Award-winning construction and civil engineering company Frontline Contracting has gone a gear up in building an inclusive and diverse workplace as seen by the number of females employed by the company in the last few years.
Over the years Frontline Contracting has pursued a path of inclusion guided by one of the company’s core values of diversity and inclusivity.
The construction industry has been dominated by males while females were relegated to office and administrative duties.
Propped up by the desire to build an inclusive culture coupled with having anti-sexual harassment policies and developing a strong leadership and talent pipeline, Frontline Contracting has recruited female technocrats within its top hierarchy as well as rank and file.
According to the company’s managing director Tamuka Chihota this has been mainly due to the company’s focus on diversity during its recruitment process, creation of fair promotion procedures, creation of diversity and inclusion training programme as well as building an inclusive company culture.
“All what we do here is informed by the core values of the company and one such value is about inclusivity and diversity,” said Chihota.
“Women have over the years struggled to penetrate the construction industry which has been male dominated, but at Frontline Contracting, we have opened our doors to give women a chance.
“Our recruitment process is diverse and inclusive to a point that we are recruiting even young girls for internship as well as qualified women who are now standing toe to toe with their male counterparts at the construction sites.”
- Chihota elected contractors youth chairperson
- Frontline invests in success of women at work
- Youth move in to get slice of construction industry cake
Keep Reading
Among the females, Frontline Contracting has Tsitsi Mataranyika as its safety, health, environment and quality officer, Charmaine Tongesayi who is the site quality surveyor and Chiedza Chikohora, who is the site agent and in charge of coordinating production at the site.
There are several females who are on internship from the administration to the site.
Chihota said in terms of gender equality and women empowerment, Frontline Contracting was doing everything possible to close the gender gap.
Meanwhile, the youthful contractor, who recently got a “big job” to construct a service station in the capital’s Avonlea area, said he was looking forward to embrace women and the youth in the development of the country.
Chihota leads the youth desk in the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association, a national organisation that represents building contractors in the category of building and civil, electrical, mechanical and structural steel engineering fields.
“My other task in the national association is to promote the interests of the youths in the construction industry,” he said.
The Frontline Contracting boss said his company was a service-oriented company, which had stood the test of time in the construction industry amid limitations and operational challenges they have had to contend with.
“Our business is all about value addition and customer satisfaction,” he said.
“We sell value and time and always make sure that our business doesn’t only focus on pleasing our customers or satisfying them, but helps them realise their life-long and cherished dreams.
“We have two divisions; one for construction and building and the other for civil works.
“Our journey has been amazing and in just a few years, we managed to jump from Category H to Category C in building and civil works.
“These categories are a classification based on the nature and value of projects an organisation handles.”
Chihota said they had done business with reputable firms such as Old Mutual, Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, ZRP, army, Nedbank, Zesa and NetOne, among others.
The construction company is currently working on a Total Energies project in Avonlea.
