Responsible employer

Our people are our greatest asset. It’s what we believe and show through the actions we take as a Group.

Our people’s wellbeing has never been more important, and we hold it at the same level of priority as health and safety at Kier. We engage with our people through our ‘Your Voice’ surveys, this enables us to understand what areas of focus are required to improve our people’s engagement and workplace wellbeing. The focus has been on inclusion within the workplace and the experiences of our degree students, apprentices, industrial placement students and graduates.

Employee wellbeing and engagement

Strategic objective

We will create a culture where our people are empowered and where positive mental, physical and financial wellbeing is proactively supported.

Why it is important

Safety is our licence to operate. We’re committed to investing in our people to create a positive safety culture where everyone feels trusted, empowered and acts with integrity. Engaging with our supply chain as a responsible contractor and delivering best in class service to our clients is vital.

The wellbeing of our people has never been more important. The challenges the world has faced in recent years have provided a sharper lens for Kier to view the importance of our greatest asset, our people.

Targets

Improved year-over-year safety, wellbeing and engagement;
and
At least 67% of our colleagues feel emotionally engaged
with Kier.

Expect Respect

At Kier, we believe everyone should expect respect. We have five behaviour basics that anyone working for us should follow. Here, our CEO Andrew Davies introduces what expect respect means to us, and our people show why it is important to them.

Apprenticeships

Kier delivers apprenticeships as a key means of upskilling our people and bringing in diverse emerging talent to reduce the skills gap in our industry. Around 6% of our current UK workforce are apprentices, with 50% of those being new recruits and 50% made up of existing employees upskilling through our management and digital apprenticeships.

We are a Gold member of the 5% Club, which supports training and development opportunities and commits its members to ensuring that 5% of their workforce are apprentices, graduates or sponsored students on training schemes.

6%

current workforce are apprenticeships

Protecting human rights

We are committed to protecting the human rights of all those we encounter in the course of our business and in the wider communities where we operate. This commitment influences how we do business, driving ethical behaviour through our policies, procedures and governance. Taking our responsibility to protect human rights seriously is the right thing to do for our people, for our customers, for our supply chain and for a strong, resilient business.

We have a number of policies which are designed to manage the risks relating to modern slavery and human trafficking, including our Operating Framework, Code of Conduct, Real Living Wage, Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy, Employee Handbook, Strategy for Responsible Procurement and Whistleblowing Policy.

Our modern slavery statement, which is available here, sets out where we are and what we have done to monitor and enhance the effectiveness of our actions against modern slavery and human trafficking.