The Benefits of Hiring Women Engineers
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for the last few years, you know there has been a big push to promote women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, and there has been intense media attention given to gender disparity in STEM fields. There is ongoing debate about whether the problem is a lack of women candidates for STEM professions, gender bias or some combination of the two. No matter the reasons for the disparities, one thing is clear: There are business benefits to hiring women engineers.
The Benefits of Gender-Diverse Teams
According to research from the National Center for Women and Technology, businesses that outperform the competition are all gender-diverse. According to NCWT:
- Companies with female board members outperformed companies without women on the board.
- Management teams generate exceptional return on equity, debt/equity ratios, price/equity ratios and average growth when they are gender-diverse.
- Gender-diverse companies outperform their competitors in sales, greater profits and market share.
- Diverse teams keep projects on time and on budget much more consistently than homogenous teams.
- Teams with both men and women are more likely to develop creative solutions.
- Teams with women on board report higher average performance bonus than homogenous teams.
Cultivating gender diversity leads to better outcomes than monoculture. Bringing people together who have unique perspectives increases the quantity and quality of ideas and, as NCWT notes, increases collective intelligence.
Where Are the Women in Engineering?
To realize the business benefits of recruiting women engineers, you just need to go out and do it, right? Gender diversity in engineering is often easier discussed than put into practice. In the 1980s only 5.8 percent of engineers were women. That number has increased significantly to 14 percent according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, but still seems quite low when you consider the fact that 57 percent of the workforce is female.
With such disproportionate numbers, it’s not simple to recruit top women engineers, and many firms don’t know how to begin to overcome this obstacle. This is where a strategic engineering recruiting firm like PEAK Technical Staffing USA can help. As a market leader, our experts can help your firm attract the best and brightest talent across all genders, ages, backgrounds and experiences. If you are committed to more diverse hiring practices, but don’t know where to start, contact PEAK today. We can help you develop strategies to take your firm to the next level.
About PEAK
PEAK Technical Staffing is a leading provider of engineering staffing services, offering contract staffing, contract-to-hire and direct hire solutions throughout the United States. With nearly fifty years of technical recruiting experience, we find solutions that meet more than just your technical requirements.
We work closely with you to make sure every candidate fits your company’s unique needs and culture. See some of the engineering jobs we have recently filled for our clients:
- Electrical I&C Engineer
- Project Engineer
- Sr. Mechanical Engineer
If you are looking for skilled, experienced engineering professionals to help your business succeed, contact the recruiting experts at PEAK Technical Staffing today.