As a values-driven, people-orientated, progressive organisation, we believe that by creating an environment in which everyone feels valued as an individual and is motivated to give their best, we create stronger, more well-balanced teams.

Policies and management

We focus on strong leadership, proactive and inclusive resourcing, talent development and effective reward and recognition.

Our Resourcing Policy sets out a framework for the recruitment and selection of employees with the right values, behaviours, mix of skills and experience to support business activities. It is underpinned by our Leadership Framework outlines what leadership looks like to us and the capabilities that it comprises, and our Code of Conduct which defines the behaviours we expect and the ethical standards we adhere to.

We celebrate difference and promote inclusivity believing that diversity of thought, approaches and experiences enrich our culture as a business, as set out in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy.

Above all, our policies encourage behaving with integrity, and in an honest and fair way.

We make all of our people aware of our policies on joining, within contracts of employment, inductions and new starter packs, and make the policies available through our BMS and intranet. Any new or updated policies are communicated through news alerts. We also mandate training on key themes such as diversity, discrimination, modern slavery, GDPR, anti-bribery and corruption and cyber security.

Employee engagement such as that through surveys and our Employee Forum provide an effective communication channel between our people and the Board, strengthening voice at Board level and ensuring their feedback shapes the way we work.

Ensuring compliance

Our people can raise issues of non-compliance with their line manager or Human Resources (HR). We also have an independent whistleblowing line, which allows individuals to report concerns anonymously. An authority and approvals matrix gives HR and senior management sight of offers of employment and other areas requiring approvals, such as expenses claims. HR input into disciplinary, grievance or redundancy situations ensures that managers follow the appropriate policies. Completion of mandatory training modules is monitored weekly and followed up where needed.

1  We have revised the methodology used to calculate our early careers numbers to align to the methodology used by The 5% Club, of which we are a Platinum member. This now includes sponsored students on work placements as well as graduates, apprentices and trainees as at 31 July for the respective year. Historic numbers have been restated to reflect this.

Performance

Employee advocacy

Employee advocacy is a powerful indicator of how engaged employees are, measuring how likely they are to recommend our business as a great place to work.

In our 2024 employee survey, we achieved an employee advocacy score of 87% compared to a sector average of 75%. Our employee engagement score, which is made up of a number of factors including motivation, commitment to our vision and pride in the company, was also above the sector average at 74% compared to 66% for the construction sector and 65% for UK companies.

Analysis by CultureAmp, our survey provider, indicates that our people feel “valued, respected, and supported” by colleagues and managers. This result has been achieved against two years of a downward trend across the UK for both participation and engagement levels, and what has been described as a “turbulent” period for UK employees.

Early careers

Early careers roles (apprentices, trainees, graduates and sponsored students) remain a key area of focus for both retention and recruitment as these roles help us to grow our own talent, shape our leaders and influence the skill sets and composition of our future workforce, including diversity.

·       We grew our early careers roles from 10.0% to 10.2% of our workforce.

·       We were voted the number one place for apprentices to work and number two for graduates in TheJobCrowd’s list of Top Construction and Civil Engineering Companies. In addition, Galliford Try ranked seventh for apprentices and 26th for graduates UK-wide out of more than 600 companies across all sectors.

·       We were among 20 companies out of a total of 600 to be awarded the new Platinum membership of The 5% Club’s Employer Audit Scheme in its first year of introduction. Platinum members are participants who have achieved Gold Membership for three consecutive years, and who in their third year have 10% or more staff members in ‘earning and learning’ roles such as apprenticeships, graduate schemes, sponsored students on work placements or those studying for qualifications

Gender diversity

Employing more women in our business is key to accessing diverse skills and talent.

·       In FY24, the proportion of females across Galliford Try increased slightly to 22.5% from 21.6% last year.

·       We use the voices and stories of women in our business to provide role models both in our business and beyond. In 2024, we held a podcast with three senior women, who make up 40% of our Infrastructure Leadership Team, talking frankly about their wide and varied experience, including their different routes into construction, the challenges women face in the sector, and the progress the industry is making in being more inclusive.

·       We launched a pilot programme titled ‘Mentoring the Next Generation’ specifically to spark an interest in the construction industry for young women in education, their parents, carers and teachers. Five schools and circa 50 individuals have signed up for the first year.

·       Since 2020, we have reduced our mean gender pay gap from 28.8% to 22.5%, and our median gender pay gap from 32.2% to 25.8%.

·       To further help women establish long-term, flexible careers with us, we have commenced research into the barriers to career progression for women across all industries, the specific barriers for women in operational roles in construction, the stages of women’s careers these derailers take impact, and the areas we need to target to make progress within our own business.

Learning and development

We use the 70:20:10 learning model, based on the principle that 70% of learning happens through on-the-job experience, 20% is learning from others and 10% of learning happens via formal training experiences.

Our approach is delivered through the GT Academy, a platform that brings together resources, training and guidance with our own structured programmes and extensively developed Career Paths that define the core learning needed for various roles and the path to get there.

We have redefined our career development proposition to enable us to establish a learning culture, ‘Careers without Compromise’, across Galliford Try. Training materials have been developed for both our line managers and employees to encourage and support them to achieve better career outcomes through active management of their careers.

In FY 2024 we delivered 19,935 training days during the year (2023: 13,528), equivalent to 4.8 days per employee (2023: 3.6).

Promoting an inclusive culture

Our ED&I team is working with The Clear Company, a global diversity and inclusion specialist, so that we continue to embed the most inclusive practices across our organisation on the back of our accreditation to their Bronze level in our first ever EDI review in 2023.

Key developments in this area are the design and commencement of Inclusive Leadership awareness sessions, which aim to equip senior management with knowledge of how EDI influences business performance, and provide them with skills to progress a culture of inclusion that contributes to high performance.

We have reviewed and enhanced our family-friendly offering (maternity and paternity pay) to ensure we deliver on our promise to be a progressive, people-orientated, inclusive employer and continue to offer a competitive benefits package. Enhancing these benefits is likely to have a positive impact on our ability to retain and gain women.

We also continued our series of education with in-depth interviews with minority communities covering topics including Pride and disability awareness.

We continue to promote our agile and flexible working practices, which are attractive to people with different needs and support inclusion, offering flexibility to suit individual needs including staggered start and finish times, job shares, compressed hours, sabbaticals and return to work programmes as well as remote working.