If you pay close attention to construction news you often find underlying currents that point to the subtle issues of today that will grow into the major issues of tomorrow. Workforce diversity is one such issue.
This past spring Philadelphia released a study that found one-fifth of all construction workers on large city projects were male minority members. But the report concluded that number should be closer to one third.
Also this spring, as Oregon’s unemployment rate became the third highest in the nation, the state legislature grappled with three bills that addressed increasing the diversity of the workforces on state projects.
Meanwhile, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) found itself justifying its efforts at diversity in the face of calls for more minority participation in St. Louis construction projects. MODOT pointed out that minority involvement was five points higher than required by the federal government.
This is not just a US issue. In their paper, “Obstacles to Diversity in Construction,” Linda Clarke and Maria Gribling used London’s Heathrow Airport expansion as an example. On that project, according to the authors, labor shortages were the evidence that “old-style apprenticeships, craft-based skill structures, an itinerant workforce, and intensive deployment of labor,” are the real causes of the lack of diversity in that country’s construction sector. Indeed, this past July, Britain’s Construction Industry Council called for industry action on diversity pointing out that the sector lags behind other employment sectors when it comes to diversity.
There are a lot of definitions of what constitutes diversity in a construction workplace, but for what it’s worth mine goes like this:
A diverse workplace is one that seeks out and actively recruits and includes qualified people who are different from the majority.
While “different from the majority” could encompass a lot of variables, (gays, atheists, people who attended Harvard, etc.), I’m just going to focus on women and minorities here. But even when considering a narrowed focus like that you have to ask yourself just how you go about “seeking out” diversity when you may have well qualified candidates already available. Do you pass over the “white guy” just so you can add an equally qualified black woman to the ranks? No matter how you cut it, these become tough choices and they are only going to get tougher, especially in the face of a changing labor supply and changing demographics coupled with lessons learned about human nature.
There are many observations, studies and treatises on why diversity is not only important, but also necessary. It seems that homogenous groups of people become obsolete because new ideas are not allowed to flourish. Any entrepreneur who has been listening has been told more than once to hire people who are different from themselves. That way, if they pick right, those people will make up for the things they, themselves, aren’t good at.
In their paper, “Diversity Pays Off For Everyone,” Diversity Management Strategists cite the changing workforce and consumer demographics as driving the modern quest for diversity, as opposed to affirmative actions and the minority quotas of the past. The company also points out that the “cozy” environments created in small and mid-sized businesses where there is little diversity result in extremely inflexible businesses. They add too that keeping a narrow focus on the types of people you will hire only means you are greatly narrowing your field of potential candidates. That in itself may not portend well if current estimates related to the construction workforce actually come to pass. Having access to a wide variety of people is going to become more and more important as the construction sector faces declines in its traditional pool of workers – white males.
According to Bureau of Labor statistics the participation rate in the labor market for whites is expected to continue a decline it began in 1997 and end up at 65.5 percent in 2016, the same as it was in 1986. Meanwhile, the participation in the labor markets by blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are all set to rise even in the face of their rising populations.
For many construction firms in the US, and other countries as well, diversity within construction’s ranks has often existed on a “need” basis. Usually the need has related to achieving lower costs on projects. While few might admit it publicly they may look the other way as illegal aliens do the work. They may also specifically source from minority and women-owned enterprises because they perceive they can get a cheaper price, but when it comes to establishing long-term relationships the welcome mat is pulled back.
Going forward it will be interesting to see how valuing diversity morphs from a politically correct thing to do that also has immediate economic rewards, to the correct thing to do in order to survive and thrive.
No doubt you can find many resources that will point the way toward a more diverse workforce for your company. A couple notable items I came across while researching this post are from the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. One is a self assessment tool you can use to evaluate the level of diversity within your company. The other is an Employer Guide you can order that will help you to set up, or continue to develop an effective diversity program.
