ACT government embeds new ‘culture’ standard in all public projects

The ACT government has announced that all government-funded infrastructure projects will adopt the culture standard by embedding it into the ACT procurement framework. Developed by the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (CICT), the culture standard sets goals and benchmarks for improving psychological safety and wellbeing in the construction industry, and is designed to address the high rates of suicide, low retention rates, very low gender diversity and the widest gender pay gap of any industry in Australia for workers in the industry.

The CICT was founded by the Australian Constructors Association – an industry body representing leading construction and infrastructure companies – and the Victorian and New South Wales state governments. The ACT government is the first Australian government to formally adopt the culture standard for all territory-owned and funded construction projects.

When formulating the culture standard, the CICT conducted extensive research into the psychosocial cultural issues that are impacting the construction sector’s productivity and performance. It found that issues such as excessive work hours and fatigue, poor mental health, low wellbeing and a failure to attract a diverse workforce were costing the Australian economy around A$8 billion annually.

The culture standard seeks to create a new construction industry culture based on three pillars: wellbeing; time for life and inclusion and diversity, with a focus on gender diversity.  

The three pillars of the culture standard 

Wellbeing

The ‘wellbeing’ pillar promotes a holistic approach to identifying and supporting good mental health. Requirements include implementing programs to identify and prevent ill-health in a stigma-free environment, as well as consistent promotion of these programs. Mental health first-aiders and peer-to-peer trained support workers must be available to workers on the project.
It also requires compliance with all work health and safety regulation and psychosocial regulations, right to disconnect legislation and respect at work legislation.

Time for life 

The ‘time for life’ pillar supports workers being required to only work five days out of seven, with access to two consecutive days of rest and no more than 50 hours of work per week.  It suggests that workers should ideally work Monday to Friday, based on research demonstrating that access to weekend days is typically conducive to time for life pursuits. Contractors must also develop a project flexibility plan, outlining how the project will support and promote flexibility for all workers.

Inclusion and diversity

The ‘inclusion and diversity’ pillar requires contractors to self-assess their current practices based on data, including reporting gender pay gaps, and to report on evidence to support improvements in gender diversity. This pillar also requires that contractors ensure that there is no pornographic or offensive material in the workplace and that there is equal access to female toilet facilities and amenities on project sites. 

Impact on contractors

For contractors, embedding the culture standard into the procurement process or a project will require them to be able to: 

• demonstrate how they will achieve the culture standard requirements during the tender process;
•  work with principals throughout project delivery and handover to ensure compliance with the culture standard;
• assume responsibility for meeting and delivering on the culture standard requirements during project delivery, including reporting to the principal on compliance; and
• for head contractors, assume responsibility for consulting with workers and supporting and setting expectations with subcontractors to deliver on the culture standard requirements. 

Practical tips for meeting requirements 

The culture standard aims to set a new benchmark for the construction industry to change culture. Where it is embedded into a project or the procurement process for a project, construction industry employers should expect to be held to a higher standard on psychosocial safety and gender diversity issues.

Many construction industry employers are already making progress on these issues, but to ensure compliance with the culture standard as a high-water mark, they should: 

• track gender diversity and gender pay gap data, and set measurable and achievable targets to improve over time;
• ensure policies and procedures are in place regarding wellbeing, sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying;
• train mental health first-aiders on each project and ensure access to employee assistance programs for psychological support; and
• treat psychological safety in the same way as physical safety by conducting risk assessments, implementing control measures and reporting psychological safety hazards and risks at a board level.

Future developments

Despite the NSW and Victorian governments being members of the CICT, neither have formally adopted the standard into their procurement processes. However, both have already adopted the culture standard into several major construction projects on an ad hoc basis, and project tenders require bidders to comment on the anticipated impacts of implementing the culture standard during delivery. 

However, there is currently little to suggest that developers and principal partners will voluntarily adopt the culture standard during project delivery activities, or that adoption of the culture standard will be required on privately procured projects, including many renewable energy and building projects. 

The CICT trialled the culture standard on five construction projects in Victoria and New South Wales. The projects assessed if and how reduced work hours, flexibility, access to mental health support, a focus on wellbeing and leadership training affected productivity, capacity and retention. Data collected from the pilot projects demonstrated that implementing the culture standard created benefits for the whole supply chain. 93% of salaried respondents and 71% of waged respondents favoured a 5-day working week, and – persuasively – changes to the work week did not affect productivity on site. Respondents rather said that rested, respectful and diverse workforces created improved safety, industry attractiveness and job satisfaction.