Construction has a long way to go to move the needle on diversity and inclusion in its ranks. While the industrys numbers, compared to the nations overall workforce, skew heavily white and male, companies are making efforts to change that.
Currently, over 1,100 firms are taking part in Construction Inclusion Week, which kicked off October 18. The initiative, founded by six major construction firms, looks at leadership accountability, unconscious bias, supplier diversity, jobsite culture and community engagement in the industry.
CIW, which is modeled on the industrys highly successful Safety Week, is aimed at bringing diversity, equity and inclusion to the forefront of constructions workforce. In addition, the initiative is designed to make diversity and inclusion a focus in construction 365 days a year, CEOs of the founding companies told Construction Dive.
One firm thats been doing that is Burns & McDonnell, an employee-owned, full-service construction and engineering firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, with a legacy in construction dating back to 1898.Here, Construction Dive talks with Leon Harden, Burns & McDonnells diversity and inclusion strategy manager,about what the company is doing to change the face of its workforce.
Leon Harden
Courtesy of Burns & McDonnell
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: What inclusion and diversity goals have you had on projects?
Leon Harden: Across all our projects, we work proactively to team with small and large businesses owned by women, veterans and minorities to help prepare us to meet and exceed our clients expectations and strengthening the communities where we work. One recent project example is Burns & McDonnell World Headquarters Expansion, which we designed and built ourselves.
In 2020, we completed the final phase of the Burns & McDonnell expansion, a new 142,000-square-foot building on our campus in Kansas City, Missouri. Since breaking ground in 2018, crews worked more than 134,000 hours on the project without any safety incidents.
Nearly 30 minority and women-owned businesses worked on the campus expansion, surpassing the goals of having 24% of the team providing construction services minority and women-owned businesses.
What are the results of working toward those D&I goals as a company?
In the last 5 years, more than $2.4 billion or 27% of Burns & McDonnell invoiced expenditures was paid to small and diverse businesses.
Our business diversity efforts seek to address any inequities in access to opportunities by establishing business relationships with all communities. In 2004, Burns & McDonnell began an intentional focus on supplier inclusion. Since then, we have been recognized with more than 56 industry-related awards for our demonstrated commitment to the utilization and growth of diverse projects for corporate operations. As a federal contractor, we are audited by the federal government and the most recent audit of our Small & Diverse Business program was rated Highly Successful.
We also seek to create alliances with organizations and businesses in our community. To help address racial inequities, Burns & McDonnell deposited $1 million in Douglass National Bank a Black-owned bank. We are active in, and in many cases board members of, more than 16 organizations that promote diverse business inclusion. We have hosted 17 Community of Inclusion events to recognize the mutually beneficial alliances experienced by our diverse partners and our employee-owners.
We have awarded minority business owners with scholarships to attend the Executive Education Program at Dartmouth College. We also organized the nations first corporate collaboration with Dartmouths Tuck School of Business and hosted programs at our firm. Each session was attended by more than 30 diverse business owners.
How do you recruit diverse workers?
Harden: For more than a decade, Burns & McDonnell has had a targeted diversity recruitment strategy, focusing on intentionally reaching and hiring diverse candidates. Our female hires have grown from 25% of total hires to 31% during that time, and our minority hires have increased from 14% to 25%. We are incredibly proud of this progress, but we know there's work still to be done.
Our growth across regional markets exploded during that same timeframe, allowing us to tap into new talent pools.
We participated in more than 75 diversity job boards, attended over 120 diversity recruitment events each year, leveraged partnerships with professional organizations like the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Society of Engineers and more to cast a wider talent net, and started earning recognition as a best workplace to strengthen our employment brand and earn a reputation as an employer of choice.
We also welcome opportunity to work alongside students attending historically black universities or diverse institutions. We have worked with Tennessee State University, Alabama A&M University, Clark Atlanta University, Lincoln University and Donnelly College, among others, where we have provided support with project submittals, sponsored a conference on women's issues and assisted in relaunching a pre-engineering program.
By working with universities and campus organizations, we've seen a deliberate increase in our female and minority new grad hiring. In the past five years, we saw a 3% increase in minorities and a 6% increase in females.
Why did you do this?
Creating an equitable and inclusive workplace for all is our top priority. Our goal is to be the best place to work for all people, and we work hard to achieve that. We recognize that we have room for growth in this area, and every day we strive to push ourselves toward becoming an even better company. A company with an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued, respected and engaged, where our collective diversity is a catalyst for innovation and our varied perspectives lead to better solutions for our clients, our communities and our people.
What advice would you give to other contractors who want to improve diversity and inclusion in their workforce?
