The adoption of positive workplace practices is delivering substantial benefits on major construction projects, a webinar has heard.

Hosted by the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (CICT), the webinar shared research findings and insights/experiences from pilot projects which have applied the Culture Standard.

Set in development since 2018, the Culture Standard aims to boost performance of the construction industry and to address critical workplace issues such as excessive work hours and fatigue, poor mental health and failure to attract a diverse workforce.

It is being developed by the CICT, which comprises of the NSW and Victorian Government, Australian Constructors Association (ACA) and leading workplace researchers.

The Standard offers flexibility in how it can be applied on projects.

However, core elements include:

• time for life, including maximum 50-hour working weeks and flexible working arrangements
• promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of the workforce by assessing and managing health risks and implementing strategies to promote wellbeing; and
• improving the diversity of the construction workforce by ensuring that everyone feels welcome on site, suitable amenities are provided and gaps in pay and representation are addressed.

The standard is being piloted on five projects, which span across civil infrastructure and public buildings.

Results and outcomes are being analysed by a multi-institutional research team. This is being led by RMIT and includes the University of Sydney, Frontier Economics and Australian National University.

The research is being conducted via surveys and interviews which have been undertaken at multiple project points.

An interim report was published earlier this year. A final report is currently being prepared and will be published next year.

According to Professor Michelle Turner from the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT, results to-date have been broadly positive notwithstanding that ongoing challenges have been observed (see below).

For example:

• Many workers surveyed indicate that they appreciate the benefits of a five-day working week as this has given them two consecutive days rest and time with family and friends.
• Practices such as leaving at 4pm to pick up school kids have been normalised by senior leaders on some projects. This has set the culture whereby other workers are now seeing that this is Ok.
• Women who worked on projects have generally reported feeling well respected (however, see challenges section) and projects were generally well provided for in terms of facilities.
• Women have felt encouraged to see other women in leadership roles – something which has helped to demonstrate to many of the women involved that there may be a career path in construction for them.

Experience on Projects

As part of the webinar, experiences on several projects were shared.

These are outlined below.

1. Sydney Children’s Hospital Project Stage 1 and Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre

One pilot project is the $658 million Sydney Children’s Hospital Project Stage 1 and Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

This is being delivered by John Holland for clients Health Infrastructure NSW and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network.

Set for completion late next year, the project will deliver a new hospital and research centre on the site of the Randwick Health Innovation Precinct in Sydney’s east.

Construction commenced in September 2022. Topping out occurred in April.

The project involved a peak workforce of 550. Of these, 60 were direct employees of John Holland.

Experiences on this project were shared by Lizzie Cox, Project Director at John Holland.

Initiatives included:

• A five-day working week (Monday to Friday).
• Reduced work hours and enactment of working arrangement flexibility (early starts/finishes, half days off, time in lieu).
• Health related initiatives such as skin checks, hearing checks, vaccinations, healthy food options and vending machines, on-site wellbeing champions with mental health training and improved site amenity where possible (subject to site constrains)
• Commitments of at least three percent female workforce participation for trades in general and four-percent female participation in ‘non-traditional’ trades (trades which fall outside categories such as traffic control where female participation is particularly high). This exceeded NSW Government minimum requirements of two and three percent female participation on government projects for trades in general and non-traditional trades respectively.
• A female participation advisor (funded by the Department of Education) to run initiatives such as subcontractor forums to increase buy-in and partnerships with schools, universities, employment agencies and TAFE courses.
• On-site team building activities which included subcontractors, clients and stakeholders. This includes raising more than $150,000 for charity and having representatives from the Sydney Children’s Hospital and the Sydney Cancer Institute come onsite and highlight the importance of the building which is being delivered.

To measure outcomes, two worker surveys were conducted. These were undertaken near the beginning of the project in August last year and subsequently in February this year.

Results included:

• a 15 percent increase in satisfaction regarding work-life balance (over the time from the first survey at the beginning of the project to the second survey in February)
• an 8 percent improvement in the number of workers who felt that they were able to manage their commitments outside of work
• reductions in the number of people working more than 50 hours per week from 36 percent to 12 percent along with a reduction in numbers who worked more than 55 hours per week from 17 percent to 7 percent
• increased female participation from 3 percent to 6.5 percent in trades overall and from 4 percent to 8.3 percent in non-traditional trades
• workers feeling more optimistic, productive, relaxed and better able to address challenges; and
• women noticing improvements in terms of behaviour and respect from male colleagues.

These results were achieved despite the second survey being undertaken at a time when the project was ramping up and project pressures were intensifying.

Outcomes were particularly noticeable in serval areas.

With reduced hours, participants came to work feeling more rested, having greater energy levels, being more productive and enjoying better working relationships.

The five-day week and working hour flexibility were particularly appreciated. This enabled workers to participate in activities with family and friends on the weekend or to take a half day off to attend children’s soccer on Wednesday afternoon.

Increasing female participation on site has prompted a greater number of men to take time off work in order to attend to family commitments.

Finally, the team building exercises helped to create more of a purpose and a drive to succeed, generate team camaraderie and reinforce corporate values.

2. Brunt Road Level Crossing Removal Project

The next highlighted project was the $60 million Brunt Road Level Crossing Removal Project in Beaconsfield in Melbourne’s outer south-east.

