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CHOICE ONE , from page 9

nesspeople” who “think, act, and feel” like owners. It provides a stake in the outcome and shows people exactly how they can make a difference. HELPING HR. Mitch Thobe, one of the firm’s 11 owners, has been with the company for five years. For the past three, he has been tasked with recruiting college co-ops and helping leadership recruit, interview, and hire new employees. “The competition for our company to attract ‘A’ players is becoming progressively more challenging due to the ever growing competition of more and more compa- nies looking to hire interns and full-time staff,” Thobe says. “When a job seeker sees Choice One Engineering as being the No. 1 Civil Engineering firm to work for in the nation, it instantly catches their interest and communicates our commitment to our employees.” Additionally, Thobe says that they are fortunate enough to have a culture worthy of award to publicize to universities and career-development networks. Allen Bertke has been a project manager in the survey department for nine years. He says that Choice One is his “second family.” “Coming into the office is not work – instead it’s been my home away from home for the last nine years. Everyone has a role in our extended family, and, because of this ,we are able to provide the best experiences for our customers. Each employee is em- powered to make a difference, which makes Choice One better each and every day.” Choice One takes a personable approach to civil engineering because its leaders think surveying, civil engineering, and the service opportunities they provide can be really fun – as in satisfying, enjoyable, and fulfilling. “Because of our culture, our clients often tell us that they enjoy working with us, and so, not only are we providing a quality place to work, but we are improving the lives of our clients with happy, productive employees responding to our needs,” Bertke says. ALL ABOARD. In 2014, Choice One made strides in developing a representative orga- nizational chart that truly identifies the roles and relations of each employee; it’s represented as a train. “The engineer (no pun intended) driving the train is our president,” Borchers says. “His role is to guide the company strategically. Trains can’t be turned on a dime, and neither can strategy. Strategy is looking ahead to the future and making slow adjust- ments that result in big changes over time.” The caboose is their chief production officer. The CPO views the train from the rear, overseeing production and the workings of the entire train. He or she can see the en- tire company from its final product and can direct the people in the cars in front to adjust to make the train more efficient at it moves along its track. The rest of the staff fills the train cars. Each department has a developer who over- sees the educational, professional, and fundamental development of the employ- ees in his/her department. Engineers and designers have specialties (e.g., site plans, roadway reconstruction), as do business development/marketing personnel (e.g., graphic designers, grant writers, client relations specialists) and so on. “Most notable is the flatness of the organization. There is no hierarchy in the compa- ny. In this way, we are accompany of leaders. During a typical day, an employee might have three different ‘bosses’ and actually might switch roles performing as a ‘boss’ of someone who is his/her ‘boss’ in a different situation. We, therefore, remove the ‘boss’ idea from our language and call everyone ‘leaders,’ ” Borchers explains. THE BOTTOM LINE. Choice One wants to change the way that people do business in the industry (and the world, if it can)!

Zweig Group’s Best Firms to Work For award recognizes the top architecture, structural engineering, civil engineering, environmental, and multidiscipline firms in the U.S. and Canada based on their workplace practices, employee benefits, employee retention rates, and more. Participating in the award process is an effective and efficient way for firms to gain employee insight – all participating organizations receive a summary report of their employees’ survey responses and a report containing valuable benchmarking data from all firms in their submission category. The award process was upgraded this year to a mobile-friendly platform for a better and more streamlined user- experience. Application process : Step 1: Firms register online and pay an application fee for each desired entry category. Step 2: Firms complete the corporate survey, which includes questions about the organization and structure that should be answered from a management point of view by someone with access to financial and policy information. Step 3: Firms receive a link to the anonymous employee survey, which they share with employees. Firms with 25 employees or more must have at least 25 percent of their staff complete the survey. Firms with less than 25 employees, must have at least 40 percent of their staff complete the employee survey. Step 4: The two surveys are graded and combined to determine a final score. Step 5: Firms register for the Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference.

Entrants receive:

A summary from firms’ employee surveys and an aggregate benchmark summary from all participating firms in the submittal categories.

Entry Criteria:

At least 40 percent of 2014 fiscal year gross revenue must have been derived from the selected discipline category. Public entities, such as departments of transportation or municipal public works offices, are not eligible. Firms must have a minimum of 10 full-time employees, with at least five design or engineering professionals.

THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 10, 2015, ISSUE 1115 THE COMPLETE LIST OF ZWEIG GROUP’S 2015 BEST FIRMS TO WORK FOR 30. The Blueline Group 31. R&M Consultants 32. Foresite Group 33. Schnabel Engineering 34. Traffic Planning and Design 35. Frank Surveying 36. DH Charles Engineering 37. Process Plus 38. Jones & Carter 39. Hattenburg, Dilley, & Linnell

45. Trigon Associates 46. W.K. Dickson & Co.

40. Wallace, Montgomery & Associates 41. EMC Engineering Services 42. Chen Moore & Associates 43. Draper Aden Associates 44. Gomez and Sullivan Engineers

ARCHITECTURE 1. The Collaborative 2. Randall-Paulson Arc itects

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