Managing Diversity in Construction: What Leaders Must Do Now
Barbra Carlisle • February 12, 2026
Equity and Inclusion Is How You Future‑Proof Your Business
Construction and engineering businesses across the UK are facing acute skills shortages. There are over 140,000 vacancies currently unfilled.
Meanwhile, 750,000 workers are set to retire by 2036, stripping the sector of vital experience.
If you’re a leader in the construction and engineering sectors, diversity is no longer just a HR project.
Its a weapon for good. Its not about woke. It is about creating and building a sustainable and thriving business.
The Truth: The Sector Is Still Behind
According to the Office for National Statistics and CITB when we look at women alone:
- Women make up just 15% of the overall construction workforce
- Women account for only 2% of on‑site roles
- Women hold just 7% of senior leadership roles
Ethnic diversity is similarly low:
- Only 6% of the UK construction workforce identifies as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME)
That means most construction businesses are drawing talent from less than 20% of the potential labour pool.
What Leaders Don’t Realise: Diversity Directly Impacts Productivity
A broader workforce isn’t just morally right it’s commercially smart.
More diverse teams bring:
- Better problem‑solving
- Higher retention
- Stronger client relationships
- Faster innovation
- A wider pool of future managers
And in an ageing workforce (35% over 50), business continuity depends on attracting younger, more diverse entrants.
Why Diversity Efforts Often Fail
Cultural insights from Tim Walder, my guest on The Unlikely Executive podcast reinforce a key leadership blind spot:
“I try to understand what makes people tick.”
Most leaders don’t lack goodwill, they lack understanding.
Research shows persistent barriers:
- Cultural stereotypes
- Unconscious bias
- A lack of visible role models
- Training that isn’t linked to actual jobs
- Systems that dont promote equity leading to
- Behaviours that exclude
Meanwhile, women account for over 15% of new apprentices, but many still leave early due to culture and lack of support.
What You Do Now
1. Make inclusion a leadership skill — not an HR task
Your managers shape the daily culture.
If they don’t model inclusive behaviours, nothing else sticks.
2. Create visible pathways for women and minority talent
This includes:
– Fair promotion routes
– Mentoring
– Clear criteria for progression
– Leadership shadowing opportunities
These practices directly address the “no role model” problem.
3. Fix the basics on site
Simple measures shift culture fast:
– Clean, accessible welfare facilities
– Proper PPE for women
– Zero‑tolerance for banter that crosses the line
– Strong induction for new recruits
4. Modernise your recruitment pipeline
Tap into the 240,000 apprentices the UK needs over the next decade.
Focus on attracting women, younger workers, and career‑switchers.
5. Use flexible roles strategically
Post‑pandemic flexibility is a major reason women now enter managerial and technical roles in greater numbers.
Adopt it deliberately not occasionally.
Diversity Is How You Future‑Proof Your Business
The skills shortage isn’t going anywhere.
But the businesses that adapt fastest, with broader, more resilient, more diverse teams, will win the contracts, deliver with fewer delays, and build the most credible leadership pipelines.
You don’t need a diversity strategy full of buzzwords.
You need a culture that keeps good people — and attracts new ones.
If you want help building that capability in your leadership team, let’s talk.
Ideas and thoughts on how to lead well through complexity and change
The Intergenerational Advantage: Why Construction Firms Who Blend Ages Will Outperform Everyone Else
If you’re worried about not having enough young people, including women coming into construction, you’re asking the wrong question. The real risk is what happens when you don’t use the people you already have properly. The Crisis No One Is Solving Properly Across the UK, the construction workforce is ageing faster than it’s being replenished. There are 20% more workers aged 55+ than under 25. And it gets worse: 35% of the workforce is now over 50, and only 20% is under 30. Yes this presents an industry risk, but closer to home we see organisational risk. Leaders worry about recruitment, apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps all useful, but none of them address the real issue: Experience is walking out of the door every single day, and new capability isn’t being integrated fast enough. This is exactly what my conversation with Colin McEllin MCIOB of Clan Contracting highlighted. When a 21 year old commercial graduate joined Clan Contracting, Colin didn’t roll his eyes or think, “another kid who’s never been on a site.” He leaned into it and welcomes thoughts, ideas and advice from 'young Aaron'. Massive benefits for him, and Aaron, and the wider team. Why Intergenerational Leadership Is Now a Strategic Priority The construction sector is staring at a workforce cliff edge: • 140,000+ vacancies lie unfilled. • By 2036, 750,000 skilled workers will retire, stripping the industry of vital capability. • The UK will need nearly 1 million additional construction workers by 2032. Yet recruitment alone isn’t enough. You cannot hire your way out of this crisis. We must integrate generations on purpose, not by accident. What Younger Workers Bring (That Leaders Ignore at Their Peril) Younger talent offers: • Modern thinking around sustainability and digital tooling • Analytical approaches and better documentation habits • A willingness to question processes that haven't been updated since the 90s • A commercial lens shaped by newer training systems In Colin’s words, their thinking “took him right back to when he was 21” eager, energetic, ideas driven. You want that energy before they lose it. What Older Workers Bring (That You Can’t Replace) Your experienced people have: • 30+ years of instinct • Pattern recognition that no textbook teaches • Quiet influence that stabilises teams • Technical fluency on heritage, concrete, structure, sequencing, conservation, problem solving These people are your institutional memory. Once they go, they’re gone. And currently, UK engineering employers admit they only retain knowledge effectively from 57% of retiring staff. That is a crisis hiding in plain sight. Leadership Actions That Works 1. Create deliberate two way mentoring (not hierarchical mentoring). Younger staff teach digital skills, new processes, sustainability thinking. Older staff teach technical judgment, site sense, risk spotting. Both feel valued. 2. Give young people actual responsibility, not token tasks. The CITB plans 40,000+ industry placements a year. It means nothing if leaders hide young people in the corner. Let them make decisions, with support. 3. Systemise knowledge transfer. You cannot afford to rely on “ask Dave if you need help.” You need processes, templates, technical walkthroughs, shared documentation. 4. Remove the “that’s not how we do it here” reflex. 76% of construction workers say current training doesn’t adequately prepare people for the job. So your way probably isn’t the best way anymore. Your Competitive Advantage Is Sitting Right Under Your Nose When generations work in isolation, capability leaks. When generations work together, capability compounds. The firms who win over the next decade won’t be the ones who grab the talent, it will be the ones who blend talent. Listen to the full episode of the podcast here or watch on You Tube here About me I write about topics that my podcast guests bring to the podcast. They have years of experience with challenges and opportunities along the way, highs and lows and are in the thick of leading with purpose and passion, faults an'all. As a coach and trainer I work with leaders and their times to help them thrive, laugh, enjoy their work, be productive and to build teams of all ages.
We love what we do so we grow in that role, we end up as leader with people around us but we want to stay doing the thing we love doing. Balancing leadership is hard.
