Where Does Our Industry Stand on Community Building? The Numbers Are In.

ACEC Research Institute releases new data with 2025 Community Building Roadmap Report 

Every year, engineering and design firms talk about the importance of building great workplaces, but how many of us can say we’ve measured it?

The ACEC Research Institute’s 2025 Community Building Roadmap assessed 57 member engineering and design firms across four domains: Workplace, Workforce, Marketplace, and Supplier/Community.

 

• The Workplace domain examined how inclusion and belonging show up in leadership behavior, governance structures, internal initiatives, training, and accountability systems.

 

 

• Workforce looked at how those values are integrated into recruitment, advancement, performance evaluations, analytics, and employee benefits.

 

 

• Marketplace evaluated how firms reflect inclusion in their marketing practices, client engagement, and business development strategies.

 

 

• Finally, Supplier/Community assessed firms’ engagement beyond their own walls, including how they respond to client expectations and invest in broader community involvement.

 

Each domain was scored based on firms’ self-reported practices, with an overall composite score used to place firms into one of four maturity tiers: Aspiring (below 55%), Emerging (55–69%), Managing (70–84%), and Optimizing (85% and above).

This year’s assessment provided a candid, data-driven snapshot of where our industry is doing well and where significant opportunity remains.

How does your company compare? Take the 30 minute survey and get access to your company’s customized Community Building Roadmap. 

What Separates the Leaders?

The firms that have reached Managing and Optimizing levels share a few distinguishing characteristics: they’ve moved from visible commitment to embedded systems. They’ve connected their values to their evaluations, their recruitment to their advancement pipelines, and their community engagement to a strategic framework — not just a volunteer day.

The gap between “we care about this” and “we’ve built this into how we operate” is where most of our industry has work to do.

Domain by Domain: Where Are We Strong, and Where Are We Falling Short?

Workplace — Our Strongest Domain (64% average)

This is where member firms shine brightest. A full 91% of firms report that their President or CEO demonstrates commitment to inclusion often or always. Executive visibility is there. Cultural messaging is also there — 84% publicly communicate their workplace values, and 98% have launched initiatives to support a culture of inclusion.

But there’s a gap between intention and infrastructure. Only 53% have a formal inclusion and belonging strategy in place, and just 51% offer structured training to help leaders manage diverse teams. But 62% have woven inclusive leadership behaviors into their performance evaluations.

The takeaway: our leaders are setting the tone for company culture, but the systems to educate and equip managers are still catching up.

Marketplace — Solid Foundation, Variable Integration (58% average)

Firms are largely protecting their brand. Eighty-eight percent report reviewing marketing materials to avoid stereotypes, and 71% do so consistently, every time.

Where there’s room to grow: embedding inclusion into how we pursue and win work. Only 56% actively incorporate inclusion and belonging strategies into client pursuits. And while some public-sector clients are pushing harder on this (37% ask often or always for articulation of inclusion commitments), private-sector clients lag significantly with only 16% making the same request.

The firms reaching Optimizing levels in Marketplace aren’t waiting to be asked. They’re leading with it.

Workforce — The Largest Gap (49% average)

With 63% of firms in the Aspiring category, the Workforce domain reveals the most critical opportunity in our industry.

The compliance work is largely done. Most firms collect demographic data (93%), analyze compensation (86%), and track promotions (73%). But fewer than half analyze employee engagement data (48%), and only 39% look at performance ranking patterns through an inclusive lens.

The recruitment picture tells a similar story. Nearly all firms offer compelling benefits (98%) and use inclusive job descriptions (81%). But only 52% use interview panels designed to reduce bias, and just 15% have formal sponsorship or advocacy programs in place.

Supplier/Community — Our Frontier (47% average)

The Supplier/Community domain is where the greatest transformation still lies ahead, with 62% of firms in the Aspiring category.

Most firms engage through direct service: 84% volunteer employee time to projects serving underserved populations and 67% support scholarships. That generosity is real and meaningful.

But fewer firms have built structured community strategies. Only 44% provide financial resources to community interests, only 42% sponsor programs, and just 31% have made formal public statements on community issues.

The Big Picture: We’re Emerging but Not Yet There

The average overall score among participating firms was 55%, with a median of 57%. Under our four-tier maturity framework, that places the typical firm squarely in the Emerging category in creating a community-driven workplace.

To put the full distribution in perspective:

 

• 47% of firms are still in the Aspiring range (below 55%)
• 33% have reached Emerging (55–69%)
• 18% are Managing (70–84%)
• Just 2% have reached Optimizing (85%+)

 

Your Firm’s Data Is Waiting — And It Only Takes About 30 Minutes 

Reading industry-level numbers is useful. Knowing where your firm stands is transformative.

The Community Building Roadmap assessment takes approximately 30 minutes to complete — a half-hour investment that generates a personalized score across all four domains, benchmarked against your industry peers. You’ll walk away knowing exactly where your firm is leading, where you’re lagging, and what the most high-impact next steps look like.

This is how firms move from Aspiring to Emerging. From Emerging to Managing. From talking about community building to executing a strategy.

The firms already participating are getting smarter about their workforce strategies with every cycle. Don’t let another year go by without knowing where you stand.

Take the assessment now