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LISA KAY, from page 3

paid strong dividends, bringing not only diverse candidates, but also highly quali- fied, well-trained talent. I also enroll the alumni I’ve hired from these groups to be our firm’s recruiting team for the next round of hires. Because the candidates in these programs are the top women and minorities in the university, we focus on seeking the best candidates from within that group. I do not believe in setting quotas, but this helps narrow our focus while still giving us top talent. This isn’t the only way we hire, but it has been a highly beneficial recruiting method when we want to expand our firm’s diversity. ❚ ❚ Accept that we are biased. We are all biased. You are and I am. Each of us, women and men alike, have uncon- scious bias that impacts our thinking. It has been said that there are more than 150 types of unconscious bias. They span gender, race, age, appearance, and wealth. It could have to do with the col- lege someone attended, the car they drive, the state they grew up in, their name, or the brand of handbag they carry, among many other things. These biases are reflexive and ingrained. You may think and say that you only hire and promote the best candidates, but unconscious bias still influences you. That’s why it’s called “unconscious” bias. It is reflexive and deep seated. The way you think about work, the way you think about how people perform in their jobs, the way you think about who you hire and promote – all of these are prone to biases. We must each accept that we are biased and try to create clear processes to keep those biases from impacting our recruit- ing, hiring, and promoting practices. What are your best practices to increase AEC industry diversity? LISA KAY is president of Alta Environmental. She can be reached at lisa.kay@altaenviron.com. “We must each accept that we are biased and try to create clear processes to keep those biases from impacting our recruiting, hiring, and promoting practices.”

more women directors it must add. By 2021, companies with four board seats or less must have at least one female director; those with five must have two female directors; and those with six or more board members must have at least three female directors. As of late summer 2018, only 15.8 percent of the board seats in publicly traded California companies in the Russell 300 Index were held by women, according to Bloomberg. In a 2017 Deloitte survey on board of director diversity, business leaders, at 95 percent, overwhelmingly agreed on the value of diversity and that their boards should source diverse candidates with diverse perspectives and skills. The study found a large part of the problem lies in board recruitment and candidate sourcing practices. Most boards source candidates from their own industries, or from other boards where women only represent 16 percent of the total candidate pool, and where racial minorities only represent 19 percent of the candidates sourced. This narrowing of the candidate pool through looking at industries and boards is logical from an experience base, but it also means boards are only seeing candidates similar to themselves. What can we do to advance our industry and create more diversity within our firms? ❚ ❚ Plenty of fish in a diverse sea. I always seek to hire the best person for the po- sition at hand, regardless of gender or background. There are simple methods I have used to be certain I’m reaching a diverse pool of talent. Several local uni- versities have STEM-focused minority and women’s programs which mentor the top performing engineers and scien- tists throughout their careers in college and graduate school. Identifying interns and new hires from these groups has “California requires every publicly traded company incorporated in California, or with headquarters in the state, to have at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019 – or face penalties.”

2018 PRINCIPALS, PARTNERS & OWNERS SURVEY Zweig Group’s 2018 Principals, Partners & Owners Survey of AEC Firms is a comprehensive study of owners and top managers of U.S. AEC firms. This eye-opening report covers ownership, stock appreciation, buy/sell agreements, non-compete agreements, voting rights, roles, responsibilities, perks, compensation, and more. The 2018 Principals, Partners, and Owners Survey has data on the following: ❚ ❚ Principal compensation, benefits, and perks ❚ ❚ Common issues and challenges related to running an AEC firm ❚ ❚ Qualifications, job requirements, and demographics of principals, partners, and owners in the industry ❚ ❚ Employment agreements, non- competes, and stock buyback provisions ❚ ❚ How principals manage time and break down the work day Zweig Group’s 2018 Principals, Partners & Owners Survey of AEC firms is the one annual report for, by, and about principals and top managers in U.S. AEC firms, and it’s the only source of inside information on the issues that principals are really concerned with. For the 2018 edition, principals from across the U.S. in the AEC industry, were questioned about their compensation, perks, privileges, ownership, work habits, professional backgrounds, personal life, and feelings about business practices, fellow principals, and industry issues. Their responses were then tabulated and analyzed. To learn more, visit bit.ly/2Q6S13d.

THE ZWEIG LETTER December 17, 2018, ISSUE 1276

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