Text version scenario

For long our industry has been male-dominated. And most of our tools and equipment have been designed to fit men. As a result, this excludes women from certain jobs and worksites because oversized equipment can cause safety issues.

We want everyone to feel included at Skanska, but a female client recently commented that when she visited a Skanska work site, the safety equipment was too large to fit her. Besides being unsafe, this made her feel as if she was not welcome and does not belong there.

How can we make changes to accommodate and include women on the worksites and maintain safety standards?

Discussion question

• Have you experienced a situation where someone has raised safety concerns that made them feel excluded?
• How did you approach it?
• What did you learn from it?

Things to consider

We can learn from these situations to help us truly live our values. We can consider the following actions:

• Discuss ways in which safety equipment and processes can accommodate everyone.
• Create relationships of mutual respect with all employees such that they feel empowered to speak up if they feel excluded.
• Discuss approaches to diversity issues so that we truly live our values.

For guidelines on this topic read our Code of Conduct chapter on Diversity and Inclusion.