CREATING YOUR TOMORROW.

We’re a great place to work. Brilliant benefits, clear career progression, flexible working, competitive salaries and the best culture in the business.

Why wait? Join Wates.

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There’s a huge variety of career opportunities with us, working on a wide range of challenging and exciting projects.

We hire talented people from all backgrounds, reflecting society and the communities in which we work.

From employee discount schemes to flexible working, we offer a range of benefits aimed to boost productivity and promote mental wellbeing. Combined with generous salaries, stimulating work, and unrivalled opportunities to generate value in our communities, it’s what makes Wates such an attractive place to be.

Reward and benefits

We value our people and the work they do, and we reward them for it. We recognise that great pay and benefits are key to retaining and attracting the best people in our industry.

Career development

We provide clear routes for career progression – and a great selection of opportunities for training, development and upskilling to help people get to the next level.

An inclusive culture

As a family business that has stood the test of time for more than 125 years, we are proud of the culture that we have built, of the work that we do, and of the teams that deliver it.

CREATING TOMORROW TOGETHER

Your future with us

At Wates we focus on the key things that matter to our people:  an inclusive culture, commitment to social value, great reward and benefits, flexibility and hybrid working and career progression. We know these things make a real difference to people’s lives.

We are proud of what we offer, and Wates is an incredible place to work regardless of what stage you are at in your career journey, from new entrant to long serving colleague.

And once you’ve joined us, we’ll make sure you’ll want to stay.

Our culture

Our culture – outlined in our Guiding Framework – influences everything we do and how we do it, from our core purpose of creating tomorrow together, to the atmosphere we create across our sites and offices. As a family-owned business, we’re passionate about our people and creating a culture where everyone can be themselves, enjoy their working lives and thrive in the career they choose.

We are a fair place to work. To ensure everyone has opportunity to thrive, our culture is founded on the following principles:

  • TREAT FAIRLY: Everyone is treated with fairness and respect. When someone finds themselves not being treated fairly, they feel able to speak up, are listened to and any appropriate action is taken
  • PAY AND PROGRESS FAIRLY: Everyone has fair access to development and progression opportunities to build a meaningful career of choice. There is equity in pay.
  • HIRE FAIRLY: We hire the best person for the job from a diverse pool of candidates. We actively challenge and ultimately eliminate perceptions that prevent anyone from joining the sector.

Our family-first culture has been recognised at the Working Families Awards, where we won in the ‘Best for Fathers’ and ‘Best for All Families’ categories. We are among the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality, have been awarded gold accreditation from Investors in People. We won the Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Award at the Construction News Awards where the judges found us “head and shoulders above our contemporaries.”

We are a Disability Confident employer, committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are inclusive and accessible and that existing colleagues who have or acquire a disability are supported in their career at Wates.

We have some of the best family leave policies in our industry. This includes a 52 week paid maternity leave and eight weeks of fully paid paternity/partner leave. Our shared parental leave and adoption leave are enhanced and matched with maternity leave. We offer four weeks of unpaid carers leave. This includes our site-based employees.

We believe that business done well can be a force for good and so we take our role in society very seriously. We believe in helping to shape communities through our projects and social value commitments. As a Wates employee you could also be involved in a range of activities from community engagement with schools through to social enterprise mentoring and volunteering in the communities we work in.

We also help to challenge inequality by championing the real Living Wage, working closely with the Living Wage Foundation to achieve this.

We’re committed to making our industry more sustainable through the way we build, the materials we use and the way we engage with suppliers, and have committed to Science Based Targets that will see us becoming a net zero company by 2045. Our zero carbon sites programme, our transition towards electric plant and equipment and our use of lower carbon alternative materials will help us get there.

We are also committed to having a positive impact on nature from our operations. This will be achieved through supporting local community projects and making biodiversity improvements to our projects.

Your career

We focus on helping our people to thrive and on offering great career development opportunities, so you never stand still. And if you want a change – even a completely different role – we encourage internal mobility throughout our businesses, giving you a range of different environments in which to gain experience.

