Laing O’Rourke Australia once again recognised as employer of choice for gender equality

Laing O’Rourke Australia has retained the prestigious Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation.

This is the second consecutive EOCGE awarded to Laing O’Rourke Australia, having met a rigorous set of requirements, and demonstrating a visible commitment to gender equality as a strategic imperative for the business. 

Managing Director, Cathal O’Rourke said “I am thrilled Laing O’Rourke has once again received this citation. We set ourselves ambitious targets to ensure the number of men and women employed in our international operations are equal by 2033 and our Gender Diversity Action Plan  holds us to account throughout the journey.”

Laing O’Rourke has implemented several processes, polices and initiatives to achieve gender equality across the organisation, including:

• Pay parity across all like-for-like roles in the organisation, as well as a commitment to continue to lessen the organisational wide pay gap by 5% per year by increasing the number of women in senior roles;
• A paid parental leave policy providing both male and female employees with access to 26 weeks of paid leave (with no eligibility period);
• Superannuation paid on both paid and unpaid parental leave;
• Flexible work programs, including a flexibility toolkit and flexible work practices training for all people managers to enable our people to think differently about the way we go to work and redesign the outdated work practices inherent with the construction industry;
• Inspiring STEM+ - a school engagement program designed to encourage more girls into STEM courses at university and ultimately careers in construction and engineering;
• Implementing a sponsorship program “Cultivate Sponsorship”, matching our senior operational women to Executive Sponsors, aimed at increasing promotional opportunities for our senior women; and
• A Connecting Women network designed to build engagement and greater visibility of our female leaders and to provide a forum for connecting our women, role modelling careers, and building new networks for support and advice.

As a result of these commitments, Laing O’Rourke is delivering some great outcomes. The business has increased overall female participation from 26% to 34% over the last 3.5 years and increased the number of women in senior leadership roles on projects from 11% to 19%, meaning now, if you work on a project, there is double the chance you are reporting to a female manager on site than four years ago.

“We celebrate this significant recognition from WGEA and the great progress we have made, while recognising there is a lot more work to do in driving and accelerating meaningful change to improve outcomes for women and men in Australian workplaces,” Mr O’Rourke said.