Novus Blog
Novus Raises Awareness of Women’s Achievements and Challenges

At Novus we are committed to creating a workplace free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A workplace that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive and a workplace where difference is valued and celebrated.
One of the ways we do this is raising the awareness of women’s achievements and challenges through our Women in Novus (WiN) network. WiN is a company-wide initiative that brings together our female colleagues and allies, from all levels of the business.
For Women in Construction Week and beyond, let’s all fully embrace equity and actively support the contribution of our female friends, family members and colleagues.
What is the WiN network?
In 2021, we set ourselves the challenge of fully embodying our position as a ’21st century’ contractor: this included growth and development targets, but also placed a great emphasis on making us a forward-thinking, inclusive, and supportive company.
Our commitment to the cause is such that we have created the Women in Novus network. The network creates a discussion space for women across the business and fights to break the stigma of women being underrepresented within our industry.
February 2023 network meeting update
In February’s meeting, the group’s main focus surrounded wellbeing and mental health – particularly the importance of asking the question ‘Are you OK? No, really OK?’. We dedicated February as our wellbeing month and launched our Say it Out Loud campaign which allows colleagues within Novus to have meaningful conversations and be listened to. We also created an internal wellbeing calendar which offered all employees the chance to take part in different sessions including: development workshops, network groups and webinars.
In addition to this, the group shared their experiences of the Time to Talk Day where all our offices throughout Great Britain stood down for an hour to come together to talk, listen, and hopefully change lives. The group mentioned how valuable and powerful these discussions were and their appreciation of the support system within Novus.
The group was also delighted to share that our Gender Pay Gap mean percentage figure has decreased for the third year running – showing a positive correlation between our inclusion groups and the business.
Members also had the opportunity to discuss female mental health challenges and gave ideas on how Novus can do more to support female colleagues including introducing more female mental health first aiders, creating a positive corner on social media, and promoting the services offered by our Employee Assistance Programme through the Lighthouse Club.
Our WiN successes so far
Our WiN network has already had a significant impact. Our successes include:
- Ensured clothing and PPE are suitable for all genders (rather than unisex) and now have various uniform options for all colleagues including pregnant people.
- Signed up to Construction News’ Inspiring Women in Construction Pledge.
- Enhanced our Family Friendly policies which includes increased maternity and paternity pay and clarification around part time and flexible working.
- Launched a Menopause Policy and signed the Menopause Workplace pledge.
Our new WiN lead Terrie Brett commented:
“I have only recently taken on the role to lead the Women in Novus network, and I am very excited to see the changes we can make to support our female colleagues. As a woman who has worked in the construction industry for most of my life, this role has given me the opportunity to empower women and make a difference.
The group will continue to provide a valuable platform for powerful discussions, and to make change happen. We have already achieved lots since 2021, but there is so much more we can accomplish to make it a more exciting place for women to work.”
At Novus our main aim is to make sure nobody ever goes home after a working day and feels that they have been discriminated against or treated unfairly. To ensure this happens we have recently launched our ‘Without U there is NO US’ Inclusion Strategy and introduced five board sponsored network groups these include: Women in Novus (WiN), Proud Together, Caring Together, Disability Matters and REACH (Race Equality and Cultural Heritage). These changes make sure everyone has the right to live a full and productive life with dignity at Novus.
Learn more about our ‘Without U there is NO US’ Inclusion strategy.

Introducing our Apprentice of the Year: Lily Davies
This week is National Apprenticeship Week, so we’re shining the spotlight on one of Novus’ true rising stars – and recent winner of our Apprentice of the Year’ trophy at the Novus Awards – Lily Davies, who is working with us as a Junior Bid Writer.
We asked Lily to tell us about her journey so far, and her aspirations for the future – and what she would tell people considering beginning their own apprenticeship journey in our sector.