S2 Episode 7: Tackling Talent Imbalance in the Construction Industry: Insights from LEAP TA 2023
Welcome to the Construction DEI Talks podcast, where we dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion as they relate to the construction industry. Co-hosts Jorge Quezada, Vice President of Inclusive Diversity at Granite Construction, Stephanie Roldan, Director of Lean Culture at Rosendin, and Aby Combs, Inclusive Diversity Business Partner at Granite Construction, bring new conversations with subject matter experts and discuss how we can make our industry better and stronger. Today, Jorge and Aby talk with guests Gemma and Georgia from the Hanson Wade Group, which specializes in bringing people together to attend conferences. They discuss the LEAP Talent Acquisition (TA) Conference, which is an event that focuses on talent acquisition, but also makes a commitment to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. This conference will be held in Chicago from May 22nd to May 24th. Jorge and Aby want to amplify this organization and the work they are specifically doing in advancing diversity in construction.
First, both Gemma and Georgia share a time when they felt different. Gemma was living and studying in France and felt very different culturally from the French people. British people are known for being a little uptight, while the French go with the flow. Georgia also talks about feeling different culturally when she visited the United States in terms of the people and the attitude. The Hanson Wade Group speciality is running events and building industry specific communities that want to transform the impact on their industries. They are in the field of enabling, inspiring and energizing HR professionals and leaders. They aspire to provide these platforms with great work that HR is already doing.
Next, Georgia discusses the differences between talent versus HR. She says there are two major LEAP construction events– the TA occurs in the spring.summer and the HR is in the winter. The TA (talent acquisition) is a deep dive conference in attracting, hiring and onboarding talent into construction. They are also doing another deep dive into diversity in construction on the pre-conference day. They felt diversity in construction deserved a whole day focused on that and separate from anything else. The HR conference is broader and focused on many categories like wellbeing, performance management, etc. They run 50 conferences now for construction that is functional specific, but almost all of them are having conversations around diversity.
Gemma has seen an evolution of diversity. There has been diversity at the LEAP conferences for the last 5-6 years, but it has never been the top issue. After COVID and the civil unrest, diversity issues have increased tenfold along with talent shortages. There has always been DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), but now there is an emerging “B” or belonging piece to it. Diversity has grown because industries are now building teams around these major themes. The civil unrest seen in the US during the time of COVID has a ripple effect in England and other European industries as well, especially with a lot of discussion around the police force. There is also an element of perception of the industry and we need to make sure we are supporting the diverse employees we have. Diversity has grown in companies on three very different levels: some companies want to do the right thing, some feel pressure and feel like they need to do DEI and other companies are reactionary and feel like they have to do it. The LEAP TA conference has an agenda that is specific for talent acquisition including: JE dunn, granite, flynn, heads of the TA departments, etc. All of these companies are sharing “LEAPs”, or an initiative or exciting piece of work or process that they have rolled out. Sometimes the work itself doesn’t move forward because not enough of us are taking that leap to move it forward.
Before wrapping up, both Gemma and Georgia share what they see and hear in these conferences that give them hope. Gemma says the passion of the people on the stage sharing LEAPs or the passionate, engaging dynamic discussions give her hope. Georgia says at the last conference someone stood up and said that the conference made him not feel so alone. Lastly, they ask listeners to be curious and passionate.
Links:
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Learn more about podcast sponsors Granite Construction and Rosendin
Learn more about the LEAP TA Construction Conference.
