Jwerea Malik, a Business Analyst at Balfour Beatty, was awarded the Best Woman in Highways award at The European Women in Construction and Engineering (WICE) awards this week.
The WICE awards have been designed to find the most exemplary women in the industry, while breaking down barriers and encouraging companies to employ and train more women.
As well as attending numerous external speaking and networking events, Jwerea Malik is driving forward the Balfour Beatty Women in Business Allies Affinity network, helping to create a more inclusive environment for the company’s future pipeline of female employees. An active promoter of Health and Safety Initiatives, Jwerea was also recognised for her work to encourage the use of safe reporting resulting in a marked increase of safety observations.
Commenting after the awards, Jwerea said: “It is a real honour to be recognised at the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards. Improving diversity in our workforce is key for Balfour Beatty, and we are constantly seeking new ways to ensure our business fully reflects the society we serve.
“I understand the importance of providing guidance, mentoring and preparing young females for a career in engineering and construction. It gives me great joy to think that together, we can encourage more women to join the industry.”
This year, Balfour Beatty announced a range of initiatives to continue its drive to decrease the gender gap within the construction industry. The group has signed up to the Young Women’s Trust to help more women enter the industry by undertaking a construction apprenticeship and officially launched its Women in Business network to help the industry retain and develop its talent.
Since starting her career seven years ago, Jwerea has achieved a total of three awards for her work at Balfour Beatty and her overall contribution to the construction industry; including Young Achiever at the Solihull Chamber of Commerce awards and the Young Professional award at the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation.
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 30,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
Our main geographies are the UK, US and South East Asia. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Balfour Beatty is committed to creating an environment where all our employees can be themselves at work and perform at their best. As a global company, it is critical to our success that our employees are as diverse as the customers and communities we serve. In order to achieve this Balfour Beatty has taken the following action:
Establishing diversity as a key part of the company’s Build to Last transformation. The diversity and inclusion three-year plan sets out strategic aims, objectives and, more importantly, metrics in support of our endeavours. Overseen by Balfour Beatty Chief Executive Leo Quinn its progress against these metrics is regularly tracked.
Creating a range of national networks across the company to support BAME, Women and LGBTQ staff in creating a workplace that is more inclusive.
With the support of its customers, Balfour Beatty is recruiting from a large and more diverse pool of talent. For instance, in collaboration with Network Grid, our Power, Transmission and Distribution division provide opportunities for ex-offenders to get back into employment. Our Rail division support the British Forces Resettlement Services and its careers events, through advising service personnel on careers within the construction industry.
Working with expert diversity & inclusion focused bodies such as Stonewall and the Youth Women’s Trust to get guidance on how we can better improve our recruitment and workplace culture so that we can recruit and retain a talented and diverse workforce.
