The construction industry, traditionally male-dominated, has seen the number of female apprentices nearly double between 2016 and 2019.

Women like Andy Dirkschneider are proving well-suited for the construction industry, bringing skills like strong relationship-building and attention to detail.

In 2020, women comprised 10.9% of the construction industry's workforce, up from 8% in 2016.

Women like Daniela Farias, Sofia Menacho, and Sydney Rocha are breaking down traditional gender barriers in the construction industry.

Women in construction bring valuable skills and perspectives, including attention to detail, organizational abilities, and design expertise.

Companies can create a more inclusive work environment by establishing policies like paid maternity and paternity leave that exceed statutory requirements.

Construction companies can offer training programs with on-the-job experience and mentorship to attract and retain women in crane operation and heavy machinery roles.

These programs can include apprenticeships, internships, and training sessions on equipment operation and maintenance tailored to women's needs.

Providing PPE designed to fit women's bodies can create a more inclusive work environment.

Companies can promote women to leadership positions to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Attracting and retaining women in crane operation and heavy machinery roles can bring construction companies a more diverse workforce, improved productivity, and enhanced reputation.

The success of these programs depends on the company's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Creating an inclusive culture in construction requires time and effort to drive human behavioural change.

Companies that embrace diversity and inclusion statistically outperform their peers and could save Australia $47 billion annually.

To create a culture of inclusivity, companies should set and measure measurable goals, as numbers are key to creating inclusive organisations.

The construction industry, traditionally male-dominated, has seen the number of female apprentices nearly double between 2016 and 2019.

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Content: Daytime Plus
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Women break into construction sector to fill labour shortages
Bloomberg: The number of construction workers in the United States exceeded 1 million in May last year, for the first time since data collection began in 1964, and the share of women among workers in the sector reached its highest level at 14.1 percent last month.
About a third of construction workers in the United States are Hispanic, according to BLS.
Cerato herself got to know the industry at an early age through her Mexican immigrant father, saying, “I used to go out to work with him, and I never saw anyone like me, so it never occurred to me that it could be a viable career path. ”
The presence of another Latina as a mentor made a big difference, she said, adding: “That ’ s why our representation is important. ”
One of the women is Andy Dirkschneider, who negotiates millions of dollars in loans to buy land for her family ’ s homebuilder, but sometimes vendors call her “petite ” and ask to speak to the man in charge.
Dirkschneider, 32, who heads Brookline Homes in Charlotte, said: “I tell them I ’ m the man in charge.
A young blonde girl doing this job confuses everyone.
It ’ s frustrating, but it can ’ t be allowed to. ”
Dirkschneider and thousands of women like her are breaking through the walls of the professions.
It is not brittle, it is concrete.
The field of construction has always been a world for men, from handicrafts such as construction and carpentry to the offices of developers and executive companies.
The accelerating wave of retirement of the 1960s and 1970s generation has exacerbated the industry ’ s chronic labor shortage.
Construction jobs totaled 440,000 in April, the highest in Bureau of Labor Statistics records that began in 2001.
Aryan Higuish, a senior researcher and fellow at the Women ’ s Policy Research Institute, said there is room for growth, because the construction sector ’ s historical dependence on men now risks constraining its growth.
The institute estimates that about a third of women in the industry work in deals, and their share across sectors such as painting and carpentry is still as small as a tenth, though Higuish believes it will continue to grow.
This is partly because of the need for labor and because states and local administrations want to see more diversity in companies when they are awarded contracts.
Patrice Haley, of the diversity leadership team at construction giant DPR, said: “In this industry, we can ’ t dismiss people on the basis of gender.
“A lot of veterans are retiring, and we can ’ t leave any of the doors closed. ”
One of the temptations for women in the industry, Haley said, was to see what they were building right in front of their eyes, and she had started working in the industry in a manual job that required wearing a helmet and toe boots.
She said, "I can say I worked on this and built that."
There ’ s also the temptation to pay better than many other jobs that don ’ t require a college degree: In 2021, the average salary of an electrician was $59,000 and $98,500 for a construction manager, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.
Taqiya Wallace, 35, works for a large energy company in tracking construction project documents.
But she dreams of getting a license as a general contractor to start working on her own.
In June, I began studying building skills in a 16-week curriculum organized by Goodwill Industries in South Piedmont, Charlotte, where I learned to read blueprints and handle equipment.
If all goes according to plan, she will finish training with four industry certifications.
Although Goodwill does not target women, its organizers say a group of 15 people who completed training last year were all women, about half of whom went on to work in industry jobs.
Wallace, who was the first to receive a college degree in her family, sees getting a contractor ’ s license and hanging a sign for her company as a way to build the wealth she can bequeath to her family.
She said, “I want to be able to tell them this is our legacy. ”
Harassment and discrimination
Despite these encouraging trends, the sector still has a long way to go.
About a quarter of respondents to a survey of 2,635 workers conducted by the Women ’ s Policy Research Institute last year said they had experienced sexual harassment or repeated harassment on the basis of sex.
Half of those surveyed said that their lack of equal treatment by men was frequent or persistent.
Jenny Parker stood at a construction site in High Point, North Carolina, on a very hot day in July, grabbing a paper cup with an iced drink as she looked at her sawdust, paint and sweat stained shirt and said, "I love this.
It took me 10 years to get here. ”
Parker, who spent nine years in the Marine Corps, was upset by the managerial jobs she worked so she could pay her bills while raising her daughter, so she started working hard in real estate.
She signed up for training in building skills so she could repair the rental housing she owned.
At High Point, Parker received hands-on training in building house structures, performing stone work, and installing roofs.
She said she was able to work in partnership with the men on the team, but there were tensions at times, adding: “To be female in a male environment you have to prove yourself and work twice as hard, ” noting that some men do not accept instructions from a woman.
She said, “It ’ s a mindset that men should overcome. ”
Nicole Goulsby, owner of Red Ladder Residential, a construction company in Raleigh, North Carolina, recalls that when she started running worksites, some men ignored her when she addressed them.
She said her experience of bias faded when she distributed her signed paychecks, and she now notes that there are more women on the crews she contracts, whether they ride boards or paint.
Golsby explained that women build relationships easily and are more attentive to details, making them suitable for her field of work.
Nicknamed “Becky Nicky, ” Golsby said,“ I see things that no one else sees, and that ’ s why I do my job well. ”
The construction industry is also attracting more minority women.
An analysis by the Women ’ s Policy Research Institute found that the number of female construction apprentices between 2016 and 2019 nearly doubled, while Latinas recorded the largest increase of any race.
If we look at Ferridiana Cerato who graduated from college in 2020 with a double major in history and Spanish without being able to find any job that would enable her to benefit from her education well, she decided to try construction management.
Cerato took courses and received some certificates, including a certificate in welding.
She is now a project engineer in Indianapolis.
The job requires toughness, the 24-year-old says, with a lot of conversational “that doesn ’ t conform to HR rules ” and dealing with cynicism at times.
Cerato is one of three women in a team of nine managers and the only Latina among them.
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How has the gender balance in the construction and maritime industries changed over recent decades?