Our wide range of learning and development activities builds the knowledge, skills and behaviours you’ll need to perform at your best and progress your career.

Our focus on diversity encourages those who are furthest from the workforce to come back into the workplace if they have been away for a while.

26 days

holiday a year

2 days

off for volunteering

Benefits

health, leisure, financial

Reward and benefits

As well as competitive salaries, we have some brilliant benefits – it’s our way of recognising the hard work you do.

We understand that this is about more than money.  We also run a flexible benefits scheme where you select the benefits that are important to you, from pension top-ups to health care and restaurant discount cards.

We offer 26 days of holiday a year that includes additional volunteering days for a good cause of your choice.

Our award winning, industry-leading family leave policy offers full paid maternity leave as well as eight weeks paid partner / paternity leave. We also offer enhanced shared parental and adoption leave including matched maternity pay as well as two weeks bereavement leave and flexible carers’ leave.

Learning and development at Wates

Learning and Development

We empower our colleagues to excel and thrive through comprehensive learning and development opportunities aligned with our values and performance priorities.

We offer diverse development programmes covering areas like safety, technical skills, behaviour and leadership. We empower our employees to take charge of their growth with self-driven learning options, including e-learning, and we provide support when they need it.

We foster a culture of continuous learning and empowerment, equipping our colleagues with the tools so they can progress their career and contribute to the success of our organisation.

BEGIN YOUR CAREER WITH US

Early careers programmes

Our early careers programmes are targeted at undergraduates, graduates, school and college leavers and trade professionals. The programmes are designed to be accessible and flexible to suit you.

Whatever your interests, we’ll help you find the right career path. One where you can explore, grow and thrive.

JUST STARTING OUT?

Work experience

Join us on a work experience position and discover how great working in the built environment can be.

Our opportunities are open to everyone and will help you gain experience that can kick-start your career as well as contributing to our exciting client projects. You could even go on to secure a place on one of our apprenticeships or graduate programmes.

JOB VACANCIES

Why wait? Join Wates.

Search our latest vacancies to find the perfect role for you.

Commercial Administrator

Location: Walton-On-Thames

Job Type: Clerical & Administration

Application Deadline: 22-05-2024

Wates have an opportunity for a Commercial Administrator to join our team in our Walton-On-Thames office to engage in full administrative duties and provide ongoing support for the team in a number of key contract areas. Key Accountabilities will include: Amend and improve various Excel trackers to ensure the data can be utilised effectively for data reporting. Create and maintain information on systems and databases and manage efficient filing systems. Close down jobs on the system to ensure reports reflect current work levels. Coordinate meetings when required and greet guests and visitors. Assist with the ordering of Personal Protective Equipment as and when required. Deal with a range of administrative queries that come through to the team. General administrative duties including filing, writing and answering emails, producing letters and answering/ making calls.We are looking for an experienced Administrator who is a confident communicator, highly computer literate (Microsoft suite – Word, Excel etc) and extremely organised. The successful individual will have ideally have worked in the construction and/or maintenance industry but this is not essential.

HR Business Partner

Location: Rotherhithe

Job Type: HR

Application Deadline: 22-05-2024

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced HR Business Partner / Professional with a proven track record in business partnering and building strong working relationships at a leadership level to work in our Construction business. Together we inspire better ways of creating the places, communities and businesses of tomorrow. This is our purpose, and we will only achieve our strategic objectives if we recruit and retain the best people, operating in an environment underpinned by inclusivity, diversity and opportunity.Being part of our team as a HR Business Partner, you will play a pivotal role in planning and leading the process and activities to ensure that the Talent objectives are delivered and the KPI of talent retention is met.This role requires the confidence and integrity to support business partners and where required hold them to account to ensure the consistent application of our company processes and that we are managing people the right way. There will be a requirement to develop an excellent understanding of the business needs through strong interaction with the business.We are looking for someone who has experience of working in a complex and demanding environment and can challenge the status quo and drive change in a constructive and pragmatic manner.Ideally you will bring your experience of creating an inclusive workplace and demonstrating how feedback from employee surveys has been used to drive action plans to increase engagement.Alongside this, you will be organised, an excellent communicator capable of building relationships across the business and operate fairly and consistently. If you require any reasonable adjustments during any part of the application process, please contact us at the following email address recruitment@wates.co.uk and one of the team will get in touch to discuss how we can support.

