Kelvin Wong, PE, Haley & Aldrich, Inc.
Background
Haley & Aldrich has had a long standing ethos of focusing on our people, and how our people impact our communities. Our company culture has defined how we work; fostering innovation and continuous learning have long been core values. While the outcomes of these values are often more visible in H&A’s technical work and professional services, company culture has readily manifested itself in our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, including some of the good work we’ve accomplished in the past 5+ years.
Our firm began to make targeted efforts to increase the pipeline of diverse candidates and future company leaders, with notable gains in the previous decade. The percentage of women on our staff grew above architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry averages in the 2010s, up to over 40%. And today, 60% of our executive leadership are women. But management also recognized that we still needed to work on other aspects of our diversity to make ourselves better; we still didn’t reflect the communities in which we lived, worked, and served. Per the National Science Foundation’s NSB (National Science Board) advisory group, even in 2024 “we are not producing STEM workers in either sufficient numbers or diversity to meet the workforce needs of the 21st century knowledge economy, especially if STEM talent demand grows as projected.”
Even with several existing, highly-regarded AEC programs working to increase overall pipeline, the industry is still short on workforce, especially minority candidates and others from underrepresented backgrounds. At the end of last decade, H&A’s senior management encouraged our staff to rethink our conventional, to find ways to impact our staff profile and our local communities, with full company backing.
We have always been a company dedicated to continuous learning. Finding new ways to solve systemic problems is in our DNA, and several of our staff thought to study our (and our industry’s) norms and where we could reimagine pipeline.
Internal Commitment
While starting our concerted efforts outward, H&A in parallel performed an inward assessment: where we were in our journey, what existing processes worked well and what didn’t, which practices lent itself to our current norms, what our future state wanted to look like, who would champion these efforts, and how might we get there - and, the part not many in the industry want to talk about, how much would that cost in dollars and hours, and when we could see a return on investment (and how that return is measured).
An established DEI community of practice (COP). Our staff-led COP has provided an avenue for interested staff members to develop company-sponsored initiatives that foster both internal and external improvements. The COP manages and contributes to many facets of programs described herein, and meets quarterly to share learnings, opportunities, and ideas. The COP also develops and proposes to the management team potential modifications that could improve our practices.
Image 1 – Visual of how H&A’s DEI COP is functionally
organized, internally and externally.
The conceptual model (Image 1) was conceived by our COP, and the concept is simple: inwardly if our roots are strong, outwardly we will create foliage. And with foliage, the plant stem will widen in response, enough for the plant to eventually bear fruit. This was how we envisioned our processes could meaningfully affect our pipeline.
Among the COP and its initiatives, other key internal highlights include:
External Engagement
We concluded that by late college - traditionally when budding engineers and scientists get their first professional experience - the industry has already lost many promising students to other fields of study, including those who don’t feel represented in, become disinterested in, or don’t have the time or resources to change direction and pursue AEC fields.
It is this realization that led to our approach to engage students earlier in their academic careers and stretch the AEC pipeline. “You have to see it to be it” is overused but deservedly so, and we often add the context that the younger and more often students see an engineer, the more likely they will want to be an engineer. For this reason, our engagement model begins as early as elementary school (Image 2), and continues through high school and early college, extending the pipeline beyond typical student interactions at the junior and senior year of traditional engineering colleges.
Image 2 – Local elementary school visiting the Wind Technology
Testing Center in Charlestown, MA.
We also concluded that the chances of retaining a student exposed only to H&A’s specific disciplines may be low, and the effort less efficient. We needed to widen the pipeline: broaden students’ exposure to all AEC disciplines to increase the odds of successful, collective retention (Image 3). By showing students that there is something for nearly every career interest in the AEC space, we convey that those who don’t like one specific discipline do not need to leave our industry entirely; they can readily transition to another discipline that interests them. This is a unique trait of AEC, that we inherently are more diverse in our expertise than most industries. The nimbleness in what students want to become in the AEC industry is also something we emphasize to the students; at any point in their career trajectory, they can pivot to another discipline.
Image 3 – Welcome board at a school career poster session,
showcasing diverse AEC disciplines collectively.
Our student outreach model was borne from these two conclusions. Our value proposition to schools and their students included both career exploration on a broad scale and the opportunity to connect directly with multiple industry professionals in a repeatable, authentic way.