How has the level of discrimination for female employees in the construction industry changed over recent decades?

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

Women like Andy Dirkschneider are proving well-suited for the construction industry, bringing skills like strong relationship-building and attention to detail.

How has the gender balance in the construction and maritime industries changed over recent decades?

How has the level of discrimination for female employees in the construction industry changed over recent decades?

In 2020, women comprised 10.9% of the construction industry's workforce, up from 8% in 2016.

Title:

Content: By Conor McCue

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Transportation & Construction GIRL Day returned for the fourth time in five years after the pandemic put it on pause in 2020. The annual event, which is free to attend for girls, is put on by the HOYA Foundation.

It’s geared toward educating young women about careers in the male-dominated construction and transportation industries.

(credit: CBS)

READ MORE: Ptarmigan Fire: Hundreds Remain Evacuated, New Evacuations Ordered After Wildfire Started Near Homes In Summit County

Through the trial and error of flying a drone for the first time, Lilly Gonzales opened her eyes to new possibilities at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds Tuesday.

“I almost got one stuck in a tree!” she exclaimed.

Other firsts for the 9 year old included welding and making concrete. Never had her hopes of becoming an electrician or engineer seemed so attainable.

“I just like taking things apart and rebuilding creative things, especially in Minecraft. It’s like my favorite game,” Gonzales said.

“This kind of shows me that I can do anything.”

Gonzales was one of hundreds of girls and young women who attended Transportation & Construction GIRL Day. The event is meant to show young women, ages 8 to 23, who’ve never considered a career in the transportation and construction industry a possibility.

READ MORE: Former Idaho Springs Police Officer, Nicholas Hanning, Faces Civil Lawsuit For Separate Controversial Arrest

“Last year, the construction and transportation industry was an essential industry, so we kept working, and we still need more employees,” said Keller Hayes, Director of Transportation & Construction GIRL.

(credit: CBS)

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up only 10.9 percent employees in the construction industry in 2020, an increase from 2016, when the figure was 8%.

Hayes says the opportunities are aplenty for women and the jobs can be lucrative. Part of her organization’s mission is to relay that message to a younger audience.

“There’s so many opportunities and they get paid well,” Hayes said. “In the construction industry, you get 99 cents on the dollar for comparable work to men, in comparison to 82 cents on the dollar.”

