Women in Engineering Week SMPS Topaz Awards - Recruitment/Retention Campaign

Creative Brief

Statistics don’t lie! While women make up 47% of the nation’s workforce, they constitute only 10.9% of the AEC Industry. Meaning, when in a room filled with 10 industry individuals, only one of them is female. This statistic can be daunting when compelled to pioneer change. K+W felt an obligation to highlight and celebrate our female engineers through a multi-faceted campaign. We honored the diversity of women in our industry, emphasizing the value and contributions they bring with two videos, two employee spotlight articles, and a multi-platform social media campaign throughout the week encompassing International Women in Engineering Day 2021. The population of women engineers at K+W doubled in the next quarter.

While this campaign is an impressive feat, K+W didn’t stop there. A strong proponent for women’s equity, Marilynn Stratton was driven to bring awareness to the equity and inclusion challenges women in AEC industry face by providing a safe and encouraging place for meaningful, solution-focused discussions. With approval and encouragement from leadership, Marilynn assembled a diverse team of fellow female employees to create K+W’s first ever WISE Group (Women in Survey and Engineering), using the campaign as a launching pad. The WISE Group has contributed to further evolvement of our culture to be more inclusive and equitable.

The best testimony of K+W’s inclusive culture was when asked, what does it feel like to be a women engineer, our women repeatedly responded:

“I never felt like I was any different than a male engineer, I’m just an engineer.”

Messaging

This campaign’s intended message was to celebrate women in this industry while also opening the door for solution-focused conversations about the struggles of being a woman in a male dominated industry, while encouraging a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture.