On September 12^th in Boise, the University of Idaho conducted a symposium focusing on recruitment and retention of women in the College of Engineering. Hattie Zobott, from J-U-B’s Twin Falls Office and Tim Haener, President participated in the meetings. The goal of the symposium was to establish an execution strategy for supporting and retaining women students, with the following focus points:

• Supporting academic success and self-confidence
• Creating a mentorship network
• Improving culture and climate
• Bridging the transition for incoming students

According to Larry Stauffer, Dean of the UI College of Engineering, “Diverse perspectives will elevate problem-solving and improve the quality of all our engineers. The initiatives also apply to retain other excluded cultural groups like millennials, minorities, non-engineer professionals.”

Several ideas generated in the breakout session are relevant to J-U-B’s efforts to attract talented women engineers and other professionals to J-U-B. “Hattie and I learned some best practices that we will be discussing with Kellie in HR and with the Executive Committee,” says Tim Haener.

J-U-B has been focusing on recruitment of women engineers for the last several years. Our efforts are paying off.  In 2014, only eight percent of J-U-B’s engineering staff were women. In 2018, J-U-B’s engineering staff is 17 percent women, a 110 percent increase! Nationwide, the number of women civil engineers is 14 percent, so we’re now above the national average.

“Growing our pool of women engineers and leaders is vital to J-U-B’s long-term success,” says Lee Cammack, CEO.  “It’s great that we’re learning some best practices to continue our positive trend.”

Tim Haener, Dr. Larry Stauffer (Dean, UI College of Engineering), Hattie Zobott, and Dr. Patricia Colberg (Chair, UI Civil Engineering)