On Tuesday, employers hosted dozens of hands-on exhibits in the hopes of creating a lasting spark for attendees. The next challenge will be to nurture it so more new faces pursue a career down the road.

“Girls can do anything, even when it’s hard,” said Gonzales.

MORE NEWS: Denver Weather: Cooler Temperatures Settle In Quickly

“We want you in this industry, how can we help support you in getting you into this industry,” Hayes said.

Conor McCue

How has the gender balance in the construction and maritime industries changed over recent decades?

How has the level of discrimination for female employees in the construction industry changed over recent decades?

Women like Daniela Farias, Sofia Menacho, and Sydney Rocha are breaking down traditional gender barriers in the construction industry.

Title:

Content: 3 women helping build tallest residential building on Florida's West Coast: 'I want my name on that'

A tall building under construction in Downtown St. Petersburg is a point of pride for one woman under a hardhat.

"Because it's going to be the tallest [residential] building on the West Coast of Florida and I want my name on that," said Daniela Farias, a recent USF Civil Engineering graduate.

Farias, Sofia Menacho, and Sydney Rocha are among the relatively few women in a field long dominated by men. According to one industry group, only 10 percent of construction industry workers are female.

"I think they may be a little bit discouraged to join this field because of the low numbers.," explained Rocha, a recent architecture graduate.

Daniela Farias and Sydney Rocha work in the construction industry.

All three women are working to help build The Residences at 400 Central. Eventually, the building will rise 46 stories.

READ: New high rise apartment building coming soon to downtown Tampa

Suffolk Construction is in charge of the project, overseeing many subcontractors working in different trades.

"I work with the concrete subcontractors putting in all the steel and the rebar and also the mechanical and electrical and plumbing trees," said Farias.

All three women are in Suffolk's Career Start program. The goal is to diversify the workforce.

"People from different backgrounds, different cultures, different educations, they all bring a wealth of knowledge and experiences that diversify who we are and make us better as a company," said Chris Lewis, Suffolk's Project Executive.

Getting more women in hardhats depends on more girls taking more math, science, and technology courses in school.

READ: Trader Joe’s to open Palm Harbor store

"If a young girl has a role model to look up to, if they see that it's more common, then I think more women would be encouraged to be in the field," shared Farias.

Some say women could be especially valuable because they are better with details, organizing, and design. Whether that's true or not, the thrill of the build seems to cut across the genders.

"I started here in July, and we were on the second floor," said Menacho. "Now we're on the 24th floor. It's amazing."

With a labor shortage in the industry, Suffolk and other companies are looking to fill jobs that were once virtually "men only" with qualified women. As new buildings rise, old barriers could be coming down.

"I think I never had that in my head that I can't do something," said Farias.

Efforts to recruit women may signal a changing mindset in the new buildings that are changing our skyline.

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How has the gender balance in the construction and maritime industries changed over recent decades?

How has the level of discrimination for female employees in the construction industry changed over recent decades?

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

appoint women to traditionally male roles

Women in construction bring valuable skills and perspectives, including attention to detail, organizational abilities, and design expertise.

Companies can create a more inclusive work environment by establishing policies like paid maternity and paternity leave that exceed statutory requirements.

Title:

Content: Leighton looks to revolutionize construction to promote a diverse and inclusive work environment
Contract 14: 00 2022 / 07 / 05
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When it comes to the construction industry, many people will immediately think of a group of "real men of workers" who work day and night on the ground sweating like rain, forming a gender stereotype.
Leighton Asia (Leighton), which has been based in Hong Kong for more than 46 years, hopes to transform the male dominated image of the construction industry and create a diverse and inclusive working environment to inspire creativity and enhance team performance.
Leighton is an international construction company with parent company CIMIC Group based in Australia and team members from different countries.
Diversity and inclusion are the core values of the Group, regardless of the gender, age, race, cultural background, marital status or family status of employees, so that each employee can play their role in a diverse, equal and respectful work environment.
Creating a Family-Friendly Work Environment
As the times change, more and more women choose to enter the construction industry, Leighton has been continuously optimizing the working environment and policies to meet the development and needs of employees.
Among them, Leighton is a pioneer in the industry, providing employees with paid maternity leave and paternity leave that exceed the statutory requirements, and with flexible work policies, allowing employees to pursue their careers while taking care of their families.
Attracting female professionals to join the industry
Leighton also established the WOICE (Women in Construction and Engineering) network to enhance the care and support of employees, provide more training and further training opportunities, and work with different organizations to share the career development of women in the industry and attract women to join the construction industry.
WOICE covers all employees and enhances employee care and support.
Leighton currently employs about 20% of its workforce in Hong Kong.
Through recruitment and promotion, the company aims to achieve equal gender representation of interns and trainee engineers in the future, and to increase the proportion of female executives to more than 20%.
Leighton actively leads the industry in promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment to attract more women to join the construction industry.
Building an inclusive and diverse working environment is just one part of Leighton ’ s corporate social responsibility, and we will continue to work on different indicators to achieve sustainable development and bring more benefits to the community.
(Special offer)

What positive experiences are highlighted in the personal stories of successful women in construction and maritime industries, especially of female crane operators?

