“What did you do over the weekend?” – a question we’ve all heard countless time at work. And, for most, it’s easy enough to answer. “I went for dinner with my husband” or “I went to my local pub”.

But research shows that over half of LGBTQ+ people don’t feel comfortable being open about their sexuality when working on a construction site.

This means, that the simple question of what you did over the weekend, becomes a mental workout. Making sure nothing gives away that you were with your same sex partner or out with friends on Canal Street. This is not only exhausting but makes our people withdraw, stopping them from achieving their full potential. Every single person has the right to bring their whole self to work, and have the same conversations as everyone else without feeling shame or fear of abuse.

Our Proud@BAM Network was set up in 2017 to support our LGBTQ+ colleagues and I have had the honour of being the BAM Nuttall leadership team sponsor of this group. They have held support sessions, run training and organised our attendance of Pride events up and down the country. This increased visibility of LGBTQ+ support and a focus on learning has shifted and continues to evolve our culture.
The pandemic affected the lives of everyone, but in particular placed additional burdens on the LGBT+ community - with LGBTQ+ charities even advising young people to “press pause” on coming out. I’m pleased to say that this only drove Proud@BAM to provide even more support – ensuring their events continued virtually – including the ability to join completely anonymously, evading the need for someone to “out themselves”.

Allies are the most powerful tool to progress and we want to make sure we give our people as many opportunities as possible to be them. Knowing that a lack of education and knowledge is the biggest blocker to allyship, we hosted Ask Anything Anonymously sessions - allowing our colleagues to bring the questions they don’t know how or who to ask. We want to breed a culture in which people aren’t embarrassed of not knowing something and strive to learn more. During lockdown, when social isolation put a lot of us into digital echo chambers this was even more important.

While I’m incredibly proud of what this group has done and achieved, it is, and can only be, the start of what we do – and this must be cross- industry. We all need to work together to improve not only the reputation of our sector but the reality. We know that we face a skills shortage and this, alongside the need for innovation and new ways of doing things means we require the different thoughts and approaches that comes with the employment of those from diverse backgrounds, and the range of experiences which that brings.

We are an industry which leads in so many ways. We are constantly pushing for innovation, and better, more efficient ways of doing things. We are an industry that creates vital infrastructure for the world, builds bridges with a 3D printers, and monitors the health of our people with wearable technology but our sector continuously under-performs when it comes to diverse employment.

This pride month, let’s re-focus on the needs of our LGBTQ+ colleagues. Let’s try and learn something about the community that we don’t know. And let’s make sure that 100% of our colleagues, across the industry, are comfortable bringing their whole selves to work on any construction site in this country.