Room for Women on Every Site

How a Croatian construction company makes inclusion the norm

The challenge

Women make up less than 12% of Croatia’s construction workforce, close to the EU average of around 15%. The sector is still widely pictured as a world of machinery and heavy labour – an image that quietly discourages women, even though construction depends just as much on engineering, technical analysis, finance and coordination. Changing that picture often happens not through big national schemes, but through the everyday choices of individual employers.

The practice

ING-GRAD d.d., a Croatian construction company with roughly four decades of experience, is a clear example. What makes it a best practice is not a single scheme but a company-wide culture in which women are present and valued across the full range of construction roles – not confined to support functions. Within the company, women work as site engineers and site managers, in technical preparation and feasibility analysis, and as heads of finance and procurement, spanning both the construction site and the back office.

This is rooted in an explicit people-first philosophy: the company’s leadership stresses that its greatest strength lies in its people, and that progress comes from developing employees and giving them opportunities. Just as important is visibility – rather than keeping its women employees in the background, the company actively shares their professional stories through the media and its own social channels, turning its own staff into role models and directly challenging the outdated image of the sector.

Why it works – and how to transfer it

• It normalises inclusion. Women are engineers, managers and specialists across the company, not a symbolic presence in one department.
• It puts people first. A culture built on developing talent and giving opportunities lowers the barriers that push women out of the sector.
• It makes women visible. Sharing women’s work publicly turns existing employees into role models for the next generation.
• It is easy to adopt. It needs no special funding or large HR department – any construction employer can make the same choices.

Key takeaways

• Women remain under 12% of Croatia’s construction workforce, but individual employers can shift this from within.
• ING-GRAD demonstrates inclusion through a company-wide culture that employs and advances women across site and office roles.
• A people-first philosophy plus the deliberate visibility of women employees are the two engines of the practice – and both are low-cost and fully transferable.