Construction companies can offer training programs with on-the-job experience and mentorship to attract and retain women in crane operation and heavy machinery roles.

Title:

Content: Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

5 key takeaways for DEI in maritime

Photo: Diversity Study Group
Heidi Heseltine founder of Diversity Study Group
Effective diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are built on clear insight, agreed upon outcomes, and targeted approaches — intentionally working to avoid the inevitable pitfalls of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

Drawing on data-led insights from members of the Diversity Study Group (DSG), Founder Heidi Heseltine offers 5 key insights on getting the basics right in maritime.

1. Building inclusion throughout an organisation’s levels

We know that shipping has made vital progress in recruiting and retaining women in certain sectors over the last few years, with significant effort put in into achieving a more gender balanced workforce. For instance, we’ve seen improvements in closing the gap in more junior/trainee levels and in management positions — though these numbers drop off at head of department and director roles, indicating fewer women in executive and senior roles.

While the knee-jerk reaction to this would be to specifically target greater inclusion only at specific tiers of management — which is often effective and can look great on corporate ESG registers — organisations should look to embed and maintain inclusion efforts at all levels, so that gender-parity is reflected throughout the business whether lower level or higher. After all, we know from well-established research that when women make up 30% in any given decision-making forum they stop being treated as ‘exceptional’ and additional women are not seen as particularly remarkable or threatening. This can be particularly key for creating welcoming spaces and proactively preventing backlash to DEI efforts, where possible. If the goal is embedding sustainable and resilient DEI practices, then our focus must be on ensuring that having women in all spaces in reasonable numbers is not the exception, but the rule.

2. Avoiding seeing women in maritime as a monolith

Women are diverse in their requirements of a workplace and its culture, and should not be lumped into a single group defined by our presumptions. When considering what DEI approaches work best at sea or even on shore, we need to account for the fact that our global workforces are culturally diverse and have different levels of awareness when it comes to gender, age, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neurodiversity and gender identity, amongst others. Societal norms, local legislation, and what is understood as ‘diverse’ can vary based on lived experience as well as the demographics of those involved. Understanding what is important to the women in individual workplaces and how we as an industry can support them will help us develop appropriate action plans for the short and long term.

3. Creating support systems to enable gender parity in technical positions

Technical positions, fleet and port management are slower to evidence change and inclusion when compared to progress seen in more traditionally female-led fields like maritime finance, Human Resources (HR), and Communications and Marketing. Organisations keen to address this disparity might benefit from creating training programs that include mentorship initiatives, skill-building workshops, and leadership development opportunities tailored to women in technical fields. This can foster confidence for the employee and their co-worker, help establish relationships for them to draw on in the workplace, and ensure they have the sector-specific knowledge and tools that they need to succeed.

4. Fostering relationships and embedding peer support

Following on from the previous point, peer support often plays a pivotal role in fostering an inclusive workplace but this doesn’t mean that disparities may not persist among different groups of people. Working with DSG, I’ve seen factors such as nationality, culture, ethnicity, and location all help or hinder DEI efforts. This is why it is crucial to closely monitor changes in perceptions, especially during challenging industry conditions, to prevent any employee from feeling undervalued or unsupported since this can impact engagement, efficiency and productivity. It’s important that organisations proactively work to recognise and address any issues in morale, which then helps maintain employee wellbeing and ensures a continued level of performance and investment in the organisation’s goals. Regular feedback mechanisms and evolving and updated policies can help support better company culture.

5. The support of leadership in successful DEI practices

Data from our members at DSG indicates that simply having knowledge of an organisation's commitment to equality, with good intentions evolving to well-researched and considered action and policy, significantly boosts confidence in fair treatment. This is often irrespective of group affiliations benefiting from such policies — everyone benefits from the process.

This confidence in a company’s commitments not only supports recruitment and retention — as establishing a sense of belonging and fairness often attracts dedicated workers and keeps them — but often helps elevate the public and private profiles of the organisation and its leaders.

The future of our workforce is global; to remain competitive within and outside of our industry, embedding fair practices and equality is likely to be a key differentiator for success.

