Our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy

At RLB, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is all about making genuine changes to drive improvements. It is designed to make a positive difference to all our stakeholders – clients, colleagues, and the communities we live and work in.

Our new DE&I strategy for UK and Europe is aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, a framework to tackle social and environmental challenges, and is key to our objective to be a ‘high-performing people and culture’ organisation, one of the pillars that underpin RLB’s 2030 growth strategy. Our DE&I strategy is led by our People and Culture Director Sarah Draper and represented at Executive Board level by both her and our Chief Executive Andrew Reynolds.

The strategy’s implementation is steered by KPIs and a comprehensive road map to help us track and measure progress. The voice of our employees is important to us and the strategy will be continually refined and developed based on feedback from our DE&I community group, regular employee engagement surveys and the data we collect from around the business. We will also draw on the expertise of organisations such as Race Equality Matters, Disability Confident and the UK Armed Forces Covenant to help guide and challenge us.

We will continue to learn and benchmark our progress against others, adapting our initiatives and making improvements as required to ensure that we are making progress towards building a truly inclusive culture.

Our objectives

Diversity – Improve the representation of women, minorities and those from different socio-economic backgrounds at all levels within RLB and integrate people with visible and non-visible disabilities by driving recruitment and management practices to achieve results.

Equity – Recognise that each person has different circumstances and allocate the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach equal outcomes for everyone.

Inclusion – Create an inclusive work environment that fosters open-mindedness to those in different circumstances or from different backgrounds through awareness and training.

Communications – Ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, actions and results are communicated to all.

External relations – Engage with industry bodies, networks and external stakeholder groups that support RLB’s values.

Accountability – Hold RLB’s Directors and Partners accountable for consistent delivery of our diversity, equity and inclusion objectives at all levels.

Our approach

We passionately believe that investing in our people, promoting equality and wellbeing in the workplace, and recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce are critical to our continued success.

We recognise that teams made up of colleagues from different cultures and backgrounds will look at problems in different ways, bringing new insights and perspectives, and making us more creative and innovative. We will be able to develop more effective, more sustainable solutions for our clients, and deliver better outcomes for local communities.

This is why:

  • We are committed to providing all employees ongoing personal and professional development and training.
  • We are embedding progressive diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and policies into every part of the business.
  • We focus on employee wellbeing through health and wellness programmes for all our people.
  • We are working to close the gender pay gap and increasing the proportion of women in our workforce, particularly within senior positions.
  • We are working to close the ethnicity pay gap and increasing the proportion of employees from ethnic backgrounds in our workforce, particularly within senior positions.
  • We champion our ‘One RLB’ culture, ensuring fairness, transparency and opportunity for all in everything we do.

Our promise

We believe that:

  • We should build a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where everyone is equipped with the skills they need to excel, encouraged to reach their full potential, and feels able to bring their whole professional self to work.
  • We have a responsibility to support the communities in which we live and work by attracting and retaining a workforce that is representative of these communities.

  • Our talent strategy should enable us to overcome bias in the construction and property management industry by recruiting, retaining, developing and promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce.

RLB © 2025 Rider Levett Bucknall

Privacy & Cookie Policy