The Better Hiring Institute has launched a free-to-use industry best practice Better Hiring Toolkit to help tackle modern slavery and boost recruitment in the construction sector
The new Better Hiring Toolkit provides practical, simplified guidance to support construction businesses with hiring new employees by utilising UK best practice.
Advice is also provided on identifying modern slavery and hiring prison leavers
The Better Hiring Toolkit provides advice on vetting potential new recruits including checking and verifying their qualifications, as well as information for employers on their obligations when it comes to issues like the validity of CSCS cards and modern slavery, which is sadly still rife across the construction sector.
It also includes insights from a recent CIOB report into the employment of people with criminal convictions, which highlighted some of the barriers prison leavers in particular, face when trying to enter the sector.
Caroline Gumble, CEO at CIOB, said: “In terms of the skills shortage, my hope is that this toolkit can encourage more recruitment from a wider range of communities, including those often overlooked, such as ex-offenders, and potentially improve the retention of skilled and talented people. In this important industry, an initiative to encourage fairer and more efficient hiring, helping to bring people into the sector, is to be welcomed.”
Multiple industry bodies have collaborated on the Better Hiring Toolkit
With construction at the heart of many of the Labour government’s plans, including the development of 1.5m new homes, the BHI has collaboratively created the toolkit with experts at the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS), and Reed Screening to improve hiring.
Helen Chandler, acting associate director of business development for the Disclosure and Barring Service, said: “The Disclosure and Barring Service helps employers make safer recruitment decisions, and our collaboration with Better Hiring Institute represents important steps forward in supporting the construction industry in safeguarding best practice. We’re pleased to be supporting the development of the free toolkit to ensure that recruitment across the sector is more effective and better informed.”
Elysia McCaffrey, CEO at the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, said: “Our mission is to stop the exploitation of workers in the UK and to ensure employers treat them fairly. The Construction Better Hiring Toolkit, produced by The Better Hiring Institute, is a fantastic demonstration of how partnerships can contribute to intuitive products, designed to prevent worker abuse. I am delighted we were invited to participate in the development of this toolkit.
“By sharing guidance to support organisations to benchmark their onboarding processes, the whole industry has access to the tools available to ensure fairer and safer recruitment processes. Workers can be reassured that they will be treated equally and fairly.”
The construction industry is encouraged to share the free toolkit
Keith Rosser, chair of the Better Hiring Institute said:”In helping 1.5m houses to be built across the UK this will contribute to economic growth and better opportunities for everyone. I encourage all employers in the Construction sector and more widely to sign up to the Better Hiring Charter to help them stand out as a better employer.”
Those responsible for recruitment within construction organisations are being urged to download, implement and share the Toolkit within the hiring community. If you would like to join the BHI Construction sector subcommittee group and shape the future of hiring in the sector, you can join here.