Title:

Content: The current tagline being used by Australian Contractors Association (ACA), is “Disrupt or Die”.

This is based on a report produced by BIS Oxford Economics (now Oxford Economics Australia), that continue to show the performance in the industry is lower than it was in 1990, or an average growth of -.1 % year on year since then.  It is an industry that is “stuck in the past” and that the industry has failed to innovate according to Disrupt or Die report.

The report highlights that the diversity continues to be low and the percentage of women in the industry is at 12%.  Additionally, men’s suicide rate continues to be high (6 times more likely to die by suicide than an incident).  Also, according to Workplace Gender Equality Agency the pay disparity between men and women is 13.3%, and much higher at more senior levels.

The culture of the industry is clearly not serving anyone.  We are all losing.

Research shows that a fundamental ingredient for a healthy culture is inclusion.  However, to create an inclusive culture in construction obviously won’t happen overnight, as it takes time and considerable effort to drive human behavioural change.   That said, we must start somewhere.  Anywhere!  But the key is to start now.  Thus, the strong current industry sentiment – Disrupt or Die.

Extensive research has shown that from an organisational perspective, companies that embrace diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business statistically outperform their peers.  At a time of economic struggle this may mean the difference between keeping the business open…or not.  Disrupt or Die.

From a purely economic point of view, improvements to the industry’s productivity performance could save Australia $47 BILLION annually.

We MUST change the culture.  Disrupt!!!

Inclusive Culture

How to disrupt and create a more inclusive culture?

Firstly, there are many different definitions for “inclusive culture” but for simplistic sake for this article, an inclusive workplace culture is one that is supportive of and respectful towards all employees of all backgrounds.

Further, this means a culture which every colleague feels a sense of belonging and connection.  Where people are valued for who they authentically are, and for their unique contribution and the difference they make.  They are listened to.  Seen.  Heard.  And their views are acted on.  Additionally, where people are treated with the same level of respect through the language and behaviours not just through a company policy or values statement.

“inclusion is intentional.  It is about identifying and removing barriers so that everyone can participate to the best of their ability.”

To create a workplace culture where individuals feel safe to be their authentic selves, a level of psychological safety must be created.  This means creating a space where people feel safe to speak up, are not shut down when expressing ideas, and are supported to show up authentically.  This takes time and effort and will not happen on its own.

Language and Behaviours

Two key ingredients to building an inclusive culture are our language and behaviours.

Behaviours

Data has shown that three key leadership behaviours can help drive inclusion include:

  • Openness – open to understand others that are different to them, which helps create a safe environment for people to speak up.
  • Curiosity – being openly curious about learning more from and about your teammates, and proactively seek out different perspectives to your own.
  • Humility – appreciating other people’s strengths and giving credit where it’s due.

It is vital to try to understand from the other persons perspective (perspective taking).  The only way to do that is to ask them …do not assume you know, because you don’t.  Only each of us understand our own perspective based on our experiences, culture, and upbringing.

Perspective taking example:  Ask someone, “I would be interested to know how that made you feel when (example of when a team member experienced something that was not inclusive), to help me understand how to change my own language and behaviours.  Lean in to understand and then evaluate if something needs to be changed.

Language

We have all grown up in different households and cultures and use different words to express ourselves, which makes it challenging to know or understand if you used language that was offensive to others.  Err on the side that your language could be offensive to others.  Lean in to understand when someone highlights this.

Here are a couple of examples from this week that are simple but could be easily missed if  you don’t look at it from a different perspective, or if the person/s offended don’t feel safe to speak up.

Perspective taking example:

(posted on LinkedIn)

Post:  “FFS…really?!”

Using language that makes people feel included is fundamental.  When purchasing items in your supply chain – think before you buy!  Is it inclusive?  If not – ask that they supply products that are.  Just by asking the question and then disrupting the thought process is the start of the journey.  Ask the team to identify things in your supply chain that are not inclusive to help the perspective taking.  Disrupt.

Another example:

(Email received)

“The kitchen guy just came to do some final measurements.  Walked past one of our painters on the way in.  Says to the husband, “so you hired the painters”.  The husband looks at him confused and he says, “young good-looking female” (followed with a wink and a nod).  Wife was now very angry.  The husband doesn’t want to rock the boat with the builder so stays quiet, which further infuriates the wife. She too stays quiet as her husband doesn’t like conflict so in respect to him, said nothing.  However, after the builder leaves, the husband and wife are at odds of how to handle the situation, which has now impacted their wellbeing (are angry) and their relationship (who should have spoken up).  They are now unsure if they want that builder in their house at all.  The supply chain is hot so should they now look for someone more respectful?  Or do they address the language used with the builder?

