SERVICES
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Policies of Diversity and Inclusion help build better businesses and a stronger community.
When larger companies participate in diversity and inclusion, subcontractors, vendors, and workers can contribute to the economic stability of their community. Recycling Local Dollars promotes the city’s quality of life, and benefits local retail businesses, and residents as well. Working to help companies diversify suppliers and their workforce, allows us to connect project opportunities to local businesses and future employees.
Over the years, we’ve worked on projects with a total construction value of over $3 billion, with approximately $750 million being spent with diverse suppliers, and recycled into the Wisconsin economy. Our participation in developing community and business partnerships includes an educational coaching approach to supplier and workforce diversity, so that project managers and local businesses are ‘on the same page’, and can work together to implement detailed strategic plans that promote diverse supplier and workforce inclusion.
Key steps in this process include:
Creating diversity policies and plans specific to the needs of each of your contracts
Facilitating contract opportunities for diverse suppliers and vendors
Targeting qualified workers for employment – to expand local opportunities, and help you reach your contract goals.
Diversity and Inclusion is not only industry standard behavior, it’s a smart Business practice!
Leading construction organizations and trade associations fully support the commitment to building a diverse workforce for many reasons: with a labor shortage in the construction industry, diversity expands the workforce; it builds a positive community image for your project; and helps reflect the changing demographics in most communities.
For instance, while women represent over 52% of the U.S. population, they are only 9.1% of the construction workforce – imagine the economic impact to a community if more women had high paying jobs in the industry, with more money to spend in the local economy. And with increasing percentages of minority populations, diversity and inclusion are critical to providing opportunities in all segments of the community, while building a workforce to keep pace with future growth and expansion.
Studies show that diverse firms have increased profitability, with lower attrition, and less need to constantly hire and train new employees. For these reasons, and so many more, we have developed a strong Diversity and Inclusion process that we can implement for your project.
By understanding your goals, and building an Outreach and Tracking program to help you reach them, we take care of the Diversity plan details, so you can focus on project design and construction details.
Most of our clients don’t have in-house staff experienced in the complexities of Contract Compliance, Diversity and Inclusion Outreach recruiting and retention, so we fill a very real need in their Operations -- we believe we can do the same for you.
CONTRACT COMPLIANCE
Contract Compliance has become a critical part of Project Bids, Award Considerations and Implementation - You’ll be more competitive in bidding, and more protected from liability if you have a solid plan.
Whether projects are governed by Federal, State, or local funding and regulations, there are specific requirements for each category. The overall goals, however, are to create a nondiscrimination environment on all projects, and to maximize opportunities for all. It’s critical that all parties involved have a clear understanding of the Contract requirements, and establish policies and procedures to satisfy each of the specified participation goals.
City, State and Local Projects often require documentation for diverse business and workforce inclusion on items like:
Detailed Project Job categories
Marketing Plan descriptions, and job placement advertising
Specified outreach efforts
Contractor Compliance plan
Payroll information for Primes & Subs
Section 3 and Davis-Bacon Tracking
Quarterly reporting on diverse business and workforce performance
Our clients generally are busy running their companies, so they appreciate having the experts at Cross on hand to take care of all the Contract Compliance requirements. We work with our clients to make sure their policies are up to date and being implemented, and that all their project personnel know the regulations, the weekly reporting requirements, and how to enforce them.
If you have questions on your Contract Compliance plan, if you need assistance with any aspect of implementation, we may be a resource for you.
You’ll save time and money by having it done right, and avoid the stress of a ‘surprise audit’, and the potential liabilities that can represent.
MONITOR, REVIEW, REPORT
Let us show you our full process for your Information management.
With Increasing Scrutiny on Compliance Issues, Documentation Becomes Even More Important
As agencies and project owners become ever more vigilant on the performance of their Primes and Subcontractors, detailed records should be a critical part of your day to day operations. With changing rules and regulations, you need a resource with up to date information, to make sure your records accurately reflect contract requirements and achievement.
Your employment tracking, outreach statistics, and overall performance against contract goals must be part of a defined process to capture all the information, and be easily accessible in case of an Audit notification.
Our Monitor, Review and Report process can help you make sure you are capturing all the necessary data, have it organized and easy to retrieve, in the established format, should you face an Audit. We submit your information as required, so that you are always in Compliance with reporting regulations.
And our documentation can take multiple forms, in addition to the information submitted for review. Some clients request publication of a Project quarterly report they can share with their Board members, Executives, local officials, and the public. We can help assimilate the data, and provide a finished report for your use.
OUTREACH SERVICES
Targeted Outreach is the Most Effective Way to Reach Your Project Goals – You’ll save time and money with our streamlined processes, and extensive database of contacts
Each of your projects may have different contract goals, based on your funding sources, the agency in charge, or the physical location of the project. In many cases, your Outreach plan is a critical component of your Inclusion plan needed for the Bid documents on a project. The more comprehensive your plan, the more likely the Bidder places increased value on your efforts toward diversity.
With over 25 years of client successes, we’ve developed quite a network of organizations, training programs, and individuals who can help you reach your goals. The database of certified, capable firms you’ll have access to, when you work with us, can specifically target the types of businesses you need to meet your goals, whether it’s Certified Firms, Local Hire, Union / Non-Union, or the Residents Preference Program for the City of Milwaukee.
It’s important to know all the details of the Contract requirements, and more importantly, to have a plan to meet or exceed those requirements, to avoid problems during the project. In some cases the City can withhold payment, or assess penalties if goals aren’t met.
We will handle all your database management, email invitations to your events, process Attendee registrations, and create tracking documentation for your Compliance files. It makes the process much easier for you, as we take care of all the details, so you can focus on the content of the presentation, and meeting potential subcontractors at the event.