Whoever your work for, I would be surprised if they were not, to one degree or another, focussing on giving employees the opportunity to fulfil their potential regardless of race, gender or age.

So why is this happening now?

Until relatively recently, the vast majority of employees within the surveying industry in particular came from a relatively narrow sector of society.

To change this means examining both the way a company recruits, and creating an open and inclusive culture so that everyone in the business feels they can contribute to its success.

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This has been our guiding principle at Countrywide Surveying Services for some time now, and it’s beginning to show results.

For example, the ratio of women who work as surveyors within our company has been increasing.

And I’m happy to say we’re beating the national average of 14%, although it’s a figure which is set to increase dramatically; over a quarter of surveying students in college now are women.

 

Improving gender split

The Countrywide Gender Pay Gap analysis highlighted the legacy issue we face and the need for positive action in surveying.

I’m pleased to say that our most recent recruits have a better gender split with 35% of our latest intake on the trainee surveying programme being women.

We have achieved this by embracing the diverse range of people who work in our business and creating an all-encompassing culture that says: “Whoever you are and what your background, you’ll find opportunity”.

This has benefits beyond creating a more diverse internal culture. It gives the business an edge when competing to recruit the best talent, ensures our employees mirror the diversity of our customer base and makes us a more successful company overall.

There is still a long way to go for us, but some of the indicators show we are getting there, helped in part by both the programme and our efforts to spot and nurture emerging talent.

We and the wider industry still have many hurdles to leap before we can say we possess a truly open, inclusive and honest culture, but we are investing to achieve this.