It’s challenging when the wrong language and behaviours are used in how to address the situation.  We need to include in our culture how to address such situations in a safe and inclusive way.  Perhaps in this case, just getting curious and asking the builder in a non-defensive way, “we’re curious to understand if you know how offensive that language and behaviour is that you just used?”.  Given that the construction industry culture lives in the past, he might have never been told!  Help him!  Disrupt!

Many times, we don’t want to call out the behaviour or language because we don’t want to be seen as going against our mates. If we call it out, we often believe we will, or do get ostracised as for calling out for changes.  All of this impacts the performance of everyone involved.

To disrupt the culture is challenging but by no means insurmountable.  Yes, it takes time and effort, but is in our control to change it!  It takes perspective taking from others and building a safe place to speak up.  The upsides to disrupting and building a culture that is more inclusive is one that outperforms, creates a space for us to be more authentic, more respectful, and is more attractive to work in for everyone.

Be a disrupter!

Lean into creating a safer and more inclusive culture.

The industry needs us all to help build a better future.

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

Why are construction and maritime industries more popular with women nowadays?

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

Why are construction and maritime industries more popular with women nowadays?

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

Why are construction and maritime industries more popular with women nowadays?

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

Why are construction and maritime industries more popular with women nowadays?

These programs can include apprenticeships, internships, and training sessions on equipment operation and maintenance tailored to women's needs.

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

create training and apprenticeship programs

What are governments doing to promote and aid women in construction or maritime industries?

vocational training
inclusive policies
educational programs

Why are construction and maritime industries more popular with women nowadays?

Providing PPE designed to fit women's bodies can create a more inclusive work environment.

What are governments doing to promote and aid women in construction or maritime industries?

Companies can promote women to leadership positions to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Title:

Content: Menu
Diversity and inclusion: 7 best practices for changing your culture

Diversity and inclusion: 7 best practices for changing your culture

A team that’s diverse and inclusive leads to better outcomes in all areas of business: from recruitment and retention to product development. Here’s how to tune your D&I efforts so they work.

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) have become necessary missions for most businesses.

Research has long shown that diverse teams are more productive, more engaged, and the companies that create them are more profitable.

Despite the requisite commitment and knowledge, however, creating a truly diverse and inclusive workforce takes much more than locating and tapping a diverse hiring pipeline.

According to a recent study in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), organisations of all sizes have made unprecedented investments around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the past few years.

That same report, though, found that those efforts are not finding the level of success companies had hoped for. Much of the disappointment is not with recruitment, however. It’s with employee retention.

“In a lot of organisations, especially in tech organisations, you get a revolving door,” says Stuart McCalla, managing partner at Evolution. “People come in and then they leave.”

That’s expensive and frustrating for everyone involved.

CIO.com spoke to DEI leaders and experts to uncover the best practices for building diverse teams and a culture that nurtures those teams and individuals to stop the churn and get closer to the organisation’s overall D&I goals.

1. Set measurable goals and then measure them

“One of the most important aspects of creating inclusive organisations is about measurement,” says McCalla. “Numbers don’t lie.”

You can’t really know how well you are doing at building the inclusive environment you want if you don’t set goals and measure your progress against them.

Yet, according to the HBR study, 60 per cent of companies report that they have a DEI strategy but gender representation goals (26%) and race representation goals (16%) are infrequently part of it.

These are not recruitment goals. They are representation goals.

Maybe you hired a diverse team for entry-level positions. But where are they now? Did they get promoted and build diversity in your management team? Or did they leave because there was no opportunity for advancement, the company culture didn’t make them feel welcome, or there was bias that’s invisible to your management team but crystal clear to them?

You can use data to identify these issues and prioritise where you need to implement programs, offer training, and focus your efforts.

“If you examine the average tenure of an underrepresented group and discover that it’s less than a year or two, aggregate the exit interview data for that group,” explains McCalla.

“If 35% of those folks say they left for a better opportunity, 45% say they were unable to progress in their career, and 20% say their manager didn’t understand their experience, what should you focus on?”

Knowing your goals and how you are performing against those goals gives you a workable plan for improving what needs attention.

The HBR study found that companies do collect this sort of data, but it is underutilised.

Most companies collect gender data (90%) and ethnicity data (88%). But when it comes to attrition, only 52% of those companies analyse the data by gender and less than half (40%) look at it through the lens of race and ethnicity. And when it comes to tracking who gets promoted? The numbers drop again.

2. Fix your inclusion problems before you recruit

“The intention has to be there,” says Luan Lam, chief people officer at Harness.io. Like many D&I experts, Lam is a strong advocate of starting a company with a DEI plan already in place, setting the tone for every hire past the founders.

