Workforce changes often start in schools and apprenticeship programs. Today’s programs are serving a wider diversity of students, male and female, from differing upbringings, races and cultures, ready to learn the electrical trade. This means the incoming pool of workers for contractors is going to be different than decades ago, and there is a transition underway in training programs across the United States.

There’s still much work to be done, however, to make the electrical industry and its employees more closely reflect the communities they serve, so a variety of recruiting efforts are underway around the country. For instance, NECA, the IBEW and the Electrical Training Alliance (ETA) are taking a multipronged approach, said Cindy Sanderfur, ETA’s communications and DEIB manager.

Understanding demographics and opportunities

In late 2020, the IBEW-NECA-ETA Joint Task Force for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI&B) was formed. It includes subcommittees for education and training, best practices and data collection.

The best practices group examines successful recruiting, training and retention efforts from around the country, with a goal of adding new strategies and promoting and recommending what has worked well.

“We don’t want to reinvent wheels; if something works, you want to take advantage of that. We’re not trying to create something completely new,” Sanderfur said. 

Developing best practices may require some measured approaches to ensure the most effective strategy is in place. 

“This isn’t fast work. If we rush something, then you often don’t get what you actually need,” she said.

The data collection group is looking at the numbers. The task force will create a website to release public-­facing information and tools for contractors, IBEW local unions, NECA chapters, JATCs and AJATCs to better understand the demographics and opportunities in their area.

“If I’m a training center, I can look at the census data in my area and compare it to the demographics of my training center to see how I compare to the community I serve,” Sanderfur said. “It gives people a better look into where they are and helps them to set goals for where they want to be. And it gives them something to celebrate as they diversify” the representation in their training programs.

The education and training committee is also writing a curriculum to be used throughout the IBEW, NECA and the local JATC and AJATC programs.

Feeling welcome

Inclusion does require acceptance of the cultural shift at hand.

“It really boils down to just being a nice, kind person” who is open to accepting those who are different than oneself, Sanderfur said.

The joint DEI&B task force has been measuring data for those in the electrical construction industry.

Recruitment has meant working with other resources, including the Cassandra Banks Foundation, whose goal is to empower Black women in the electrical industry. 

“We’re working closely with them, conducting focus groups and talking to the Black women that are in the classroom and on the job sites,” Sanderfur said. The goal is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable, can succeed and wants to stay.

“There’s a shift in the job market with a large population of electrical workers retiring,” Sanderfur said. “We want the brightest,” from all groups. “There are entire communities we’re not yet communicating with, and we want these people to know about and be a part of our industry.”

The business case for diversity

There’s a business case for diversity when it comes to dollars and cents. Whether gender, race or culture, statistics repeatedly find that variety leads to a more dynamic and successful operation. Differences among workers and management provide a wider set of approaches and greater innovation.

“If you have a bunch of people in a room meeting and they all believe the same thing, you’re really only scratching the surface of what you can do,” said Ronald Bailey, NECA’s vice president of industry development. Bailey is a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Marine Corps and the first African American to command the 1st Marine Division. He frequently speaks at NECA events about diversity in the industry.

Bailey has seen, firsthand, the benefits that diversity has provided for companies and organizations. He reported on some of these benefits at NECA 2022 Austin during the “Business Benefits of Diversity” panel.

Companies with diverse leadership teams attain 73% more in revenue from innovation than less diverse companies, according to global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Bailey also said that companies with diverse boards and leadership are 33% more likely to outperform less diverse companies when it comes to profitability. Productivity was up in 2019 by 25% among companies with greater gender diversity. For those with ethnic diversity, productivity was up 36%. Additionally, companies with above-­average diversity scores had a 45% average innovation revenue, which contrasts with 26% innovation revenue from companies with below-average diversity scores.

Changes in training programs

A few decades ago, it was rare to see a female electrician on the job site, but a shift is underway in training programs, said Shawn Hutchinson, training director for Phoenix Electrical JATC. So far, though, that may not be as visible in the field as it is in the training programs. It’s a change that needs to happen. 

“To diversify, if we don’t bring in the female populations of this trade [as well as other underrepresented groups], we’re going to fail.” The numbers say it all. 

“There’s not enough males to take care of what needs to happen—without female representation, we’re missing out on 50% all of the talent pool,” he said.

The time has come to be more open and approach people that the industry hasn’t communicated with as much in the past. And while the change has been slow, it’s still been noticeable. Today, Hutchinson said his training program is about 10% women, whereas in the past, women were rarer.

Generational diversity

It’s not just diversity that’s changing the program; the latest generation is bringing a variety of new requirements to the programs.

For one thing, students are coming into the program without the basic learned mechanical aptitude they had in the past. That is, in part, due to factors such as the changing technology and elimination of hands-on classes such as industrial arts from schools.

“They tinker on computers instead of wrenching on cars,” Hutchinson said, and that serves as a challenge for the program.

In just four years, training programs must create professionals who rise from having no functional background to becoming industry experts.

That challenge comes from the entire cross-population of trainees, though women are less likely than men to have been taught mechanical skills by their parents or teachers. As a result, training programs are developing more hands-on activities. The Phoenix JATC program has begun teaching the most basic skills of a journeyman: how to turn a screwdriver and read a tape measure, tool identification, etc. Some students, Hutchinson said, have never seen a ratchet or a pair of side-cutting pliers.

When it comes to actual recruiting, he said, “we don’t have the ability to touch all the populations directly, so we depend on partners and groups that help take our message to the people.”

The question of inclusion—once recruiting has been successful—is still being addressed. Hutchinson said in most cases where harassment or unfair treatment was reported—in particular, from women—behavior modification required re-educating the perpetrators.

Ultimately, graduates of the Phoenix JATC program are as successful as ever, Hutchinson said, and are providing the needed skills that contractors demand.

“The overwhelming majority of the people that graduate the program are very successful and end up in leadership positions,” he said, referring to a diverse group of graduates who go on to run job sites or work in project management.

The program has grown in size to address the high construction demands in Arizona. In the 1990s, there were fewer than 200 apprentices total for the Phoenix program. Fast-forward to today and, between industry growth and market share gains, the program has 648 apprentices.

For contractors, the shift requires breaking with some old-school expectations. There is hesitancy from some when it comes to hiring less “traditional” electrical workers such as women. They might express concern about a woman doing heavy work such as duct-bank construction and underground power systems installations. However, real-world experiences tend to change that perception.

According to Hutchinson, “100% of the time, the feedback from the contractor side is that they are very impressed” with the electrical worker who steps into her new role, “and that she totally exceeded their expectations.”

When it comes to heavy lifting, “There is a lot of new technology on job sites that means you don’t need the brute strength” to complete installations, he said. “Supportive industries are creating more and more innovative ways to install this heavy equipment in ways that are not as strenuous.”

Going forward, Hutchinson hopes to see the diversification trends continue—with more women and minorities in leadership positions who prove to be examples for the next generation of workers.

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