Mobile Engineer

Location: North West

Job Type: Engineering

Application Deadline: 15-05-2024

Wates have excellent opportunity for an experienced multi skilled – electrical mobile engineer to join the team predominantly based in the Manchester area for our key client, JLL.ABOUT THE ROLEThe primary focus of this role will be to conduct planned preventative multi-disciplined maintenance and reactive works to the buildings plant, equipment, and systems, as well as respond to site engineering emergencies on behalf of our clients. There will be some installation works with the requirement to complete electrical installation and minor works certification.What is important to us is your natural communication skills to deliver high levels of customer service at all times, your ability to effectively multi-task, work to tight deadlines and problem solve on the job; whilst always promoting health & safety excellence.Having the relevant up to date qualifications and experience for your discipline is essential for your success in this role, 18th Edition wiring regulations combined with inspection and testing are essential.This is a terrific opportunity to progress your career as part of a talented, diverse, and supportive team.Some of the other Key Accountabilities as Mobile Engineer include:• Record all reactive and PPM tasks accurately and in detail using report sheets and ensure signed by the client weekly.• Ensure that Method Statements and Risk Assessments are prepared for all tasks conducted to provide safe working practices.• Supervise subcontractors effectively.• Ensure compliance with all Company policies and procedures.WHAT WE OFFER Competitive salary, plus performance related reviews, opportunities for growth and advancement within the team Van, Extensive corporate benefits including, Pension, Health and Wellness programme, 22 days holidays + bank holidays and much more… Excellent range of learning and development activity to support your career progression. Industry leading family leave benefits to included 26 weeks fully paid maternity, 8 weeks fully paid paternity.To find out more about LIFE AT WATES please click on the following link https://www.wates.co.uk/careers/

Operations Manager

Location: Streatham

Job Type: Operational

Application Deadline: 22-05-2024

We have an opportunity for an Operations Manager to join our Wates team within our Planned Maintenance division. You will be covering the South East of London and around the M25, managing a team of Project Managers and Site Managers to provide a first class service to our Clients.The role is to act as the interface between the various clients at monthly review meetings and deliver all contracts to an extremely high standard. You are required to ensure KPI’s and Health & Safety is maintained to the our expectations.Key Accountabilities will include: Responsible for all regional delivery; building and maintaining an effective and motivated team. Lead the division with a operational and commercial mindset making sure the team are aware of contract obligations and how they can influence profitability at all times Ensure that all projects are set-up with company governance maximised, production control in place and productivity regularly monitored. To work and develop relationships with all key clients to allow each contract to run in accordance with the brief and the clients high expectations. Attend all client progress meetings giving feedback, progress and all KPI data as requested. Procure work by maintaining and developing contacts in the industry, as well as have direct involvement in the strategic thinking applied to the Unit's tenders. To work with all key supply chain partners making sure all Operating Framework compliance details are in place before commencement of any projects. Monitor and approve the financial forecasts; ensuring that the best cost planning information is provided. To drive compliance and operating excellence throughout the division at all levels.To be successful in the role you will already be in an operational leadership role and have experience in successfully managing maintenance teams and projects and been accountable for all disciplines from the bidding stage; from design and planning through to handover, all within time and budget.We are looking for someone with ability to lead and influence at all levels to deliver outstanding results, successfully develop relationships to create future opportunities and have a proactive approach to risk management and value-add.


Fraudulent recruitment offers

It has come to our attention that various individuals and organisations are contacting people offering false employment opportunities.  Very often these offers carry a company logo and the details of a company employee. These are very easily found online and should not be accepted as proof of authenticity. Please be advised, Wates will never make unsolicited offers of employment, ask for money from job applicants or require bank details from candidates before a formal offer of employment has been agreed.

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