WIN Movement Aims to Help Employers Diversify Workforce

The local Build a Dream campaign, that encourages young women to think of non-female traditional careers, is expanding.

It has launched the Workforce Innovators Network or "WIN" movement aimed at helping employers to diversify their workforces.

The movement includes guest speakers, a platform to access experts and consulting to help businesses attract more women.

"Simple things like your website images, do they show some females on your worksite, do you talk about those stories, the success stories of women that have gone through your workplaces," says Build a Dream President Nour Hachem-Fawaz. " It is important for people to see themselves in these roles so we need to represent the community that we serve."

The network is a partnership with Workforce Windsor-Essex and the Carpenters Union Local 494

Hachem-Fawaz says the movement hopes to attract and retain more women in non-traditional careers.

"We are going to provide some consulting to companies as well that may not have the resources or the tools of where to start. So often times what we find is when we are talking to stakeholders is that they do want to attract more females but they don't know how."

Build a Dream was created in 2014 to address the skilled trades/STEM shortage in Windsor and encourages young women to look at skills trades, science technology, engineering and math  (STEM) when choosing their career paths. 

Research shows that diverse teams make better business decisions in less time, with fewer meetings.

The WIN website is www.thewinmovement.com