We sit down with Nicola Hodkinson of Seddon to discuss employment practices and women’s position in the industry
Despite progress in women’s employment, there are few companies in the construction sector with women at the helm. However, Nicola Hodkinson, Owner and Director at Seddon is breaking down stereotypical barriers in more ways than one.
Not only does Nicola hold a senior leadership position within the business, but she is working to transform Seddon’s culture and de-gender recruitment practices. Nicola is equally passionate about employment models across the industry, believing that direct employment is better for both workplaces and employees. We sit down with Nicola to delve further into her passions and experience.
“Seddon is a 127-year-old, family owned and operated business led by me and my two brothers, and we took over from my father in 2015,” Nicola begins. “To me, being a good leader means acknowledging where your strengths are and what skills or knowledge other people can bring to the table. One of my brothers is our CEO, and another is a Managing Director of our development business. Each of us has our own niche; an area of expertise that plays to our individual passions.
“As Owner and Director, I sit on the board and lead most of our work around PR and culture, although I previously headed up Seddon’s HR function for around ten years. I originally trained in beauty therapy, later occupying a teaching role, and although it wasn’t the right industry for me, I realised that I loved teaching side of it. I later married my husband and had children, but I was determined to regain my education while caring for my young family. I enrolled in night college and achieved my GCSEs, then A Levels, and I then studied for a degree in information communications.
“I loved coding and internet design, as technology was completely new to me; looking back, it was an amazing time to go into technology. I found a particular
interest and passion at the intersection of technology and society, which took me into the niche of social technology and law. Within this area, I conducted research on the social impact of technology and how the law was going to change alongside the rise of technology.
“During my university course, I created Seddon’s first website, which I coded by hand. The construction sector was still quite behind in adopting new technologies, but I’ve come full circle and returned to the concept of technology and digitisation as I’ve been leading our huge digital transformation plan over the last three years. Although I don’t come from a construction background, my experience brings a different angle to our projects, and I can manage on-site teams without being constantly critical of their work as I know there are more qualified and experienced people to ensure quality standards are achieved.”
Sustainability shift
From a business perspective, Seddon comprises four divisions: engineering services, housing partnerships, painting and maintenance, and property services. It also operates Seddon Homes, which constructs exceptional new build residential developments across Lancashire, Staffordshire, Merseyside, and Yorkshire.
“Our goal is to solve customers’ problems with an end-to-end solution, and as a group of businesses, we can often find an answer or solve problems in a different unit or division,” Nicola states. “Our painting and maintenance division offers a range of maintenance work, most of which works with housing associations to combat mould, and our housing partnerships business completes a high number of refurbishments and retrofits.”
Throughout her career, Nicola has witnessed the shift in industry priorities as organisations awaken to the importance of sustainability. “We’re increasingly seeing demands for sustainability come through in public sector bids,” she says. “We’re experiencing a steady stream of retrofit decarbonisation work, as well as increased demand for low energy homes.
“The entirety of operations in the engineering services division are dominated by decarbonisation, whether in homes or private contracts like civic buildings, schools, and leisure centres. When it comes to sustainability, it’s crucial to get involved at an early stage, having open and collaborative conversations during the design stage about how ‘green’ the client wants to be while considering budget.
“Seddon isn’t the cheapest option; our customers not only pay for a project, but they also buy a genuine working partnership with us. Relationships are crucial in the construction sector; although the quality of our work is inevitably important, people remember how the journey felt in terms of the relationship. At Seddon, the feeling people get during and after working with us often lasts longer than the building itself!
“However, such positive relationships can only be forged when you’ve built a knowledgeable, yet diverse team, and I believe that diverse teams produce better results. We blend people’s natural talents to create diverse teams that embrace people’s differing characteristics, careers, age profiles, or educational backgrounds. We recognise that many of these factors uniquely shape who we are and instead of shying away from difference, we champion it.”
Positive influence
Nicola’s passion for diversity is something she’s successfully translated into Seddon’s company culture. “When we took over from our father, we identified a set of behavioural standards and worked hard to embed these values into our culture,” she elaborates. “I’m particularly passionate about providing opportunities for our people, whether that be further training and upskilling for existing employees or offering apprenticeships for young people entering the industry.
“I strongly believe that contractors should directly employ staff rather than follow an agency or self-employed model, so Seddon is quite unique because we employ both management and our own in-house tradespeople. An agency or self-employment model is not good for the worker’s wellbeing, as they’re never sure when their next job is coming from or where it’s located.”
When asked about being a woman in the construction industry, Nicola reflects: “The position of women in construction has certainly evolved during my career, and there’s now no ceilings other than those we potentially build for ourselves. Women learn differently and consequently need to be developed differently than men, but there’s a fine line between alienating ourselves and giving women a voice.
“Seddon sits in the top quartile of UK construction businesses from a gender pay gap perspective, and 20 per cent of our leadership and middle management team is made up of women. We’ve adopted specific policies around menopause, women’s health, and maternity to create a safe space that encourages open conversations.
“We’re working to de-gender our application process and ensure we use inclusive language in our external communications. We’re also working with local schools to encourage young women to apply for our apprenticeships across plumbing, electricals, brickwork, joinery, and site manager schemes.”
From speaking with Nicola, it’s clear to see her passion and determination to positively influence the culture and policies at both Seddon and across the wider construction industry. With a general election on the horizon in the UK [at time of writing], Nicola finishes our conversation with her thoughts on what the new government should prioritise.
“The UK Government needs to incentivise direct employment across the construction sector,” she states. “Generally speaking, the construction sector lacks pipeline visibility. We need to boost visibility to break the agency and self-employed labour model; if companies know their projects and respective timelines, they’re more likely to directly employ.
“Construction should be a priority for the new government, particularly to address the UK’s housing crisis. Through our philanthropic work with food banks and local charities, we know that working people are really struggling. How can people have a good, productive day at work if they don’t know where they’re sleeping that night? How can children who haven’t eaten or have slept as one of four in a bed go on to learn well at school?
“We must consider the impact of homelessness on our national systems, especially the education system and our NHS. Let’s take the politics out of it and acknowledge that through adequate funding and housebuilding, we could improve education, leading to enhanced job opportunities and consequently strengthening the UK’s economy.”