I don’t think anyone disagrees with the above statement, but the solution to how we bring about change isn’t quite so straightforward. Or is it?

Our industry is brilliant at coming up with solutions and there is so much going on, from grassroots initiatives to top-down activities, all focused on engaging with and supporting more people to develop careers in the built environment. Companies are offering work experience or running mentoring programmes, creating innovative material designed to reach a broad audience, going into schools and promoting vacancies more widely in order to reach different communities. We know there is a lot going on, but here’s a statement of the obvious: a multitude of activities in a fragmented industry is not efficient, does not save money, time or resource and certainly does not create streamlined and diverse pathways that connect supply with demand.

The problem? It’s not joined up. 

I’ve heard “we just need to join the dots” so many times in my twenty-year career in industry and took the (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) job title ‘Chief Dot-joiner’ when I founded Building People as I do think it’s that simple – don’t duplicate effort; but collaborate, amplify voices, promote and drive traffic to what already exists. At Building People we’re doing just that: we’re simplifying the diversity and inclusion landscape, making it easier for people to find resources, vacancies, knowledge and opportunities, and for employers to widen their talent pool.

I would love to see our fragmented and competitive industry adopting a holistic approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, and come together to drive collaborative change. I do think we can do this, with active leadership that doesn’t focus on just one trade or profession, or one part of the industry, but recognises that achieving a workforce that is representative of society means looking beyond our own backyard.

We’re crowdfunding at Building People to continue our work joining the dots across the many organisations and initiatives that work with diverse and under-represented communities in the built environment. We’re seeing support from passionate individuals to large employers, via trade associations and livery companies and will use the funds to expand our ‘aggregating and connecting’ platform across different trades and professions, and to develop and grow our Communities Network of organisations that provide built environment careers support to diverse audiences.

If you’re passionate about collaborative change do have a look at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/building-people (deadline 10am on the 1st December) or https://www.buildingpeople.org.uk/

We’d love to see you join in.