“If you set your intention from the beginning, it builds a framework you can fine-tune as you go along,” he says. In this way, DEI isn’t an afterthought, added during a crisis. It is baked into everything from office design to hiring to pay to processes.

“That way, there isn’t a lot of cleaning up to do. You set your intention. You put a plan in place. And you execute against that plan,” he says.

That’s great advice for startups. But if your company is not a startup, it is still important to fix your culture before you recruit. You can’t hope that, somehow, the new hires — simply through their presence — will repair your company culture from within.

“Internally organised inclusion efforts often fall informally on people from diverse backgrounds,” explains Cassandra Shapiro, global head of DEI at Reaktor.

“That is extra labor for people who are already facing unequal opportunities or barriers that are invisible to people from the majority. So, to have to create inclusion for people that come in after them is additional work. If organisations don’t find a way to formalise inclusion efforts before they start bringing in more people, people from marginalised backgrounds will not be interested in shouldering that burden and will leave.”

Recruiting a team without assuring that they will be included by your culture is a waste of your resources and efforts.

“When people find an excellent position, interview, join, and realise the culture is not making space for them, it is a monumental waste of effort — on both sides,” says Shapiro.

3. Encourage people to tell their story

A great place to start on this journey is to create forums — Slack groups, employee resource groups, events, and educational opportunities — that establish environments where people can tell their stories.

“If we encourage safe forums for speaking up, we can create a sensitive and mature approach to discussing injustice,” says Nichelle Grant, head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Siemens USA. “We can create a dialogue that strengthens our organisational culture and builds a more resilient organisation as a whole.”

This can be simple to implement and powerful: Invite experts to speak about topics around equity or that throw a spotlight on diverse experiences. Create forums where people can tell their own story and where people are encouraged to listen and respond.

“When you share stories, people automatically sit up and listen,” explains Shapiro. “They find a way to connect their own stories and their own experiences with the stories and experiences you’re sharing. At Reaktor we have open DEI meetings that end up as storytelling sessions. We also do education sessions when there are topics people want to talk about.”

For example, explains Shapiro, “We found an expert on neurodiversity and asked him to speak. The purpose was to educate us on the basics of neurodiversity. But there was also a question-and-answer session where people were buzzing, typing in lots of questions.”

That level of interest and curiosity led to Reaktor employees starting a dedicated Slack channel for neurodiversity matters, a safe space for neurodivergent people and advocates to come together. “That is a rich and active place now,” she says.

Creating these channels of inclusion are important for the people who are already there, but they also go a long way towards creating a place that is welcoming to new team members.

4. Make leaders accountable to your DEI goals

Managers have an outsized influence on the experience of people on their team so it’s important that they hear these stories around diversity and inclusion, too.

Unfortunately, leaders are often the last to hear from discontent team members, especially if they are seen as the problem. Leaders are gatekeepers for promotion, so when they make decisions that are influenced by unconscious bias, it has a ripple effect on the culture.

The HBR story found that for DEI goals to succeed, executives and leaders must be held accountable to them.

Yet most DEI plans don’t do this. Only 28% of companies hold C-suite executives accountable for progress against the DEI strategy, 23% for pay equity, 12% for gender diversity, and 5% for racial and ethnic diversity.

A mere 7% of companies hold execs accountable for gender diversity in promotions, and 5% are accountable for racial and ethnic diversity in promotions.

Having a clear process and stated criteria for advancement, too, according to a report from Culture Amp, can move responsibility and decision-making power away from managers so employees believe that bias will not stand between them and opportunities.

“One thing that has been successful for us is to work with leaders and get them ready to hear things that don’t match their current beliefs,” says McCalla.

“It can be hard for skilled, competent, successful leaders who have been around to accept the understanding of systemic oppression – how different identities work. It is hard, especially for those leaders. It is an extra layer of complexity and yet this is the leadership skill for the 21st century.”

John Marcante, CIO-in-residence at Deloitte, experienced how hard it is to see the world through a lens that is not your own at an employer-hosted diversity and inclusion event when he was the CIO at Vanguard.

“I sat next to a Black executive, and we started sharing stories,” he says. “At the time, my son was learning to drive. We got into a conversation about the stories Black parents tell their sons — especially about keeping their hands on the wheel and not reaching for the glove compartment — as an officer approaches the car. I’ve never taught my son anything like that. It hit me so hard. That was my first understanding that life is very different.”

And understanding how different the lens is for underrepresented groups is a great start. No one can be passionate and engaged in solving a problem they can’t see.

“I think about this as building a practice where I am weaving in behaviors and actions with intention into everything I do, so that it’s part of my job,” explains Libby Maurer, vice president of user experience at HubSpot. “If we’re not doing that, this is just an extra thing on your checklist that doesn’t yield an inclusive environment.”

