An industry business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion

Abstract

The business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) comes from the need for diversity of thought; we need to be able to offer our clients the best engineering and construction solutions. Those solutions are our differentiator. The more diverse the workforce, the more diverse the thinking, and the more well-rounded the solution. As a business that differentiates itself based on our people’s innovative thinking, we must have access to the largest resource pool available, and so we must be able to attract, recruit, support, and retain a diverse range of candidates and employ their skills irrespective of their gender identity, nationality, background, age, religion, physical ability, or sexual orientation. Clough started its DEI journey around six years ago and we recognise that we have work to do before we achieve all our goals in this space, but it is important to celebrate the achievements and progress we have made along the way and we are eager to share our learnings so others in the industry can learn from it. Background: Clough received the recognition as Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) for the second time in a row (2020–2022/2022–2024). This is a significant achievement as only a few organisations in the engineering and construction industry carry this recognition. Clough has also been recognised by Work180 Equity Audit as one of the two organisations (from a pool of hundreds) that showed ‘strong’ strategic results.