“It is easy for the company to concentrate solely on its proclaimed activity, with little or no reference to the environment and society of which it forms a part. At Willmott we have, for a long time, recognised our responsibility to help wherever the advice or services our employees can be of use.”
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The quote comes from Willmott Dixon’s then chairman Peter Willmott in the 1978 annual report. Four decades later, his son Rick, the current group chief executive, reckons “those words pretty much sum up our philosophy today”.
He has plenty of evidence to prove that Willmott Dixon “walks the walk” – from training and developing staff and suppliers to social value programmes. But Willmott recognises these are fast-changing times for the industry. An ongoing digital transformation, ethics and professionalism in the spotlight, and then Brexit – however it plays out – which has put construction’s skills shortage into even sharper focus.
“Why would anyone join this industry given the Brexit uncertainty?” Willmott says. “At the moment, we feel an inability to influence anything because of the political situation which is very frustrating. It has become very difficult to track ministerial changes and the industry needs to lobby for a minister who can speak up for construction, at a time when we’re losing so many EU workers.”
“In the meantime, what we can do is try to set ourselves up in a way that we continue to attract people, customers and suppliers who will work with us.”
Rick Willmott on:
…Quality
“The cost of errors is high. If we could rid that from every part of the business, 5% margins are achievable.”
…Professionalism
“All members of our construction operations teams are encouraged to be CIOB members – that stamp of professionalism is a third-party assessment of an individual’s capability.”
That includes increasing diversity among its new recruits. The Willmott Dixon Group, which employs 2,500 people, has a set a target of being gender-neutral by 2030.
“Traditionally, we fish from a very male-dominated pool of individuals and we miss out on half the population,” says Willmott. “All the evidence shows, if you have a balanced scorecard on diversity, you perform better.”
He admits the target “has generated some interesting feedback”. “Male staff members were asking, ‘will we be positively discriminated against?’, and the females were saying, ‘are you dropping the bar on standards?’” Willmott says. “I said, ‘absolutely not’, to both questions.
“Our recruitment statistics show that 38% of male candidates are employed, and 35% of female candidates. So we’re not discriminating against anyone. But we need to get more women through the interview process.”
Currently, 25% of staff are female, though the firm had a 51% female management trainee intake in 2018, so the strategy is moving in the right direction.
Beyond traditional recruiting
Willmott Dixon has also started a returners programme, Welcome Back, which offers women a trial at the company, even if they lack industry experience. For its first intake, the company received over 100 applications, with four women picked for a 20-week paid placement, to finish later this month. Willmott says the company will use agile working, flexible working and “as much as tech as possible” to help the programme.
On the topic of technology, becoming more digitally enabled will also help draw recruits from beyond that traditional pool, Willmott believes. “There are two key points here,” he says. “Firstly, the millennial generation is obviously very digitally enabled, as well as caring more about issues like sustainable development. Secondly, there are huge productivity benefits to BIM – fewer clashes, better coordination, less wasted work.
“It is a big part of our training, because all our Scape work is at BIM Level 2, so 60% of our site workers will be working to that level.”
He points to the “BIM Cave” at the company’s Birmingham office, where the immersive environment allows Willmott Dixon to explain a building’s design and construction to customers or potential recruits, using 3D models and 280-degree videos.
“It is great for non-professionals who don’t understand 2D drawings, and can be really useful for clients – at the Menai Science Park project, we used our BIM model to help sell commercial space to tenants,” Willmott explains.
He expects data from finished projects to grow in importance: “We have developed our digital reporting tools so that every project we complete is reported in the same way, which makes it easier for ourselves and our customers to access and make use of all this data.”
Willmott Dixon has also encouraged its supply chain to come forward with digital ideas, which led to the current trial of an exoskeleton, provided by tech firm Ekso Bionics, on a site in Wales.
Supply chain relations
The company’s supply chain relations are strong, exemplified by its position at the head of the Build UK payment league, paying its suppliers more quickly than any other member.
