TECHNICAL
© John O’Conner Grounds Maintenance
Women are the hidden pool of talent the landscape industry is crying out for
W
e face a crunch point in our industry. At a time of surging demand for good landscape contractors, our industry is facing a recruitment crisis, with lower numbers of new entrants to replace those retiring exacerbated by Brexit labour shortages.
And yet it feels as if we have not tapped into the most blindingly obvious resource: women. They may make up half of the population, but women account for just 11% of the construction sector workforce and 1% of those on site.
We’ve been talking about better representation for so long that I’m confident we all know the face of the industry must change. The landscape contractors we work with say they are desperate to employ more women and benefit from the skills and
Charlotte Harris doing what she loves best
40
LANDSCAPE NEWS SPRING 2021
Report by Charlotte Harris Co-director of Harris Bugg Studio experiences they bring. And of course, diversity extends way beyond gender, too. We all know the hard-nosed metrics - more diverse workplaces result in more profitable businesses. So what can we do? Organisations like the British Association of Landscape Industries have a golden moment, right now, to champion a new vision. A serious campaign of recruitment aimed at groups not traditionally represented in landscape construction gives us the greatest opportunity to inject new energies. It also helps educate the wider public that landscape construction is a relevant and respected choice for everyone, regardless of background. It is a career of skill and creativity, of attention to detail and achievement.
Getting that message into schools early - before GSCE choices demonstrates our industry offers fulfilling and meaningful career paths with a myriad of opportunities for women as well as men. We can all play our part in celebrating the richness of careers and opportunities, from project management and procurement through to the trades. Ours is a sector of huge versatility with an endless range of options to develop interests and specialisms.
‘Women Into Construction’ are a brilliant organisation with fantastic mentoring and support programmes; let’s work alongside them to roll out this success in landscape. And we also need to reach out to career changers - women and men - coming to us later in life. Landscape design is full of them; why shouldn’t construction be? Let’s have open, truthful discussions about the barriers - real or perceived - to women on site and then really commit to working hard to dismantle them. That includes addressing the assumption that work on site is just about physical strength; a misconception that diminishes the skill and craft of contractors as well as the abilities of women. Improving site facilities is a given. Making patterns of work more flexible and more family friendly is good for everyone, not just women.
By creating places that connect people to nature, our industry has demonstrated we have real impact on mental and physical wellbeing. Now more than ever, people are becoming attuned to the importance of landscape. If there’s a rallying moment for us to make meaningful change to the makeup of our workforce, surely it should be now. www.harrisbugg.com
