our people
We’re always striving to ensure that we do the very best for our employees. To be named as one of the UK’s top eight businesses for employee happiness and satisfaction is testament to our commitment to nurturing talent and providing people with the chance to achieve their full potential.”
Graeme Boylen, human resources director
Developing our people in a fair, safe and supportive environment is fundamental to the long-term success of our business. We want our people to feel proud of the work they do, to make the most of their career and development opportunities and feel that they are contributing to achieving our business goals.
Focusing on key issues such as learning and development, developing young people and fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce helps us retain the best people, drive commitment and innovation, and gives everyone who works for us the chance to fulfill their potential.
highlights
Dedicated training facility
Resourcing & Developing talent
In 2019, we established a new Talent and Resourcing Hub offering company wide support for employee recruitment. There are clear links between talent identification, succession planning and resourcing strategies. Tarmac will have a more aligned approach to ensure the business acquires and retains the critical skills needed in an ever changing employment market, at all levels of the organisation. We are looking at the way we recruit by changing the language we use when advertising vacancies to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to apply for our jobs if they have the right transferable skills, passion and values, not just direct experience.
Developing and investing in the our colleagues’ potential at all levels of our business is fundamental to Tarmac’s long term strategic growth. Whatever their starting point, we can help employees to fully develop their talents through learning and development programmes and work-based training. Tarmac has integrated apprenticeship standards within its learning and development strategy and these standards are utilised not only to bring in early careers talent but also to support career changes for new employees to our industry and upskill/reskill existing employees. The standards align with Tarmac’s ambitions through increasing the quality of apprenticeship programmes, to ensure they are relevant, robust and fit for purpose for developing high-level skills.
Developing young people
Our commitment to the development of young people is demonstrated by continuing to be an active member of the 5% Club. The 5% Club is a dynamic movement of employer-members working to create “earn and learn” skills training opportunities across the UK by driving the recruitment of apprentices, sponsored students and graduates. Members consist of large and small employers from a wide range of sectors who want to make a difference to people’s life choices and our shared prosperity as a nation competing in global markets.
Members aspire to achieve 5% of their workforce in ‘earn and learn’ positions (including apprentices, sponsored students and graduates on formalised training schemes) within five years of joining. Tarmac achieved 2.7% in 2019 which means we remain on track to hit 5% by the target date despite a reduction in numbers on previous years, due to issues associated with BREXIT. We have some excellent development programmes for our higher apprentices and graduate recruits, with a mixture of on-the-job development and off-site learning. Apprentices are provided with vocational qualifications to take on roles such as operatives and fitters, while some also work towards a degree. Graduates take on a variety of roles across the business including; technical graduate, graduate development surveyor and general management graduate.
Watch our video - 'Tarmac Operations Management Graduate, Building Products'
2019 saw the commissioning of our National Skills & Safety Park. This dedicated learning facility has been set up as part of an operational site allowing new operators to gain hands-on practical experience and training that relates to the different areas of our business. It is home to our operational onboarding, the professional operator development programme (an apprenticeship), maintenance and contractor road laying assessments and training in both technical skills and behavioural safety. All new starters in an operational role will be provided with a formal introduction to the business and essential new starter safety training at the park.
In 2019 we carried out our first ever Inclusion and Diversity survey to seek our employee’s views about what we do well and share ideas and opportunities for improvement. We were told that stronger people policies, management support and an open, positive attitude were priorities and so we are acting on these. Areas of focus include:
- Welfare Facilities: We are improving all our onsite welfare facilities, from wash rooms to accessibility and quiet spaces.
- Inclusion and Diversity Champions: We have also recruited 20 volunteer ‘inclusion and diversity champions’ who will promote Inclusion and Diversity across all part of our business. The champions will look for opportunities for us to improve, gather and share feedback on materials, and advise on changes that we have already made.
Integrating inclusion and diversity into our business strategy brings many benefits. An inclusive work environment helps motivate employees, improves staff retention and boosts creativity, which is a particular advantage when devising innovative solutions for our clients. To really make a difference we are taking some bold steps and recognise the importance of bringing our people on the journey with us. In 2019, we will be launching our ‘Proud to be Me’ campaign which will help raise awareness and encourage people to be proud of who they are and bring their real self to work.
We recognise that having an inclusive and diverse workforce is an important step to reducing the gender pay gap. It’s a fact that our sector is traditionally male dominated, so we continue to make sustainable long-term changes in our approach in order to recruit and retain women, while ensuring we continue to provide equal opportunities to all.
Every business with over 250 or more employees must produce a Gender Pay Gap Report, in line with Government requirements. Our 2019 report outlines what these figures mean and describes some of the actions we are taking to level the playing field. It is important not to underestimate the challenge we face to achieve this, but our commitment is clear. Our industry has historically attracted significantly more men than women to work within it. The pay gap is representative of this, and while we have continued to build on our recruitment practices and attracting more women to roles at all levels, from the board of directors to apprentices, tackling this issue is going to take time and there is no quick fix.
Women continue to be more likely to work part-time compared to male colleagues and this has a significant impact on the data. We also recognise we have too few women in senior roles, which contributes to the gender pay gap. You can see in the examples below the proactive steps we are taking to address this.
