Beyond the Build - Denisha Greer

In recognition of Construction Inclusion Week, we recently sat down with Supplier Diversity Specialist Denisha Greer for an episode of Said Differently – Beyond the Build. She joined the Community Engagement team in 2019 and now helps identify and recruit diverse subcontractors for Barton Malow projects throughout the country. 

Tune in as Denisha shares how she’s grown into her role supporting our initiatives to advance the industry.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

At Barton Mallow, we wouldn't be what we are or build what we do without the team members that make up our enterprise. I'm Eric Fish.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

I'm Elena Somovsky, and in this series from the Said Differently podcast, we're taking listeners beyond the build to meet the people who are building the projects and impacting the communities where we live, work, and play.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

This is Said Differently, Beyond the Build. Welcome to the special Construction Inclusion Week edition of Beyond the Build. Construction Inclusion Week is an annual industry-wide awareness initiative to champion and amplify the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the construction industry.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Today, we're excited to be joined by supplier diversity specialist Denisha Greer. From joining the Barton Mallow boot camp during the construction of Little Caesars Arena to working with diverse subcontractors throughout the country, Denisha has grown into her role supporting Barton Mallow's initiatives to advance the industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Hi, my name is Denisha Greer, and I am the supplier diversity specialist on the community engagement team here at Barton Mallow. So I've been with Barton Mallow for eight years now. I started as a multi-summer intern through the Barton Mallow bootcamp program. And after graduating in 2019, I was thrilled to join the team full-time. So from 2016 to 2018, I will return each summer and participate in the bootcamp.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Do you mind just explaining what the boot camp is for maybe people that aren't familiar with it?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So the boot camp is actually uh it's a six weeks hands-on experience for younger people um ages 18 to 24 to gain that pre-apprenticeship construction uh experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

What are the next steps? Like what kind of uh do you have any certifications? What is life after boot camp?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

So the next step process is for them to eventually start their apprenticeship and uh get hired in into one of either a company that we are subcontracted to or directly through Barton Mallow in the self-performing side of things. Can you tell us about how you ended up in the construction industry? So honestly, I do consider myself fortunate because I was introduced to Barton Mallow through the City Detroit, Girl Detroit Young Talent Program, uh, which serves as a feeder to supply candidates to the bootcamp. At the time, I would have never imagined working in construction. However, um, thanks to my little sister's uh encouragement, I took the chance and I joined the Little Seasons Arena project um as one of the boot campers for the cohort in 2016. And that experience made me aware of the great work that the company is has done and is continuously doing. I talk about being a multi-summer intern. And the first year, as I mentioned, it was at LCA. And although I wasn't on the field, I was more so uh in the trailers, helping from the accounting uh standpoint and um learning everyone's position in that trailer. Following that year, that summer, I was invited back to be an intern. And then this time it was tailored just a little bit differently. Now I actually did receive that skill trade um experience where we were at Randolph Technical Assist uh Center where we were renovating the school. So we poured down concrete, we were painting the walls, we actually built a wall in the back. So that was an eye-opener as well. Hard work and dedication. So it made me appreciate, you know, the skill trade side of things. Being a part of that first cohort, it was a turning point for me. While um the skills trade side wasn't really my path, um, it led me to a fulfilling career in the community engagement department where my focus is supply diversity. What does your day-to-day look like? So I do meet with diverse uh subcontractors and I and companies and I gather their information and I learn about their services as well as their capabilities, and I help them um navigate through the process of onboarding into our corporate procurement system. I also manage uh project-specific task related to strategic uh procurement, which is really reaching out to subcontractors and suppliers, um, setting up introduction meetings and providing subcontractor and supplier recommendations to our project team. We do have an annual corporate spend goal here, which is 8 to 12%. So I do run a monthly uh report for both projects and um enterprise to make sure that we're hitting our target.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

So, with helping all these different diverse suppliers and businesses, do you have a favorite um project that you've worked on?

SPEAKER_02 4:41

I would have to say the Mary Grove project, because I was on that project from the beginning, I was participated in um in the groundbreaking. It also shows and displays, we empower the communities in which we build in. And that was a community that I actually lived in. So seeing that project be renovated was a significant moment for me because it again, it was somewhere where I actually grew up in.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I remember being at that groundbreaking too. Just a ton of excitement around that project. The who's who's were all there. Really, really cool event and even cooler to see what it's become through the the work we've done there over the years.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Absolutely. And the events, the community engagement events that we had there. So the trunk or treed, and uh again, I talk about the boot camp. We hosted several cohorts at that project, in which I was able to assist and help and so that was again another significant moment.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

How does Barton Mallow promote a culture of inclusion?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Again, Barton Mallow highlights inclusion through several uh key initiatives by encouraging diversity with our hiring process and offering onboarding training to ensure a positive and supportive uh workplace for everyone. So Barton Mallow encourages its employees to be innovative and think creatively to embrace uh new technologies and methods to enhance our uh process and outcomes. And for me, that's exciting because uh I could be a part of a team that uh constantly seeks out better ways to do things and um see how these advances really uh contribute to our success.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of examples of our culture of continuous improvement enterprise-wide. Is there anything specific to your work now that you can think of?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Um I talked about the enterprise reporting earlier, and that was one of the entities that we um were able to get advancement on was how we reported it out. Before SAP, they were picking up some of our diversity spin, but after we've uh met with the team and um told them our concerns, they really listened and took heed to that and was able to make improvements into the system to where we were able to be able to uh track that diversity spin on a more consistent and precise data that uh spits back at us. And from there, we were able to, I think we were able to take our percentages from like uh 3% to 8% that year. Now, granted, this was a few years ago, but that was a significant jump.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah, can you kind of touch on what it means to you to be part of that and how the work that you're putting into it is really showing those results and how you know we're improving our spend there.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

So I talked earlier about meeting and connecting with diverse suppliers. So seeing those numbers increase on a month-to-month basis, it ensures me that the impact that we're making is actually, you know, impactful. And uh you could see the work being being displayed through analytics.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Earlier you mentioned that you, you know, you had this background in accounting and HR, really didn't have any familiarity with the construction industry. Can you go into some of the challenges that you faced thus far in the industry and how you've overcome them?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

So for me, working in a mostly male-dominated industry like construction, it does have its challenges. And uh one of them being is having the confidence, I would say. As you spoke about, uh, I didn't have the background in construction. So I had to come and be eager to learn. So that was one of the challenges that I had. And um one way that uh a few ways that I overcame that was um I focused on seeking the mentorship, seeking mentorship as well as uh building a supportive uh networking and staying resilient. That was extremely important as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

What advice would you give for for women and specifically minorities thinking about entering the construction industry?

SPEAKER_02 8:58

So I think that the construction industry is a fantastic opportunity for anyone that is uh seeking to gain that uh experience for growth and impact. And um, the advice that I will have for them is what I have for myself is to seek that internship, connect and network, and then also embrace those challenges that we spoke about. Don't be afraid to not know the answer in the room. Because someone in that someone in the room does know the answer and they are willing to share that knowledge with you.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Thanks to Danisha for taking some time out of her day to chat.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

To see what else Barton Mallow is doing to celebrate Construction Inclusion Week, visit BartonMallow.com or follow us on social media at Barton Mallow. For more information on Construction Inclusion Week, visit www.constructioninclusionweek.com.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

This is said differently beyond the bill.