Skanska has been recognized in the prestigious “World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies in 2021” ranking published by Forbes. The company was ranked 4th out of 300 other candidates on the list and at the same time achieved the best results among real estate representatives.
The “World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies” inaugural list was developed by Forbes in cooperation with research company Statista. Its aim was to identify the companies that stand out in terms of supporting women both inside and outside their workplace. The ranking was compiled by surveying 85,000 women in 40 countries who were invited to evaluate, among other items, criteria such as pay equity and parental leave. Leadership and company structure was also taken into consideration. Moreover, the participants were asked about the employer’s performance across a series of gender-related topics and ways of promoting equality. The survey was conducted anonymously through online panels.
“At Skanska we have always been focused on creating a welcoming, supportive company culture and ensuring our employees feel safe and are treated equally in every respect. Providing a diverse and inclusive workplace environment is among our top priorities. One way in which we have done this is to close the gender pay gap in our Skanska office business unit in the CEE region. We also strive to ensure proper representation of genders in all levels and departments – when it comes to our business unit, we pay particular attention to balancing out gender proportions in the fields of engineering and finance, which is not that common in these traditionally male dominated industries. However, we are aware that this is a long journey and there are still some aspects that need to be developed. That is why we continue to improve further to make our company an even better place for all employees” – says Karolina Radziszewska, Executive Vice President Human Resources at Skanska’s commercial development business unit in CEE.
“At Skanska we support women in their personal and professional development, e.g. through involvement in mentoring programs. The fact that we have been recognized as being among the world’s top four companies in this regard is yet further inspiration to pursue our efforts directed at providing a workplace based on respect and equality, where everyone feels safe to be truly herself or himself” – Karolina Radziszewska adds.
Skanska is involved in various initiatives in terms of creating healthy and inclusive working conditions for all of its employees. Diversity and inclusion is one of the most important pillars of Skanska’s culture. This year we conducted a series of training sessions to develop leadership skills among our employees within Skanska office business unit in CEE. We equipped our employees with knowledge and experience that will allow them to manage their teams effectively regardless of how diverse in terms of sexual orientation, age, gender, physical fitness, race, religion, or origin the members of such teams are. What is more, the company regularly organizes satisfaction surveys in which one of important points of analysis is connected with the way that women and men perceive their working environment, thus searching for areas of further development. Another example of Skanska’s approach is the fact that male employees are granted two additional weeks of paternal leave, which is still not standard in the market.