What Happened?
Seattle recently passed legislation to prioritize the hiring of local construction workers for upcoming projects to add support for construction careers in the community.
Priority Hiring
The goal of Seattle’s priority hiring legislation is to ensure local construction workers are the first workforce tapped when new construction projects arise. The legislation calls for all publicly-financed construction projects over $5 million have a certain percentage of workers sourced from certain geographic areas where economic stability needs to be strengthened.
Through the priority hiring legislation, the Seattle City Council aims to:
- Expand access to economic opportunity
- Increase employment for construction workers
- Provide career ladders for those in the construction industry facing barriers to jobs
Specifically, the City Council wants to connect women, people of color and other disadvantaged construction professionals with career-advancing job opportunities through local projects.
The Seattle Construction Careers Advisory Committee created a list of recommendations for the Mayor and City Council on how best to improve access to construction careers for underserved residents. The suggestions include developing a priority hire policy and pipeline to simplify the process, as well as increasing support and investment in apprenticeship training programs.
San Francisco
A few years ago, San Francisco launched its own local hiring policy for the construction industry. According to the city’s annual report, between 2011 and 2014 the priority hiring initiative impacted 182 projects across at least six city departments within the city and county of San Francisco. In addition:
- 80 projects were subject to the 20 percent local hiring requirement and reported an overall local hiring performance of 34 percent
- 80 projects were subject to the 25 percent local hiring requirement and reported an overall local hiring performance of 39 percent
- 22 projects were subject to the 30 percent local hiring requirement and reported an overall local hiring performance of 42 percent
Moving forward, San Francisco plans to increase the impact of its local hiring policy by expanding relationships with local educational institutions and private sector partnerships.
Best Practices
According to Democracy Collaborative, public and private organizations hire locally, a significant economic opportunity is created in the local community. These practices also offer the hiring institution the ability to fulfill its workforce needs with limited additional expenditures. To successfully implement and maintain a local hiring policy, it is important for institutions and administrations to understand and comply with the policies completely. To achieve this, clear strategies must be deployed to align goals and ensure long-term gains:
- Set clear benchmarks with goals for hiring locally
- Develop inclusive hiring practices for all levels of the institution
- Emphasize hiring women and minorities
- Incentivize human resources managers to hire local applicants with rewards programs
- Target local recruitment through direct community outreach and engagement
- Partner with community-based organizations to develop workforce training and skills development programs
While the main goal of a local hiring policy is to get residents back to work and on a stable career path, the legislation will experience greater reach and long-term sustainability when workforce development programs are in place to ensure local workers have the necessary skills to meet employer demands.
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