Our firm has been in business for more than 120 years. A key driver of our success has been diversity diverse business lines, diverse workforce, diverse partnerships. Weve seen firsthand how diversity leads to better, more creative solutions for our clients. Here are some of the steps we take to maintain this level of diversity:
Visit link:
Why one third of new hires are women at this 120-year-old construction firm - Construction Dive
- Twin Oaks Intentional Community - Twin Oaks Intentional ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- The Camphill Assocation of North America Communities - December 9th, 2016 [December 9th, 2016]
- Cohousing - Wikipedia - December 11th, 2016 [December 11th, 2016]
- Communes: the pros & cons of intentional community ... - December 21st, 2016 [December 21st, 2016]
- Jewish Intentional Communities Conference - Hazon - December 25th, 2016 [December 25th, 2016]
- Common Fire Beacon-Newburgh | Creating diverse ... - January 2nd, 2017 [January 2nd, 2017]
- Intentional Housing Communities | www.hampshire.edu - February 5th, 2017 [February 5th, 2017]
- A First Gen Lawyer-Turned-Entrepreneur Pioneers New Standards for College Freshmen - Huffington Post - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Disparities in minority unemployment targeted by Iowa officials - DesMoinesRegister.com - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- ACE program benefits low-income communities - Observer Online - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Want a happy old age? Get your friends to be your neighbours - Independent Online - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Coalition Calls Itself The 'Eyes, Ears & Voice' Of Pittsburgh's Black Community - 90.5 WESA - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 'A community remembers' coming to Hesston - Butler County Times Gazette - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Krista Tippett February 01, 2017 - America Magazine - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Serving the most diverse urban area on the planet - New York Nonprofit Media - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- To truly serve the public, community stations must apply standards for what's said on-air - Current - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Here's what went down at the NYC launch of Ashley Biden's charitable clothing line - Technical.ly - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Appalachian's Alternative Service Experience among nation's top 10 higher education institutions for number of programs - Appalachian State University - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Pastor: We must build bridges between police and local black communities - Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog) - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Chris Wood: Now more than ever localize! - vtdigger.org - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- A Business Plan for Healthy Communities - Hospitals & Health Networks - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- The Death of the Ski Bum and Intentional Tourism - The Catalyst - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Heroin hits home: Highways provide "easy access" for drug trafficking in Franklin County - Herald-Mail Media - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- How Anarchists and Intentional Communities Are Reacting to ... - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Ohio Continues with Next Phase of InsideOut Initiative to Combat Win-at-All Costs Sports Mentality - Norwalk Reflector - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Microsoft Executives to Keynote Summit EMEA 2017 Conference - Yahoo Finance - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Marnita's Table set for Wednesday - Daily Globe - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- David Littlewood, guest columnist: Time to repeal Dodd-Frank Act and free up our community banks - Waco Tribune-Herald - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Ithaca organization encourages people to participate in National Random Acts of Kindness Week - The Ithaca Voice - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Portland groups form coalition to eradicate hate - KOIN.com - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Nash says 'there's more to do' on diversity at State of the County address - Gwinnettdailypost.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Anson County community meeting to fight poverty planned for Feb. 18 - Ansonrecord - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Spreading the Faith: Moving Coins and Moving Communities - Patheos (blog) - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- If It Walks Like a Duck - ChicagoNow (blog) - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Immigrant Round-ups Stir Fears - Consortium News - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Pace: What Should I Give Up This Year? - Covington News - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- J Mase III of #BlackTransMagick seeks to redistribute resources - Daily Illini - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- South Side getting trauma center, but it'll be far more than just an emergency room - Fox 32 Chicago - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- St. Louis Park cohousing community welcomes home all ages - Minneapolis Star Tribune - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- The Benedict Option and Rod Dreher's LGBT Challenge - The Atlantic - The Atlantic - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Mark Sundeen looks for a better way to live - Missoula Independent - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Cohousing communities gain popularity, including here in Nashville - WKRN.com - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- The Christian Retreat From Public Life - The Atlantic - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- New senior living community eyeing Waxahachie - Waxahachie Daily Light - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Better health needs a diverse workforce - Greenville Daily Reflector - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Businesses: State needs more immigrants - Mankato Free Press - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Cohousing communities gain popularity - WDTN - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Letters: Dismiss Schimel, others for maps - The Sheboygan Press - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Drums, Voices, and Circles - Memphis Democrat - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Food: Four Short Talks brings community to the table - Dailyuw - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Family School rebuts report on lack of diversity - Coastal View News - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- The Wall Street Journal explores trends in Christian community life sort of - GetReligion (blog) - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Renting land to highest bidder stumbling block for young people looking to start in agriculture - INFORUM - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Transportation/Traveling While Living Off Grid - Mother Earth News - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- New School Board President Believes Schools Belong to Communities - The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration) - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Worcester's retiree health costs 'unsustainable' - telegram.com - Worcester Telegram - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- 12 on Tuesday: Leslie Orrantia - WISC - Channel 3000 - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3 - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- By walking the beat, Kalamazoo officers nurture genuine ... - Michigan Radio - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Sometimes the Grass Really is Greener - Memphis Democrat - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Is Clallam opening the door to tiny houses? | Sequim Gazette - Sequim Gazette - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- New St. Paul police program aims to mentor recruits - Minneapolis Star Tribune - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- A New Kind of Homeless Village is Coming to Kenton. It's a Big Deal. - The Portland Mercury (blog) - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Why We Need the Benedict Option and How It Doesn't Have to ... - Patheos (blog) - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- National Expert Shares Thoughts on Environmental Justice - WUWM - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- The Promise of Paradise features area - 100 Mile House Free Press - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Speak out about your experiences - Hibbing Daily Tribune - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Trust comes in several varieties - Muncie Star Press - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Intentional neighborhoods take root across country - LancasterOnline - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- my family did the benedict option before it was cool and here's why it doesn't work - Patheos (blog) - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Saint Benedict's Mandate - Patheos (blog) - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Cohousing Part I: Creating community and reducing social isolation - Michigan State University Extension - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Searching for a greater interfaith understanding - Seattle Globalist - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The fight for affordable housing in Jefferson Park continues - Chicago Tribune - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- A 'Justin Option'? Justin Martyr and the Ben-Op - National Catholic Register (blog) - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Groves of Academe: On Keep the Damned Women Out - lareviewofbooks - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Curating Community through Intentional Placemaking - Urban Land - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Local ties: New tailgate market locations highlight business and community connections - Mountain Xpress - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- How Power Street Theatre Company is taking on representation in the arts - Generocity - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Open house will celebrate Folk Art Guild's 50 years - News - The ... - Penn Yan Chronicle-Express (blog) - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Archbishop: In 'post-Christian world' fidelity, charity, truth stand out - CatholicPhilly.com - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]