Why is it so important for Costain to proactively attract a new generation of talent?

About 3,500 people work directly for us, but on any given day within our entire supply chain that goes up to 14,000. And we have seen, through the National Infrastructure Commission, that there is going to be a huge investment in the markets in which we are operating over the next ten years, meaning there is an equally huge demand for skills—in an industry in which there is a current shortage.

That’s why it’s so important that we look at where we’re going to get the skills from, including early careers, so there’s enough supply to meet demand.

So, how are you building a healthy supply of (early careers) talent?

It's about broadening the pool of where we're looking for talent, increasingly doing a lot of work around school engagement, with colleges and university technical colleges, and with universities.

We’re looking at what young people want from their organisations. At Costain, we are a purpose-led organisation increasingly hearing that people want to work for companies that are doing meaningful work. So, that’s how we talk about ourselves, about the industry and the value it can create, about what we believe in, and about how we go to work from a responsible business perspective.

There is an age-old issue of a high volume of people going into STEM subjects, but a much smaller volume going into construction or engineering. It’s up to us to show it’s an exciting place to be, with lots of opportunities for career growth and purposeful, meaningful work.

How do you show employees that it’s a place for them to grow their careers?

By creating a network of graduates and early careers with accessibility to managers and leaders within the business. We are very visible with our early careers pipeline, promoting that we want people to experience different sectors and build their careers at Costain, rather than feeling like they have to leave our organisation just because they want to try something different.

I'm hugely lucky. I've had about five different careers, all within the past 18 years at Costain. I joined as an environmental advisor then went into corporate responsibility; I've worked in communications; I've worked in investor relations; and then in learning and development corporate responsibility and in HR before joining the executive board.

Costain invests significantly in development programs for people to allow them to progress. Those exciting opportunities are hugely important for our grads and apprentices.

What are the core challenges you’ve come up against in engaging and retaining a diverse workforce?

We want to make sure Costain is a great and inclusive place to work for everybody – we bedded it into our core values and behaviours during a recent refresh – making sure that people feel that they are included, they're valued, respected, and able to be themselves.

We've got six thriving employee networks that all have an executive sponsor – I’m the sponsor for our LGBT+ network – and we make sure issues raised in those networks result in making Costain a more inclusive place to work.

For example, our women's network helped us create Costain’s ‘Empower Programme,’ a development programme for women within the organisation to give them the tools and confidence to focus on their career development and thrive professionally.