Culture
We embrace diversity, flexibility and strive for a happy and inclusive team environment across all our places of work
Our Culture
ODGroup recognises the importance of embracing everybody to make our business a vibrant and accepting workplace, to make a positive impact in our local community and for each of our team to have a personally fulfilling experience.
We are committed to working together to have a positive influence on our industry and those we meet along the way.
At ODGroup we have a focused DE&I group who have set out an ambitious plan comprising of awareness days, training, and involvement with community organisations and charities to ensure we are making a contribution to positive change within our business and industry at large.
Our people
We aim to increase diversity by engaging and attracting new talent to the Group and into the industry from a cross-section of society, particularly underrepresented groups.
ODGroup has made a commitment to diversifying our talent pool through actively pursuing candidates via non-traditional recruitment channels. We are no longer reliant on recruitment agencies to source our people, but instead use a combination of online headhunting, social media campaigns, job boards, university careers portals, and local college link-ups, to actively engage with candidates with a variety of backgrounds and lived experiences.
We collect and analyse data on the make-up of our business to enable us to conduct yearly DE&I audits. As part of these audits we review our diversity statistics, demographics and trends in job applicants, internal promotions, and employee retention data, and use this information to continually shape our strategy, policies, processes, recruitment methods and workplace culture.
Our DE&I team deliver a bespoke training programme that aims to ensure that our recruitment process is fair and all our interactions within the business and beyond are as inclusive and unbiased as possible. It has become part of our official onboarding process and is being rolled out to everyone in the business.
Site Manager Academy
In October 2021, we launched our Site Manager Academy – redeploying candidates from military and other backgrounds into construction management careers.
We support candidates to use their existing skills and experiences in a different way – assisting them in achieving an NVQ Level 6 in Construction Site Management, providing on-the-job mentoring, and giving a clear career path through the business for those who wish to stay with us long-term.
Our Community
ODGroup actively supports colleges and young people in our local area – most recently through our partnership with New City College Tower Hamlets.
We engage students aged 16-18 on carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, electrical and plastering courses, supporting them with work experience placements. Our aim is to provide young people in our local community with an insight into the fit-out industry, and to give them transferable skills such as project management, project planning, business administration, and health and safety principles.
One of our previous work experience students from New City College had this to say about her time at OD:
“I am beyond thankful to have worked with ODGroup; and to have had the opportunity to learn about the different aspects of and pathways into construction.
This experience has not only helped me with my social and organisational skills, but has also made me confident in my decision to go into project management.
The team on-site and in the office have been welcoming, helpful and educative towards me, and have enlightened me about working in the construction industry.”
Our Culture
Every year the company selects a charity to support voted for from a longlist suggested by our team. We spend the year raising money and awareness for our chosen cause through various activities and events organised throughout the year, ranging from raffles to major physical challenges – the pinnacle of which is our annual long distance walk connecting all our live construction sites, which we have aptly named the ODGroup Site-to-Site Walk
In 2024 our Site-to-Site saw 32 members of the team walk 31km from Tottenham Court Road through Whitechapel to our final stop near Liverpool Street Station. Through the sterling efforts of our team we raised an incredible £10,000 for Whitechapel Mission.
We also support the team’s personal charitable endeavours throughout the year, sharing to our network and donating to their chosen causes.
