Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), the nonprofit trade association of the outdoor industry, and several partner organizations launched the Outdoor Industry Workforce Assessment.
The survey, which will gather information about industry needs for workforce development and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), was designed and developed by faculty from Oregon State University and is being supported by several partners including The VF Foundation, Path to Peak Education & Consulting and the Confluence of States.
OIA and Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) encourage their members to participate in the survey to capture as many data points as possible to gauge efforts and to steer and measure future programming.
In addition, the State Outdoor Business Alliance Network (SOBAN), the Confluence of States, and Basecamp Outdoor are sharing the survey with outdoor employers in their networks, and Path to Peak Education + Consulting is acting as a strategic research partner to help establish clear benchmarks top priorities.
“Research and access to data of this kind is one of the cardinal benefits we offer our member companies in order to ensure outdoor businesses are able to adapt in time and in step with the shifting employment landscape,” said OIA Executive Director Lise Aangeenbrug. “It’s important to know what jobs our industry currently has as well as what skills and jobs companies will need in the next years and decades. The more companies that participate in this survey, the more robust the data, the more helpful the insights and the more productive our collaborative work will be toward creating inclusive pathways for outdoor employers and employees of the future.”
The survey, which launched August 6, will remain in the field until September 30. The research partners recommend each outdoor company convene a committee that includes executive leadership as well as HR, people and culture, DEI and employee resource group managers and department leaders to complete the survey together.
Results of the survey will be available in late 2021, and the partners expect to begin developing workplans based on the research results in early 2022.
To learn more about this collaborative research effort, visit the survey website.
