Building Diversity in Each and Every Project

We are committed to strengthening diversity through procuring services and goods from diverse businesses.

While McKinstry itself is not registered as a Minority Owned, Women Owned or Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (MWDBEs), we recognize that owners and MWDBE partners are held back by the lack of impact from traditional “check-the-box” DEI requirements or MWDBE spend targets. They seek to drive more change through broad-based aspirations that address both internal and external outcomes. Our clients and partners are asking more serious, in-depth and direct questions about equity and inclusion than ever before and holding us accountable for results internally and on our projects.

Equity and inclusion are not abstract aspirations. We are addressing the equity crisis as a top-line aspiration – one of only three – in our Action for Impact plan. As part of this effort, we have developed a comprehensive five-year plan focused on advancing racial equity, strengthening inclusive jobsite culture, upskilling our people, building personal ownership and driving equity outcomes in local communities.

Now is the time to build coalitions for a more equitable, just and inclusive built environment.

Creating Lasting Opportunities

McKinstry has a track record of exceeding diversity goals on our projects, and yet we feel there is a much broader opportunity to engage historically marginalized people fairly and solidly in our industry to the benefit of the community.

McKinstry believes people and community are our most important assets. Our goal is to empower everyone in our community and provide fair opportunities for success through diverse procurement and community outreach programs. We have taken a multi-pronged approach to engage and integrate historically disadvantaged and tribal communities at a company and individual level.

We have developed direct employment programs and have also created a subcontractor mentorship program which creates a pathway for small businesses to gain valuable experience they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Furthermore, we bring deep experience and recent successes exceeding federal, state, TERO or other tribal economic development goals.

Engagement that Provides Long-Term Value

McKinstry works to exceed diversity goals on every project. While every project is different, our plan for integrating diverse businesses on projects spans several steps:

1. Partnering with clients to develop robust equity plans containing clear goals and intended outcomes
2. Establishing scopes or bid packages that are well suited to smaller firms
3. Inviting MWDBE firms to participate in and providing intentional support through RFP and contracting processes
4. Building MWDBE partnerships by engaging in targeted local market outreach and researching new vendors through local and national databases
5. Sharing our experience with MWDBE firms through mentorship and support to ensure success

More Than Mandated Goals

In addition to maximizing our involvement of MWBE firms, it is just as important to foster DE&I within our staff and field teams. We have begun tracking project field and staff members – by trade, position or economically distressed zip codes – to achieve diversity goals. We’ve also created a DE&I labor tracker providing a real-time look into labor hours and dollars attributed to workers of diverse backgrounds. This ensures we stay active and engaged within our communities and our workforce, while providing long-term opportunities for success.

Upskilling Our Community

McKinstry has developed small, diverse and tribal-focused mentorship programs aimed at providing large or complex job experience to subcontractors who would otherwise not qualify. We work closely with subcontractors and vendors to develop clean, right-sized scopes that account for project size, schedule and labor constraints.

This program positions subcontractors to gain the experience and skills to take on larger or more complex work. McKinstry also provides estimating, BIM/VDC, procurement and labor acquisition support to these firms as they increase their offerings and scopes.

Direct Employment and Career Opportunities

McKinstry is committed to creating direct employment and career opportunities for tribal members. This approach has proven successful on past tribal projects, providing career opportunities for tribal members while also meeting McKinstry talent and skilled labor needs.

McKinstry has worked with tribal groups to offer career opportunities for members throughout the construction industry. This program seeks to leverage direct, tribal labor to participate on-site and work side-by-side with the project contractor and owner group. This process gives tribal members an invaluable inside look at the processes and procedures involved from conceptual design through final project completion.

We are open to working with other tribal employment groups to develop similar programs in order to further tribal integration into construction trades.

Program success: We leveraged tribal labor within the unions on a new, ground-up casino project. Together, over 7,200 project hours were worked totaling over $484,000 in earned wages. Employment of tribal members allows direct involvement in the creation of community assets while gaining valuable skilled labor experience.

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