Structural Integrity

Activity has remained hearty at Hillsboroughbased construction behemoth, GRAHAM, despite the backdrop of a pandemic and Brexit. Here John McDonald, managing director of the company’s investment projects, talks about why the development of its people and a strong CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) proposition are pivotal to its continued success.

With a turnover of £800m in 2020, the workload of GRAHAM has evidently been buoyant.

From Aberdeen to London and across virtually every sector, the business has been making its mark during an unforgiving climate for many industries.

From the £135m A6 dualling scheme in NI to a £160m acute healthcare project in Aberdeen (The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre), situated in Europe’s largest healthcare campus, plus the £106m Port of Tilbury expansion along with an influx of schemes within the fast-emerging build-to-rent sector, the company has been kept extremely busy.

It is also actively participating in a range of major frameworks, including ProCure22 (P22), a construction procurement framework administered by NHS England and NHS Improvement for the development and delivery of NHS and social care capital schemes in England.

Its pipeline of work is equally as impressive.

“Using clear procedures, and through the adoption of stringent health and safety processes, we were able to continue to operate safely during the pandemic, keeping our 2,000-strong workforce safe and healthy while simultaneously ensuring that we continued to meet the objectives of our clients and partners,” John begins.

“I would say the construction industry has been a real driving force for the economy throughout COVID-19.”

The construction industry believes the pandemic could mark its reinvention and allow for a renewed focus on modern methods of construction, off-site advanced manufacturing and productivity. It could also accelerate the pace of change in the wider economy as industries – including aviation and tourism – struggle in stark contrast to the fortunes of e-commerce, pharmaceuticals and logistics.

Indeed, the UK Government’s plan for growth, Build Back Better, lends weight to this argument. With a £100bn investment earmarked for infrastructure, as well as cash injections into skills and a focus on

the drive to net zero carbon, GRAHAM and its peers are likely to benefit from this pipeline of opportunity.

“The UK is targeting net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but we’ve aligned our strategy to reach that goal by 2045,” John continues, in his first reference to the sustainable targets at the firm.

He says the business works in line with and alongside the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focussing “on positively influencing the SDGs most applicable to us in our role as a leading national contractor.”

This means everything – from CO2 emissions, water reduction, social value, health and wellbeing, community engagement, apprenticeships and safe working – feed into and align with these SDGs.

“We have established four core pillars which form the basis of our CSR strategy; the environment, communities, people and ambition,” John continues. “Reducing our carbon emissions as part of our environment pillar is our number one priority and we are working hard to remove carbon from our business. We project a 50 per cent reduction by 2030.”

He says, as a leading national contractor, the influence of GRAHAM also extends deeply into the design properties behind building and infrastructure projects.

It encourages the use of intelligent design while monitoring its own emissions with tracking and verification for each project available.

“Capturing that data allows us to continually improve. Building sustainably is no longer about building energy efficient projects. We need to understand the carbon created through our methods and we can assess this.”

To support this ambition, GRAHAM has rolled out “carbon literacy training” to help its staff make informed decisions on everything from selecting materials to cost impacts.

Platinum status in this year’s Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey –for six years running, no less – provides external and independent validation of its efforts.

GRAHAM was also identified as the top scoring contractor in the construction sector in the survey, which is run by BITC (Business in the Community).

Another priority for the business is building strong community relationships in the villages, towns and cities where it operates. Its goal is to consistently leave a legacy that is much broader than the individual projects it delivers.

“We are committed to maximising social value and making a real difference in local communities. This is why our teams passionately set about creating work placement opportunities for young people and those in hard-to-reach sections of the community. We also support local supply chains, particularly SMEs, and we partner with schools, community groups and social enterprises, helping them in a number of ways through, for example, the provision of expertise to achieve mini refurbishment projects,” says John.

“When people realise that our people are from, and based within their communities, then that builds and strengthens relationships.”

In-house, the company places an emphasis on nurturing staff. John stresses that it’s not just an obligation but a commitment the business fully believes in.

“Recently, Investors in People (IIP) reaffirmed our excellence in people management with the re-award of both Platinum and Health & Wellbeing accreditations. Platinum level is the highest level that can be achieved by a company, and we are continually investing in new initiatives to ensure that we maintain this standard,” he says.

“We look at every area of wellbeing and mental health, including financial as well as physical wellbeing. We have also trained over 100 mental health first aiders,” he continues.

A comprehensive training and development programme, a full calendar of wellbeing activities and initiatives, and a series of support mechanisms, including health assessments, are also part of the wideranging investment offer that all staff can access.

The CSR strategy at GRAHAM is much more than a box-ticking exercise, but rather a consistent drive or a pledge to improve the company’s social impact.

“The principle is understanding that we need to give back and that’s where we demonstrate our social value. Central and local government increasingly ask businesses to demonstrate social value, but we don’t do it because it’s asked of us, we do it because we want to.

“We have established goals, such as reducing carbon to net zero, five years ahead of the government’s target. We drive the creation of a local supply chain and we invest in people, and our ambition ensures we continue to do that, which has been central to our sustainable and responsible growth. We’ve experienced 350 per cent growth in the 10 years since I’ve been here.

“Strategically, GRAHAM nurtures people, and this means people feel valued; they stay and then they become firm advocates of the business. This is pivotal to our continued success,” he concludes.

John says its ambitious CSR strategy “proves success comes in many forms at GRAHAM.” For him and the cohort of more than 2000 employees, the measure of this success is not just monetary, but based on delivering lasting impact for the environment, its people and the local communities where it operates.

“Using clear procedures, and through the adoption of stringent health and safety processes, we were able to continue to operate safely during the pandemic, keeping our 2,000-strong workforce safe and healthy while simultaneously ensuring that we continued to meet the objectives of our clients and partners.”