This is being delivered by an alliance comprising Fulton Hogan Construction, Metro Trains Melbourne and the Level Crossing Removal Project under the banner of the Metropolitan Roads Program Alliance. It is being delivered via a design and construct contract.

The project involves construction of a new two-span road bridge to go over the railways line; new paths to provide a direct link to local schools, shops and services on either side of the rail line; and landscaping works including the planting of more than 50,000 plants, shrubs and grasses.

This was presented by Fulton Hogan’s Dean Riha, who until last month was the General Manger for the Alliance and is now Fulton Hogan’s National Manager Civil Operations.

Originally set for removal in 2025, the level crossing was removed one year ahead of schedule in April 2024. The project team is now in the process of completing final footpath works, packing up site offices and moving out.

During his presentation, Riha focused predominately upon time for life initiatives.

Initiatives in this area included:

• A working hour cap of 50 hours per week, consistent with the Standard. This was adjusted from a previous weekly working hour cap of 55 hours that had been applied at the Alliance prior to adoption of the standard.
• Tracking of hours worked by white collar staff, with direct managers being alerted where actual work hours exceed maximums by five hours or more and investigations being undertaken to determine causes and supports that may be needed in cases where individuals are consistently exceeding maximum hours. (In the case of blue collar workers, tracking of hours is not necessary as the company already had systems and procedures around blue-collar operations.)
• A new two-week working schedule. The first week saw workers operating on five days from Monday to Friday. Workers would then have a rostered day off (RDO) on the following Monday before working from Tuesday to Saturday in week 2. This contrasts with a traditional working arrangement in Victoria involving six days per week on Monday to Saturday with a rostered day off (RDO) every second Monday.
• Maintenance of existing flexibility arrangements as well as allowing those who typically worked on a Monday to Friday (in roles such as accounts payable, for example) to continue to do so. Where sites were closed during RDOs, these workers were given the option to work either from the head office or from home.

To measure results, four rounds of interviews and reporting were undertaken.

Significant outcomes included:

• All project deadlines and budgets have been achieved.
• Without exception, all staff who were surveyed indicated that they preferred the five-day working week as opposed to their previous normal construction arrangements.
• Improvement in wellbeing and diversity
• A reduction in the number of people working more than 50 hours per week from 20 percent in 2021 to four percent in 2023 along with a further reduction in the number of people working more than 60 hours per week from four percent to zero over that time.
• An increase in the proportion of staff who feel that they are able to arrange time away from work where needed from 82 percent in 2021 to 89 percent in 2023 – exceeding the industry average of 83 percent.
• Female representation of 21 percent across the entire project and 8 percent on site. This exceeded industry norms of around 12 to 14 percent overall and only 2-3 percent on site.

According to Riha, the changes to work hours were made without significant impact on worker earnings or productivity.

Compared with business as usual, blue-collar workers lost only 70 hours’ worth of pay annually and were working 21 days less each year to achieve more or less the same amount of pay.

Meanwhile, the project team lost only around 30 hours’ worth of productivity each year.

3. Mulgoa Road Project west of Sydney (client viewpoint)

Speaking from a client perspective, Brett Martin, Project Director Mulgoa Road at Transport for NSW (TfNSW), shared briefly about the experience of the Standard being applied on the $218 million upgrade of Mulgoa Road between Jeanette Street in Regentville and Blaikie Road in Jamisontown in Sydney’s west.

This is being delivered by the Mulgoa Road Upgrade Alliance involving TfNSW along with Seymor Whyte and Turnbull Engineering.

After an eighteen-month period of setting up and relocating utilities, the project is now moving into the process of laying pavement.

According to Martin, application of the standard on site has delivered significant benefits.

These include new people feeling valued and welcomed; greater commitment to overall outcomes; low project turnover; simpler integration between client and contractor workforces (as a result of 50-hour work weeks); cleaner sites in which workers are taking pride; and more people taking parental leave (paternity as well as maternity).

Not without challenge

Of course, challenges have been evident.

Speaking of John Holland’s experience on the Sydney Children’s Hospital project, Cox said that some participants reported a loss in personal income that was associated with the five-day workweek. Meanwhile, others were found to accept work on other jobs on weekends. This negated the idea of having weekends off.

On occasions where out of hours work was needed in order to achieve critical milestones, meanwhile, finding people to work on Saturdays was difficult due to commitments that workers had made on that day. Even when offered time off in lieu, many workers did not particularly want to work during the weekend.

In regard to gender diversity, Cox noted that finding a sufficient number of women to fill the roles was difficult in some trade categories.

At a broader level, Turner said that some forms of offensive banter remained on sit. However, many women put up with this as they did not feel comfortable in reporting it.

Even with the reduced working hours, long hours on Monday to Friday at one site were seen as an impediment to women’s workforce participation as these do not allow workers to attend to tasks such as child school drop-offs and pickups.

Communication is Key to Success

Speaking again of her experience at John Holland, Cox said that effective communication was essential in successful implantation of the initiatives in terms of explaining what was happening and what the company wished to achieve.

This includes communication with individual workers, senior management, internal management, subcontractors and clients.

Mad if we don’t get on board

Overall, Riha says that principles of the Culture Standard should be applied across all projects.

“We are mad if we don’t get on board,” he said.

“We get a better culture and those three pillars of time for life, better wellbeing and better diversity and inclusion – who doesn’t want that?

“I don’t see why we can’t just roll this culture standard out across every single project.”

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