The Business Case for DEI&B Programs

Engineering Inc. magazine

AN ACEC RESEARCH INSTITUTE REPORT SUGGESTS THAT FOCUSING ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING CAN LEAD TO A RETURN ON INVESTMENT FOR ENGINEERING FIRMS

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) programs have received no shortage of media attention—both positive and negative—in recent months. Business leaders look­ing to cut through the noise, however, should consider whether such programs boost their bottom line.

A new report by the ACEC Research Institute indicates that DEI&B efforts can do precisely that for engineering and design firms.

The report, The Impact of DEI&B Programs on Engineering Firms–A Case Study, was commissioned by ACEC and conducted by the Institute for Association and Nonprofit Research (IFANR). The preliminary findings high­light the experiences of 13 firms across the United States that have been using ACEC’s Diversity Roadmap benchmarking tool. And they represent a strong step toward quantifying more broadly the financial impact of DEI&B programs on engi­neering and design services firms, says Joe Bates, president of IFANR and the report’s lead researcher.

“There is a lot of research indicating that DEI&B does impact financial success, but there wasn’t any specifically tar­geted to our community,” says Lisa Brothers, PE, president and CEO of Nitsch Engineering and leader of ACEC’s Business Case for DEI&B subgroup. “So these industry-specific case studies really qualitatively—but not quantitatively yet—suggest that there’s a correlation between DEI&B and financial success and point to the need for broader research.”

THE IMPACT OF FOLLOWING A ROADMAP

ACEC Research Institute developed the Diversity Roadmap as an industry-specific tool to help firms assess their DEI&B maturity.

“Participants can use the Diversity Roadmap tool to see where they stand as far as their goals, and it gives them an action plan to continue to make progress toward their DEI&B goals,” Brothers says. “I feel strongly that the tool can help firms develop greater intentionality around their DEI&B goals, and this research looks at the impact of following that Roadmap.”

Bates says that ACEC decided to start with a case study to determine whether enough evidence of a financial impact exists to merit further study to measure that impact.

The research found that organizations that were further along the Diversity Roadmap achieve better financial metrics, including net service revenue and gross service revenue, as well as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, than those just starting their journey.

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