The trade and construction industry has traditionally been heavily male-dominated. In the UK, it’s thought that only 4% of tradespeople are women, which represents a massive underrepresentation.
However, recent statistics have shown that the demand for women tradespeople is growing, so what can we as a profession do to encourage more women to embrace roles such as plumbing and electrical work?
With International Women’s Day fast approaching on the 8th of March, we’ve decided to look at how social housing providers can do their bit by addressing gender disparity within their operative workforces.
By embracing targeted strategies that foster an inclusive work environment, organisations can hopefully attract more women to essential repairs and maintenance roles.
Embrace Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training is important in any organisation. Programmes that raise awareness about unconscious bias and promote inclusive behaviours equip staff with the tools to support a diverse workforce.
Social housing providers managing trade operatives need to foster a welcoming, inclusive working environment. EDI training is a good way of ensuring that current employees are diversity champions and understand their role in creating an inclusive workforce.
Broaden recruitment channels
Try to expand recruitment efforts beyond traditional channels. This could include attempting to introduce young women to trade roles early in their academic journeys by partnering with schools and colleges. In doing so, you could send willing operatives to schools to discuss the benefits of the trade profession or even offer work experience placements.
You can also reach out to community groups that support women seeking employment. Your organisation could host workshops and mentoring sessions as part of this.
By broadening your recruitment channels, you should hopefully encourage more applications from diverse and underrepresented groups.
Apprenticeship and training programmes
Another option is to create apprenticeship schemes for women to gain hands-on trade experience. This experience will help them be more confident and develop the skills they need for repairs and maintenance work.
A supportive, welcoming learning environment will also help erase any doubts and show that the sector is for everyone.
Develop an inclusive workplace culture
A positive workplace culture is an essential consideration for any prospective employee, and diversity and inclusion sit at the heart of this. To help women feel more comfortable in a male-dominated workforce, you could do the following:
- Create supportive groups: Organise a group that encourages women in trade to network and share experiences. This gives women a platform to provide mutual support and share ways an organisation can improve.
- Implement strict zero-tolerance policies: Make sure every employee understands that discrimination, harassment and bullying are not tolerated and introduce strict policies to enforce this. You must also create a respectful working environment for all staff.
- Offer flexible working arrangements: It’s important to recognise the diverse needs of employees, and flexible work schedules are one way to do this. This initiative is especially important for those who have to balance work with other commitments in their personal lives.
Conduct surveys and ask for feedback
Ask your organisation’s female employees for feedback on its diversity and inclusion best practices. This is a good way to gauge their happiness and establish ways to improve. Their advice could be the difference in attracting more women to your organisation.
As a business, you should monitor the number of women applying for and being hired in operative roles. Are you doing enough? Moving forward, it’s good practice to set yourself realistic, fair diversity goals, so you have something to work towards.
Hopefully, the themes we have covered in this article will provide some food for thought this International Women’s Day. As most industries continue to improve female representation, the trade sector must not be left behind.
With some of these strategies in place, social housing providers can help bridge the gender gap present in trade operative workforces, creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the communities they serve.