We also find opportunities to leverage our project sites to connect with surrounding communities. Partnering with construction managers, developers, and other collaborating project team members, we host students from our partnering schools at nearby sites that are accessible to them. These visits show students the broadness of the industry while demystifying the development they see happening in their neighborhoods. In 2024, we hosted nine field trips to projects ranging from sites under construction to completed spaces and testing facilities. We even made undeveloped future sites like an underutilized parking lot fun (Image 4).
Image 4 – Plan-reading disguised as a scavenger hunt at the future
Dorchester Bay City site.
H&A staff successfully implemented this grassroots model over several years of learning, adapting, and meeting students (and faculty) where they are. We’ve partnered with Boston Public Schools (BPS) K-12, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities, particularly those that may be underserved and/or comprise student groups underrepresented in our industry.
Today, our programming includes field trips to project sites (Image 5) and firm offices, in-classroom presentations/demonstrations and hands-on activities (Image 6), career exploration poster sessions (Image 7), weekend STEM fests, and even events for educators, such as teacher workshops (Image 8) and walking tours through the Seaport neighborhood. These events serve as a proving ground to help us gain trust in the community. In turn, students who show further interest and desire at these events naturally feed the candidate pool for our aforementioned STEM internship program.
Image 5 – School field trip to an unfinished One Congress tower in Government Center.
Image 6 – In-class engineering material properties demonstration.
Image 7 – Poster Session at a BPS school, with over a
dozen different AEC professionals participating.
Image 8 – BPS teacher workshop and water sampling demonstration behind H&A’s office.
By The Numbers
A concept that once began as a few neighborhood schools with exploratory conversations has scaled to deep partnerships at more than a half dozen schools City-wide, each with tailored amounts of programming — some even involve rewriting the curriculum. BPS’ Central Office has welcomed our model and meets with us regularly to find ways to implement our programming at other underserved schools. Partnership requests from other schools in and around Boston continue to come in directly as word of our quality programming spreads. H&A continually recognizes we cannot do this alone, and we gratefully welcome our network of industry professionals, as it provides both schools and each firm with more opportunities to connect while we share learnings. In 2024 alone, we hosted more than 1,000 student and faculty interactions at more than 40 events, involving 45 other AEC firms who share our vision. We are thankful for their participation, including those that have since connected more deeply with schools. We project that these numbers will increase as we deepen existing school relationships, start new ones, and welcome more of industry to come join us.
Last year, we also partnered with Professional Women in Construction (PWC) Boston Chapter. PWC aligns with our vision, and their members and affiliate firms accounted for nearly half the number of the AEC firms that volunteered with us. As we grow this industry partnership (and hope to form others) in 2025, we envision scaling our proven model to yet another level, through Greater Boston and beyond into surrounding communities and neighborhoods. Together we will continue to stretch and widen the AEC pipeline.
Credits/Acknowledgements
Haley & Aldrich would like to acknowledge these AEC firms that have contributed over the years to the success of our student outreach model, by their participation, sponsorship, individual volunteerism, generous hosting, or related means of support:
Accordia Partners | Acentech | Alexandria Real Estate Equities |
Bala Consulting Engineers | Beals and Thomas, Inc. | Bond Building Construction |
BR+A Consulting Engineers | cbt | Cox Engineering |
Columbia Construction | Cumming Group | DivcoWest |
DPR Construction | The Fallon Company | Finegold Alexander Architects |
Federal Realty Investment Trust | Gensler | Gilbane Building Co. |
Hood Park, LLC | The HYM Investment Group | IMEG Corp |
Jacobs | Jaros, Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers | John Moriarty & Associates |
Lee Kennedy | LeMessurier Consultants | Lincoln Property Company |
McNamara Salvia Structural Engineers | Millennium Partners | National Development |
Nitsch Engineering | Northeastern University | Northstar Project & Real Estate Services |
Page | Piquette & Howard Electric Service | Redgate |
Related Beal | RMF Engineering | The RMR Group |
The S/L/A/M Collaborative | Samuels & Associates | Scalora Consulting Group |
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | Stantec Architecture | Suffolk Construction |
Thornton Tomasetti | Tsoi Kobus Design | Trademark Partners |
Wilcox and Barton | William Rawn Associates | WS Development |
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