Women in Construction White Paper
About the Report
Women in the Workplace with a significant portion of the heavy equipment industry’s workforce nearing retirement and a troubling lack of young workers or new hires available to take their place, the skilled labor shortage looms large in the minds of many dealers. The labor shortage is costing the industry a shocking $2.4 billion per year in lost revenue and more and more dealerships are having to find creative ways to attract new employees – including reaching out to a historically underrepresented demographic: women.
Employers in the related fields of construction, mining and agriculture are also courting female workers like never before. While the heavy equipment industry is primed for a transformation, many believe that progress toward gender equality in the sector has stalled.
Women in Construction White Paper
To get a sense of where women in the heavy equipment industry stood on this issue, Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) hosted its first Women in Construction Equipment Roundtable on May 17, 2018, in Chicago. The women attending represented 19 organizations involved in the construction equipment industry, including both dealers and manufacturers. Attendees focused on two key questions during the Roundtable discussion:
- What can we do to attract more women to the industry?
- What can we do to support each other, and the other women in the industry?
This report shares some of the constructive insights that were voiced during the Roundtable. AED would like to present these ideas, challenges and solutions to guide manufacturers and dealers in rooting out gender bias within their organizations. Before companies can tailor solutions to meet the needs of a gender-equal workforce and tackle the labor shortage crisis, they must find out what women really want from an employer.
