Murphy is delighted to announce it has won the Best Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative Award at the 2024 CIPD People Management Awards. The award was in recognition of our people strategy, where Murphy is committed to championing inclusion and creating a workplace where everyone feels secure and comfortable to be themselves. Our holistic EDI programme was described by the judges as having an; “Excellent alignment of objectives, initiatives, annual targets and measurements to strategic goals. Born out of a skills shortage in the construction and engineering sector, we were impressed with Murphy’s aim to “improve life” for both current and future employees and the communities in which they work.” Our work in this space includes: In 2023, Murphy became the founding member of the first National Prison Employment Advisory Board, a unique initiative offering prison leavers a journey into employment. This employment model received recognition in parliament and is now being replicated in 91 prisons across the UK. Murphy also became the first company in the sector to adopt the Ambitious about Autism programme, creating long-term employment for neurodiverse candidates. We also partnered with the Home Office to create a scheme that helps refugees settle into their new lives and find meaningful work. The refugee programme was featured in the national press and created more than 100 job opportunities. In addition, all job advertisements went through gender-neutral language screening to ensure they were accessible to all candidates. Murphy also rolled out an in-house BIG Inclusion programme to bring employees together at all levels to have open discussions about equality, diversity and inclusion. Now, 24.37 per cent of teams are from underrepresented groups, which the judges noted was challenging given the firm had a starting point of less than 10 per cent at the end of 2020. The judges were also impressed by the plans Murphy has implemented to ‘Continually Improve’ and build on its successes, for example, the £40m training facility at Ollerton, “which will help the local community by investing in skills and boosting employment”.
