Aurecon named top inclusive employer for second time in a row

16 December 2021 Consultancy.com.au

For the second time in a row, Aurecon has been named one of Australia’s most inclusive employers.

Aurecon joins an elite list of 47 organisations across the country that have been awarded the title of ‘Inclusive Employer’ by Diversity Council Australia, including fellow professional services groups Nous Group, L.E.K. ConsultingGrant Thornton and BDO.

Over 1,000 employees at Aurecon were put forward to participate in Diversity Council Australia’s survey, with the engineering consultancy outperforming other businesses across the board, and notably outperforming industry peers and other diverse frontrunners on three measures of inclusion: team inclusion, inclusive leadership, and organisational inclusion.

aurecon - a leading inclusive employer

The survey found that 73% of Aurecon employees reported being in an inclusive organisation, compared to a 40% benchmark for the Australian workforce, and a 56% benchmark for the Diversity Council members.

William Cox, the CEO of Aurecon congratulated the team on this exciting achievement, “We are very proud of this recognition. Diversity, equity and inclusion are central to Aurecon’s culture of innovation. We build diverse teams, so we can frame and solve our clients’ and society’s most complex problems in unconventional and distinctive ways.”

Founded in 2009 through the merger of three engineering consultancies, Australia-headquartered Aurecon today has over 7,500 staff working from offices in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. The international design, engineering and advisory company supports clients with the design and delivery construction and infrastructure projects, among others.

Compared with its results in the previous edition of the biannual survey, Aurecon also made noticeable progress across the six dimensions assessed. For example, 67% of Aurecon employees reported having an inclusive manager this time, representing a 7% increase from the last survey conducted two years ago.

Cox: “I’m confident that this recognition also speaks to the daily experience for many at Aurecon. We have been investing consistently and significantly in creating an inclusive culture for everybody, be it our employees, partners or clients. With a clear focus on leadership, policies, behaviour, language and inclusion commitments, we have taken a series of initiatives in the last two years, such as the employee-led Neurodiversity Network and Active Bystander campaign.”

Further reading: Despite much talk, diversity & inclusion efforts are falling short.

The survey results further underline Aurecon’s diverse corporate culture and community – 40% of Aurecon workers reported being multilingual, compared to 24% in the Diversity Council members and 30% in the Australian workforce.

“We have received a number of coveted honours at a corporate level recently, including being named as one of the most innovative companies this year in Australasia. We attribute much of the recognition to the high degree of diversity in our teams, as one of the driving forces.”

The recognition comes shortly after Aurecon was lauded by Fortune on its ‘2021 Change the World’ list. This list recognises organisations that are contributing to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including the climate crisis, growing inequality and wealth disparity, inequitable access to health care. Aurecon is the only Australian headquartered company on the list.