Pub. 2 2019-2020 Issue 1

T he asphalt industry needs more skilled people than are currently available. One of the best ways to deal with the shortage of qualified employees is to hire more women, some- thing that has traditionally been very hard to accomplish despite efforts made by those within the industry. For example, the federal government has been working unsuccessfully for decades to increase the number of women in construction. Why has hiring women been so hard? According to an online article dated Jan. 11, 2018, by the Institute for Women’s Research Policy, women receive the same training as men, but after that, they have to deal with normalized, rampant, con- stant gender discrimination. A repor t published in 2014 by the National Women’s Law Center said that 88% of women in the construction industry had been harassed. Only 25% of women in the general workforce had been harassed. When most companies take on the problem of harassment, regardless of the industry, they focus on avoiding lia- bility and symbolic legal compliance. The approach is ineffective because it hasn’t caused any changes. Although there have been enormous cultural changes since the 1970s, that doesn’t mean the culture has changed enough to make harassment a non-prob- lem in the U.S. However, people are more willing to speak up than they used to be, leadership is more willing to talk about the problems, and the EEOC is seeing an increase in the number of lawsuits being filed. There were 12% more claims filed in 2018 than there had been in 2017, the first time the number had increased in eight years. As a result of EEOC efforts, claimants received almost $70 million, as opposed to $47.5 in 2017. What can companies in the construction industry do to address the problemmore effectively? If you think the only standard is avoiding the courtroom, you have set the standard far too low. You do want to stop negative behavior as early as pos- sible, long before it becomes a legal lia- bility, but the more important goal is to create a supportive, positive culture. • Hire and promote more women. They change the culture just by being there and holding responsible positions. • Build a culture of respect and civility by focusing more on what you want people to do than on what you don’t want them to do. All employees have a responsibil- ity to treat each other as equals. • Encourage people to speak up when they have a problem. If they do speak up, treat them in a supportive way and talk to them about what happened. • Keep any training professional. Work toward a friendly atmosphere, but do not allow people to belittle the topic or make a joke of it, even by smiling. Harassment is serious, and it deserves serious treatment. • Focus on having people deal with what they have control over, such as their words, their eye contact, and the way they interact with others. • Train managers and supervisors sepa- rately from other employees. Use exam- ples that are related to the asphalt and construction industries in order to high- light actions that can be classified as misconduct or harassment. Present a scenario and have managers and super- visors act out what they ought to do in response. • As much as possible, praise should be public and correction should be private. Praise or correction should be done by 34 #METOO AND THE ASPHALT INDUSTRY