On Thursday, 15 June, you would have looked in vain for some of your colleagues in the Prague and Liberec offices. We spent the whole day at the Respect for People conference, which took place in the representative premises of the Spojka Karlín complex. As the conference’s main partner, Liftrock had its “iron in the fire” in one of the discussion panels. 

Václav Větrovský represented us in the discussion session entitled “Professional Culture, Ethics and Honour – A Builder’s Heart”. He shared many interesting insights he has gathered during his career. What was all the talking about?

Ethics and Culture in the Construction Industry 

The first session dealt with issues of culture in the construction industry and its direction. It included a discussion on ethical rules and their implementation not only in normal company processes, but also, for example, in tenders and contracts. “It’s obvious that we have come a long way since the 1990s. And I believe that at Liftrock we have managed to set many ethical rules and values that contribute to the cultivation of our industry,” said Větrovský. 

A representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Adam Gromnica, focused on taking into account the setting of various soft aspects of procurement procedures and their inclusion in the evaluation of public procurement. Leona Gergelová Šteigrová, Deputy Director of the Housing, Construction and Public Investment Section at the Ministry for Regional Development, also offered her view. 

The discussion participants agreed that they perceived and positively evaluated the shift in the consideration of issues related to responsibility and ethical principles not only in the awarding of public contracts. At the same time, everyone hoped that soft aspects would play a greater role in decision-making in years to come. This objective was confirmed by a ministry representative.

Level Playing Field, Equal Opportunities?

If responsibility and ethics in the construction industry are addressed, the issue of gender equality in employment and the gender pay gap cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately, the construction industry is a sector where companies often do not even have the opportunity to take this issue into account. However, there was a consensus on equal treatment in the case of gender diversity of candidates for a particular vacancy. 

“I can say for us that the gender issue does not play the slightest role concerning candidates. For example, a candidate for one of our positions had just become pregnant, which she also mentioned in the interview. We appreciated such openness. In addition, she brought with her a great deal of knowledge and experience that we were seeking for the position That’s why we didn’t hesitate to hire her,” said Větrovský, describing one of his personal experiences.

Dispute Resolution and Cooperation

The second discussion session at the conference was devoted to an equally important topic called “Cooperation in the Construction Industry – Relationship Agreements and Dispute Resolution”. Here, we heard interesting insights from experts from Germany, the Netherlands and France about contractual cooperation and practical examples of alternative dispute resolution in the construction industry. 

Public procurement and construction law expert Joost Merema outlined the new approaches to tender evaluation, which are also being addressed by contractor and construction management teams. Specifically, he mentioned, for example, the ability of team members to accomplish tasks and meet individuals’ ambitions with respect to a project’s goals. Teams should thus be able to capitalise on potential constructive conflicts. Such a conflict is usually welcome when set up correctly, as the subsequent solution can optimise a project and eliminate shortcomings.

Similar Situation in Liftrock Projects

During the networking break, we did not forget to ask about the experiences and opinions of some of the participants. “We see a shift in many areas every year. Our industry has come a long way since the 1990s,” commented Aleš Bednář of Quality Management on the topics of the first discussion session. 

“Of course, there are areas where gender equality cannot be implemented at least in the near future because of the structure of people in general. But if we take the company as a whole, I think that the representation of women in our company is not negligible,” said Tomáš Opelka from Proconom on the conference’s topic.

Finally, we would like to thank the organisers for a pleasant meeting and many interesting insights that are beneficial not only for the construction industry and its future, but are also inspiration, for example, for the corporate culture at Liftrock.

We would like to invite you to this year’s Respect for People conference, which will take place on Thursday, 15 June at Spojka Karlín in Prague 8. We will be very visible there, because the event’s main partner is the Liftrock holding organisation and the conference’s partners are our companies Contract Management, Quality Management and Proconom Software. But that’s not all! One of the speakers will be Václav Větrovský, CEO of Liftrock. Moreover, his appearance will be the first public presentation of Liftrock! And it’s worth seeing!

And what conference topics can you look forward to?    

The conference’s morning session, entitled Professional Culture, Ethics and Honour – The Builder’s Heart, will address the debate that is taking place in different segments of Czech society about ethics, responsibility and culture of the environment. Topics that are part of our everyday life will be discussed and the construction industry will not be left out. The conference will show how to define and improve it in the construction industry.    

There will be a total of 8 speakers in this session. One of them will be Václav Větrovský.    

The second, afternoon session, entitled Cooperation in Construction – Relationship Contracts and Dispute Resolution, will deal with contracts motivating the parties to cooperate and alternative dispute resolution in construction. This international session will feature a total of 5 speakers from France, Germany and the Netherlands.    

If you are interested, do not hesitate to register at the conference website.   

We will be happy to meet you at this interesting event.