win of Ethical Recruitment

It’s no secret that UK’s labour market across all sectors is really starting to tighten. The combination of Brexit, COVID and the UK’s population demographics means that finding the labour needed is becoming increasingly challenging across most sectors. And it’s affecting both skilled and unskilled labour. Add in inflation and you’re heading towards the perfect conditions to drive payroll costs up.

But alongside the trend of sky-high employment rates, there remains a large pool of labour who for a number of reasons feel excluded from opportunities to work, earn a good wage and contribute to the economy. These workers often live in deprived communities or feel excluded from industries like construction due to age, ethnicity, gender or disabilities.

At The Shore Group, we've created our Ethical Recruitment strategy to provide additional support to help bring these communities back into the workplace. This strategy fits with our Brand ideal, providing a better approach for our clients, workers, our Team and the communities we serve. Our Ethical Recruitment team has been established to provide dedicated support for this initiative, specializing in equality, diversity and inclusion.

What is Ethical Recruitment?

Ethical Recruitment connects directly with workers and communities at the point of need. This often includes via charities, community centres, youth centres, local authorities and training organisations. We also partner with companies to fund qualifications and certifications to increase skills within these communities and match workers with suitable roles.

What is the Need?

Working in partnership with our clients, we’re seeing the impact of trades and labour first hand. Combined with the increase in construction skills certifications costs, attracting new workers to the industry is a very real challenge right now. And the need increases when you factor in Section 106 obligations for community employment.

The data also clearly shows that construction is still some off reaching it’s diversity and equality goals. Whilst the sector employs 3.1m people (9% of UK working population), the workforce is far from representative of the wider population. Only 10% of the workforce is under 25, 83% of workers are ‘white other’, and only 14% of the workforce are female.

Industry Leaders Driving Change

The construction industry is becoming increasingly focused on boosting diversity with the major company leading the change.

“It seems clear that a lack of diversity is starting to hold our industry back. We are committed to…undertaking the ambitious journey to significantly improve inclusion and diversity across our company and inspire industry-wide changes.” Sir Robert McAlpine

“Creating a truly diverse and inclusive workforce is at the top of our agenda…We welcome everyone who shares the Mace values, regardless of background, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation…… building a more inclusive environment for all.” MACE

“Drive industry to be more inclusive by playing a leading role in peer and stakeholder collaboration.”

“A more inclusive and even better business. Better for all of us, including our stakeholders and our partners…. Where we more accurately reflect the diverse communities we serve.” Wates

The Benefits of Ethical Recruitment

Ethical recruitment aligns with our Brand Ideal with better outcomes for workers, our clients, our Team and the communities we serve.

For workers, ethical recruitment opens up new employment opportunities, develops new skills and increases employment within local communities.

For clients, in addition to meeting the immediate labour need, ethical recruitment provides all the benefits of a more diverse workforce and helps clients meet their Section 106 obligations. And the benefits run through the entire supply chain partnering with main contractors, sub-contractors and recruiters.

Communities benefit from direct economic gain and increased local employment from projects as well increasing the talent pool and skillsbase.

How it Works

Ethical Recruitment is an involved process and a re-design of a traditional recruitment model and having a dedicated team is a key step to success. Our strategy brings together local partnerships at the point of need, innovative financial partnerships to funding training and access, diversified recruitment advertising and specific internal training and upskilling.

Partnering with Our Supply Chain

Our Ethical Recruitment strategy continues to develop at pace and we’re working with our clients to make sure it's efficient and effective. We’re still at the start of our journey however we’re excited to be part of the change to open up construction to under-represented communities and help provide opportunities to those who need it most. It’s yet another building block of our Brand Ideal and part of our growth strategy.