IWD with Kelly White
10 Mar 2025After joining the industry by accident, Kelly White, Head of Bidding, shares how she has developed a passion for construction and become a fervent advocate for equity through our Affinity Networks.
Karen Brookes Director of People & Infrastructure - Sir Robert McAlpine
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my name is Karen Brooks
i'm the executive director for people
infrastructure
that's Sir Robert McAlpine first and
foremost i guess I'm a statutory
director
responsible for setting and delivering
the strategy along with my board
colleagues and
what does people in infrastructure do i
am accountable for the people agenda
for property and facilities management
so actually the work environment that
people
are working in and then marketing and
communication so how we actually engage
individuals and keep them motivated at
work
in terms of what is Sir Robert McAlpine
we're a business that's
150 years old we're a construction
company with a difference
in that we are a builder with real
engineering and technical services
expertise
and we're very much focused on building
Britain's future heritage
and i guess the thing that makes us
unique is our people
What do you think defines an organisation as a top employer today?
i think there are a number of things i
think firstly
i think the ability to be able to
clearly articulate
the direction of travel and the purpose
of the organisation i think is critical
in a
simple straightforward way i think
engaging your people and ensuring that
you're constantly asking them for their
input
and listening to what they've got to say
i think third for me
is the ability to innovate
to change to continuously improve
um clients and the relationship you have
with your clients
and more importantly in our sector
anyway the ability to attract
the the exciting complex projects
which ultimately people want to work
on whether they're current employees or
whether individuals who want to attract
and so i'd say they're probably
the key areas for me that i believe are
critical in terms of for us as employers
to get right
Tell us about a recent initiative that you have instigated within your organisation that you are most proud of?
for me i guess the word initiative
implies a one-off
and this definitely isn't that
it would be something called SRM pulse
which pardoned upon allows us to take
the pulse of the business
on a weekly basis so there is a survey
that goes around with four or five key
questions
and that will be around line management
quality
reward and recognition ability to be
able to do the job
workload etc and
through engaging with individuals
we're able to understand at grassroots
level what's going on
and the key themes we launched this at
the beginning of november 2019
and the key themes over the last eight
ten weeks has been
work environment actually some of our
project cabins
aren't as conducive to productive
working as they might be
um actually career paths and the ability
to map
out and so we've been able to come up
with some career mapping workshops
that we can do with individuals and then
the other areas around
the visibility of recognition and so
it's provide us with the opportunity
and to tangibly deal with some real
issues
uh and pragmatically come up with some
solutions so for me
it's a real game changer for someone
with alpine and definitely
moving forward we'll be using a lot more
What is the next objective in your organisation's journey to keep improving the employee experience?
i think the biggest challenge is the
fact that the world of
the world itself and the world of work
is constantly changing
you know so whether that be artificial
intelligence
modern methods of construction
modularization
robotics etc it's constantly changing
and
you know we need to ensure that we equip
our people to be able to deal with that
so
a big thing for us is about learning
uh and providing a method for people to
transfer knowledge to be able to learn
actually when they are able to be able
to learn so whether that's late at night
whether that's early in the morning
and so it's about introducing a new
learning management system
that enables all of that that has all of
the
internal filters to be able to share
learning
and knowledge instantly but also is
linked to the outside world in terms of
external feeds that enables you to get
the latest
if you're in the commercial community
the latest commercial information
and that you are able to particularize
it to your specific needs
How will your organisation have to adapt to meet the changing future workplace?
i think it would be important to ensure
that we have a very clear strategic
vision and that we are articulating a
simple straightforward way to our people
and i think being able to
educate our people in terms of
the different methods the the different
changes
in the workforce will be really
important
um coupled with making sure that we
continue to engage them constantly
and we listen to what they've got to say
and adapt and change as required
i think we ignore the workforce
and their views and opinions at our
peril i think
it's imperative you know that we we
continue to have that ongoing dialogue
with them
you
