At the World Steel Dynamics/SMR North American Stainless & Alloys Conference 2024 in November in Nashville, the issue being addressed by Danielle Carlini was staring her right in the face.
The North American steel industry, encompassing both carbon and stainless steels, has just under 15 percent representation by women. And despite a record-high number of women in attendance at the event, that still represented just 14 percent of the audience.
It’s a number that needs to be addressed. And this isn’t a case of diversity for diversity’s sake, but the general health of the industry in the years to come.
Carlini, the vice president, commercial, at ATI Specialty Rolled Products, outlined some of the issues with cold, hard and a little frightening data.
Today there are 600,000 manufacturing jobs to be filled in the United States. That number is expected to grow to 2.1 million by 2030 as the major cohort of workers ages out of the industry.
Tapping all available potential resources is imperative. It’s also good business, at all levels of work.
In a DEI study conducted by McKinsey, companies that had diversity in executive leadership positions thoroughly outperformed those organizations where gender diversity was not in place. The diverse boardrooms performed 21 percent on EBITDA than their homogeneous counterparts, while their profit margins were 27 percent better.
Moreover, the gap is growing. Compared with the last measurement in 2020, the companies with diverse executive boards have been expanding the advantage over their competitors.
A second survey from Gallup also advanced the business case for diversity throughout the organization. Gallup’s study shows organizations with high numbers of inclusive teams see double-digit increases in productivity, profitability, customer loyalty and sales.
Her company has defied industry trends in many ways, including at the very top, where Kimberly Fields serves as the company’s president and CEO. That was also true for the three panelists that joined her for a discussion following her presentation: Tracee Cowley, vice president and general manager of Combined Service Centers of America; Tamara Weinert, president and CEO of Outokumpu Americas; and, via satellite, Alia Smektala COO of MTM Ruhrzinn in Germany.
For many companies, considerable progress on diversifying the workforce has been made in the office, but remains a challenge on the floor. Often, it’s an issue where the lack of women working contributes to the lack of women working.
“It is sometimes very daunting. If you’re the only woman, it’s not always comfortable. You have to have allyship of men, who make them feel welcome and safe in the workplace,” said Weinert.
It also calls for thoughtfulness from the business. Asking simple questions such as how close is the nearest women’s room or is there a space for mothering stations for women coming off maternity leave can address challenges that keep women out of the workspace Carlini added.
An inescapable truth of the industry is that women can’t change the dynamic alone. Because men continue to comprise the vast majority of positions in the industry, changing the culture demands their active participation.
“It won’t work without allyship. Giving them the stage, without having them to ask for the stage, is a very powerful tool,” Weinert said.
Becoming an ally often demands examining one’s own thinking for predispositions, whether obvious or hidden. “We all have biases. I have them. The core issue with men being allies is understanding your own biases and working actively against them,” Smektala said.
One thing that isn’t needed, the panelists mostly agreed, is quotas. “You have to have people where their strengths are, complementing each other,” Crowley said.
Rather than use quotas, companies need to improve the hiring process. Ways to do that include expanding the hiring panels to include diverse voices, eliminating the buddy system (which also benefits white working class men who aren’t connected) and increasing the pool of candidates you’re considering. If the company puts the proper processes in place to ensure women or other underrepresented groups are given the chance, the numbers will inevitably follow.
“We don’t try to solve for an outcome. We want to have the best candidate,” Weinert said.
“We’re not asking for special treatment. We’re just asking for the opportunity to show what we can do,” Carlini said.