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It was inspirational last week to read about how Golding Homes have helped diversify their repairs and maintenance team by achieving 23% female representation.
To put this in perspective, social housing staff comprise over 57% females. Overly male representation is common for me to see in teams for assets and maintenance, as it is in the ICT and systems team, I have written previously about this phenomena, which hasn't really improved in many areas.
In a previous life on the supplier dark side, I worked with two excellent female development managers, overseeing twenty-odd developers, as well as in other sectors having some brilliant lady bosses myself in ICT. Closing the door to about half of the labour force can only hold us back, its not just a diversity tick box approach we need.
The Chief Executive at Golding is Stephanie Goad. While females at the top are more often than not the norm these days, the same cannot be generally said in R&M. Why exactly is that then? Well, I would point to the common practice of promoting operatives ‘good on the tools, electricians, plumbers etc’, up to management. With less than 2% of those on the tools being women, you can see the source of the problem. A report was put together (and forwarded by Alison Inman) by Mears back in 2017, that examined why we see that pathetic 2%. Its fair to say that across the whole sector, 13% or so of staff in construction are estimated to be female. Many of these are in project management and design roles, as well as admin.
There are excellent business cases for levelling that up, as many Social Housing managers agree. CEO's clearly would need to drive this from the very top. Tenants who may feel vulnerable with tradesmen due to factors such as prior domestic abuse, or for religious reasons would certainly I'm sure welcome a gas service from a female operative. Why shouldn't our staff properly reflect the demographic of our tenants? Progress is slow, so what are the barriers to females getting on the tools and improving gender balance from bottom up?
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| A lesser-spotted female trades-person on the tools |
Some job stereotyping is still occurring in families, secondary school, college and apprenticeship education, often pushing girls to more admin based than practical and technical vocations. Budget cuts do not help, nor does the current qualification system. Equal pay and equivalent access to promotion/career path is also important. Good support and mentoring is key, as is the development of strong role models for support.
While the traditional path to management clearly needs some attention, as mentioned in the article, Golding Homes have clearly worked to bring in managers from various sources, enriching the team with new skills. These include empathy, soft and customer service skills, which will be as essential as ‘wet trades’, in dealing with the current recent focus on mould and damp.
I have seen this approach myself work well and I have worked on some excellent projects with some housing, but out of R&M sector, female managers, who have absolutely transformed/turned around Asset Management and Repairs teams. Respect from staff they were managing, always was high and generally those managers were very detailed in their approach.
Another pathway I have seen in many projects, is the where female asset & R&M admin staff can be encouraged to train, take external courses and migrate into roles around survey, servicing, asbestos, compliance and data analysis. This can create a new positive dynamic within the team, if a genuine atmosphere of mentoring and support can be provided. These staff can then be positive role models to others joining the organisation.
For sure Golding Homes are a great example to the sector, credit deserved. But there is much to do and even if many of the principles and ideas I have covered here are faithfully executed, I still feel we are decades away from a more gender balanced workforce. With overall a better balance across the whole workforce, we stand a better chance of improving service, hence image and actually addressing more tenant repair issues, correctly first time.
Related Post: Integrate your stock condition surveys into your HMS data
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Otha - One of the Girls.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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