The ACEC Research Institute’s Diversity Roadmap is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) maturity model and benchmarking tool for ACEC member firms.
The Diversity Roadmap is essential for engineering firms representing the built environment for several reasons:
Assessing Current State and Future Progress: The Diversity Roadmap allows engineering firms to measure their current DEI&B efforts and progress over time. It provides a quantitative and qualitative assessment of diversity and inclusion practices, helping firms understand where they stand and identifying areas for improvement.
Identifying Gaps: Engineering firms can now compare their DEI&B practices with industry standards and select peer groups. This helps firms identify gaps between their current state and desired diversity and inclusion goals, highlighting areas where additional efforts are needed.
Attracting and Retaining Talent: A strong DEI&B focus has become increasingly important for attracting and retaining talent. The Diversity Roadmap helps engineering firms identify strategies to create an inclusive and equitable work environment, improving their ability to recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds.
Fostering Innovation and Creativity: Teams benefit from diverse perspectives and experiences, and engineering firms with a culture of inclusion and belonging where everyone feels that their voice will be heard develop more innovative solutions for complex challenges in the built environment.
Enhancing Decision-Making: The Diversity Roadmap provides valuable data and insights that inform decision-making processes within the engineering firm. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, firms can make informed decisions regarding talent acquisition, training, policies, and resource allocation to advance their DEI&B goals and investments effectively.
Meeting Client and Stakeholder Expectations: Many clients and stakeholders now prioritize diversity and inclusion. Engineering firms that demonstrate a commitment to DEI&B through benchmarking and improvement initiatives are more likely to align with the values and expectations of their clients and stakeholders, enhancing their work quality, reputation, and competitiveness.
Improving Accountability and Transparency: By allowing firms to track their DEI&B progress, which can be reported internally and externally at the firm’s discretion, the Diversity Roadmap makes it easy for firms to provide concrete information about their commitment to DEI&B, thus building trust with clients, employees, and stakeholders.
The Diversity Roadmap provides engineering firms representing the built environment with a structured approach to assess, monitor, and advance their DEI&B efforts. It allows them to align with industry standards, attract diverse talent, and create an inclusive workplace that promotes innovation, creativity, and sustainable growth.