{"id":1263,"date":"2017-12-19T08:15:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T14:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aapaseaports.naymicrosite2.wpengine.com\/?p=1263"},"modified":"2020-04-23T07:58:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T12:58:20","slug":"workforce-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/19\/workforce-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Workforce Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seaports are diverse by nature, and this applies to their workforces as well. Some ports are finding that this diversity is contributing to more than just their success \u2013 it is giving them an inner strength.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sarah B. Hood<\/em><\/p>\n

Seaports are diverse by nature; they connect continents, companies and individuals around the world. Increasingly, North American ports are harnessing diversity in their workforces and building their capacity by contracting to diverse businesses.<\/p>\n

The roster of officially certified companies being sought out includes Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs), which may be owned or controlled by Aboriginal, African, Hispanic or Asian Americans; Women\u2019s Business Enterprises (WBEs); Small Business Enterprises (SBEs), and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), which are owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. In addition, in diversifying their workforce, many ports are targeting veterans, whose background is especially compatible with the often challenging work of a seaport.<\/p>\n

For example, the Port of Seattle reports that in 2015, more than $9 million in contracts went to certified DBE, MBE and\/or WBE businesses: an increase of $1 million over the previous year. In the same period, 33 percent of eligible expenditures went to small businesses.<\/p>\n

Seattle also has a robust program to hire military personnel, and estimates that nearly 10 percent of the port\u2019s employees have served or are currently serving in the military. Its Veterans Fellowship Program provides six-month employment to assist veterans in making the transition to civilian life. On November 15, 2017, the Port of Seattle, the Port of Tacoma and the Northwest Seaport Alliance partnered to host \u201cGuardians of the Gateway,\u201d a veterans\u2019 career workshop.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s PhilaPort is currently developing a comprehensive diversity outreach program to intensify its commitment to engaging certified MBEs and WBEs \u2013 as well as veteran-owned, service-disabled-veteran-owned and LGBT-owned small businesses \u2013 in project-related construction contracts and subcontracts. It has set a target of 20 percent of contract awards going to at least two of these categories.<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seaports are diverse by nature, and this applies to their workforces as well. Some ports are finding that this diversity is contributing to more than just their success \u2013 it is giving them an inner strength.\u00a0 By Sarah B. Hood Seaports are diverse by nature; they connect continents, companies and individuals around the world. Increasingly, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":1254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}