CG Schmidt’s Diversity Program
As one of the largest construction firms in Wisconsin, we believe it is our responsibility to proactively grow our industry and to create employment opportunities for the people who live and work here. We have been working with small and disadvantaged contractors, suppliers and professional services firms for more than 50 years.
We are able to provide the most benefit to our communities and partners by creating jobs, mentoring growing firms, and providing valuable job training and desirable skills. This is why, unlike many corporate diversity and inclusion programs, we’re less focused on simply meeting participation quotas than we are with demonstrating real, measurable and long-lasting success in the community.
We see diversity and inclusion as an extension of our Mission Statement: To Create Exceptional Facilities that Improve the Lives of Others.
OUR CORPORATE DIVERSITY PROGRAM IS FOUNDED ON THESE PRINCIPLES & CORE CONCEPTS:
Our experience has shown that we can engage small businesses and minority-owned firms at little or no additional cost by simply setting realistic and achievable expectations. Similarly, we can increase the level of workforce diversity by requiring the firms we do business with to seek-out and put to work individuals who are currently under-represented in the construction workforce.
We believe that small, local, disadvantaged business enterprises should have the maximum practical opportunity to participate in as many projects as possible. CG Schmidt has extensive knowledge of the local subcontracting communities around Wisconsin; we are very active in the local marketplace and have strong relationships with the subcontractors that are likely to bid. We utilize a bid administration procedure that is aimed at obtaining the most competitive pricing from qualified subcontractors and maximizing the SBE/MBE/WBE participation at the same time.
In 2014 we initiated a self-directed, voluntary diversity program. Our goal was – and still is – to increase participation of under-utilized businesses on our projects, and to provide better work opportunities for under-represented groups, whether or not the project has mandated a participation requirement. Our program includes a participation goal of 20% for under-represented workers including MBE (Minority Business Enterprise), WBE (Women-Owned Business Enterprise), SBE (Small Business Enterprise), DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) and DVOBE (Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Enterprise).
“I found CG Schmidt to be very committed to minority business firms. They contacted me [for their projects] and asked me to come into the office for an interview … other contractors didn’t have that commitment.” Carlos Cardenas – Owner, CW Enterprise Electric Co.
DIVERSITY PIPELINE ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS
We recognize that achieving diversity and inclusion goals cannot be a passive process. Simply having the goals for subcontractor participation isn’t enough. This is why to help meet our corporate diversity and inclusion goals, CG Schmidt recently began holding our first Diversity Pipeline Engagement sessions in both Madison and Milwaukee. These sessions bring together MBE, SBE, DBE, and WBE companies and trade partners to raise awareness of upcoming bid opportunities, foster introductions to our project teams, receive assistance with CG Schmidt’s prequalification process, and learn about our corporate diversity and inclusion program. We’re proud to say that the initial steps with this program have been met with great success.
