Creating an inclusive engineering culture

In 2017, the Royal Academy of Engineering published its very revealing report: ‘Creating cultures where all engineers thrive’. From a large-scale survey and investigation, it identified the different aspects of the culture of the engineering profession. These are often things we take for granted as intrinsic to engineering, but they can provide serious barriers to the progression and retention of engineers who are seen as not being in the traditional groups. The report showed us that simply raising awareness of engineering in minority groups would not be enough to make a lasting difference in changing the statistics for participation. It would require change in workplaces, in professional organisations such as BINDT and by individuals.

A lot has happened since 2017 and this year the Royal Academy of Engineering has produced a new report: ‘Inclusive Cultures in Engineering 2023’ (https://raeng.org.uk/media/jurcggcm/inclusive-cultures-in-engineering-2023.pdf). The report provides an update on engineers’ perceptions of culture, as well as recommendations for professional engineering institutes and employers, under the headings of ‘Improving inclusive cultures’, ‘Nurturing belonging’, ‘Tackling bullying, harassment and discrimination’ and ‘Improving retention and success’. It was interesting to see in the latest survey that while innovation and creativity were highly regarded as attributes of engineering culture, they were not strongly valued in the behaviour of individuals.

In the 2023 report it is very clearly identified that there needs to be commitment at a senior level in organisations to develop the professional culture of their engineers, either in the workplace (employers) or among their membership (professional engineering institutions). As a couple of examples, organisations are recommended to provide clear and honest guidance on inclusive behaviours and to train and empower engineers to speak out and take a stand against behaviour that inhibits inclusion.

The report does not make recommendations directly to individuals. However, creating an inclusive engineering culture is going to need individuals to be receptive to the changes their organisations are trying to make. Members of BINDT have already signed up to ‘promote equality, diversity and inclusion’ under the Statement of Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (www.bindt.org/membership/for-individuals/statement-of-ethical-principles-and-code-of-conduct).

Registrants with the Engineering Council at all levels are required to ‘recognise inclusivity and diversity’ as part of professional commitment in the ‘UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC)’, fourth edition. It is disappointing, though, that this is not a more proactive statement and that there is no progression towards leadership in diversity and inclusion going up through the levels from EngTech to CEng as there is in most of the other competences.

So, has engineering become more inclusive since 2017? Overall, the majority of the responses to the survey were optimistic that, yes, it has. However, for most of the under-represented groups who are in a minority in engineering, this was not so clear. They reported still experiencing many of the same barriers that make it difficult to thrive and the resulting outcomes may well be the same, such as a lack of uptake into engineering and disproportionate loss from the workforce. Therefore, inclusion still needs more work to become truly embedded into engineering culture. As with the 2017 report, ‘Inclusive Cultures in Engineering 2023’ keeps the focus on the engineering community itself and getting the message in, so that we can really make the most of the innovation and creativity of all engineers.

If you have any thoughts or ideas, or are interested in joining the D&I Advisory Group, please get in touch: diversity@bindt.org

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