Employees from Mott MacDonald will be amongst a group of over 350 people representing the #BuildingEquality group in this year’s Pride in London. The group has called for sector leaders to be more willing to talk about homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and the value of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the built environment sector.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender inclusive (LGBT+) Construction Working Group, known as #BuildingEquality, has increased its reach since its establishment in 2015 and the group recently participated in National Student Pride, the largest LGBT+ careers fair in the UK, to encourage students to consider opportunities in the sector. The group’s representatives this year double those that participated in 2015’s Pride in London, the first time an engineering or construction firm participated in the event.
An industry survey has revealed that half of all LGBT+ construction employees have heard homophobic or transphobic insults in the workplace in the last 12 months. For LGBT+ engineers this figure increased to 60 per cent.
Mott MacDonald’s EDI manager Richard Chapman-Harris said: “All people perform better when they can be themselves. Ensuring LGBT+ inclusion is actively supported at work means better business. Knowing your colleagues and clients value your whole self is important for collaboration and innovation – key values to the engineering and construction industries. Mott MacDonald is proud to be joining the #BuildingEquality group again this year and look forward to further collaboration on EDI across the industry.”
Gary Coetzee, chair of #BuildingEquality, added: “Our industry has made progress, but still too many people feel unable to be themselves in the workplace. We need leaders to accept that homophobia remains a problem for employees and to speak out against it. Being at Pride in London gives us an important opportunity to talk about what we have achieved but, most importantly, what is still needed.”