5. Create ways for people to say what’s wrong

People who experience bias are often hesitant to tell leaders what’s wrong. Overcoming the feeling that nothing will be done about it, that there will be backlash against them, and that speaking up is dangerous to their career is an integral part of living life as an underrepresented group.

“Finding avenues for people to speak directly to you while removing any potential backlash that they might feel is so important,” says Shapiro.

Even something as simple as an anonymous Google form where people can say what’s going on can help. Even better? Solicit feedback through anonymous surveys and feedback tools so that you aren’t waiting for someone to experience extreme dissatisfaction before they find the courage to speak.

“We have many listening posts and feedback channels to listen for inclusion issues, lack of inclusion, and a lack of safe environment,” says Maurer. Without those sorts of listening posts, and even perhaps with them, you will rely heavily on exit interviews to course correct your efforts.

Solicit feedback in those exit interviews and encourage exiting employees to be candid and you will get better data to measure against your goals, change your culture or leaders, expand DEI programs, and clarify systems around pay, equity, and advancement.

“We have an entire system when folks decide to leave,” says Maurer. “So, we can get deep into the drivers for why they made that decision.”

6. Examine the rules and assumption that define your culture

Because life is so different for different slices of the population, it’s important to examine policies and cultural norms that enforce one culture while excluding others.

If you have a dress code, ban things like tattoos or piercings, or require people to come to the office at specific times, you may be excluding members of underrepresented communities that you want to hire or be preventing them from bringing their entire self to work, which makes for an exhausting workplace for them.

“How can you encourage people to be authentic if you’re not allowing them to show off their tattoos or piercings and things like that?” asks Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO at Girls in Tech.

“Do you enable people to be themselves when it comes to their thoughts and feelings? Do you encourage them to generate ideas and come to brainstorms and say what they feel? That is all part of being authentic.”

Most people from underrepresented groups can tell stories about having to change, or hide, who they are to survive or be considered for opportunities and advancement.

“Starting my career at a high-profile social networking company, back in 2008 and 2009, I would go into something I called man mode,” says Gascoigne. “I was climbing the ladder, surrounded by men. The only way I could be respected was if I wore pantsuits, talked in a lower voice, didn’t say anything funny, and was very curt. I had to have lots of slides with numbers and stats. This is very different than who I am as a person.”

Women who fight through that bias to find success are often asked to start all over if they have a child and return to a workplace where maternal bias, the assumption that they are less committed because they are mothers, is rampant.

Overall, women leave the workforce — especially those in leadership roles — in much higher numbers than men. If your data shows a high attrition rate for women, those women know why they are leaving.

“I’ll guarantee you they know why,” says McCalla, as do all underrepresented people who leave. “Maybe you should listen to that why?”

7. Give the DEI leader a seat at the table

In the past five years, there has been a 71% increase worldwide in all DEI roles, according to LinkedIn data.

But the HBR study found that work still needs to be done when it comes to listening to the DEI team.

It found that 58% of companies have a budget dedicated to DEI but only 21% have a senior role dedicated to this effort. Only 9% have a DEI leader who sits at the same level as other executives. And only 12% of those DEI leaders have a team working for them.

The Culture Amp report found that only 34% of DEI leaders reported that they had adequate resources.

Often the DEI role is part of the HR team or an independent person with little say or resources. Empower your diversity people, listen to them, and give them people to help execute against their plan.

That will give your DEI effort, according to a recent Time report, “an enterprise-wide mindset and a seat at the decision-making table.”

“Companies can’t just talk about their mission around diversity, equity, and inclusion,” says Marcante. “We have to be adamant about getting the message out that we are committed to diversity — at all levels of the company.

"We are committed to transparency and equal pay. Actions matter, too. Are the senior leaders sponsoring employee resource groups and diverse talent? Does the diverse talent in the organisation get access to senior leaders? How diverse is your senior leadership team? That’s the only way we change this.”

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What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

appoint women to traditionally male roles

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

appoint women to traditionally male roles

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

appoint women to traditionally male roles

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

appoint women to traditionally male roles

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

Attracting and retaining women in crane operation and heavy machinery roles can bring construction companies a more diverse workforce, improved productivity, and enhanced reputation.

The success of these programs depends on the company's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

commit to gender equality in hiring practices

Creating an inclusive culture in construction requires time and effort to drive human behavioural change.

Companies that embrace diversity and inclusion statistically outperform their peers and could save Australia $47 billion annually.

To create a culture of inclusivity, companies should set and measure measurable goals, as numbers are key to creating inclusive organisations.

What are construction and maritime companies doing to promote and aid women in the field?

tie gender diversity targets into contracts and deals