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BUSINESS NEWS LAURA NICK OF GARVER NAMED TO THE ARKANSAS BUSINESS 40 UNDER 40 LIST Over much of the last decade, Garver ’s growth has been reflected in both size and programs devoted to evolving its growing list of employees and their impact on their communities. Central in that progress has been Corporate Communications Leader Laura Nick, who was recently named to the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 list. Nick is joined on the magazine’s 26th annual list by other business and community leaders representing a variety of industries. “For more than a century, Garver has strived to provide exemplary service to our clients, and that wouldn’t be possible without our strong internal teams,” said Garver CEO Dan Williams. “Laura’s efforts in building a talented team has helped advance Garver’s position in a competitive industry, and we congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition.” Hired in 2011 as Garver’s first corporate recruiter, Nick now leads Garver’s in- house communications team tasked with spearheading all branding and internal communication efforts. She has also played a role in expanding and advancing Garver’s internal initiatives, such as GarverGives, its employee-driving corporate-giving arm, and Garver Connect, an internal employee resource group created to recruit, retain, and develop Garver’s women. Since 2015, GarverGives has supported 217 organizations, contributed more than $450,000, and volunteered more than 1,200 hours. Garver has also appeared on Zweig Group’s annual Best Firms To Work For list in each of the last five years. This year, Nick has led Garver’s centennial
celebration events at all 28 offices and the Garver Chain Reaction Challenge, which allowed Garver to promote STEM learning and encourage the next generation of engineers by donating STEM kits and funds to 100 schools across its footprint. Founded in 1919, Garver is an employee- owned multi-disciplined engineering, planning, architectural, and environmental services firm with nearly 800 employees across the United States. KPW STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS JOINS SALAS O’BRIEN Salas O’Brien announced that Oakland, California-based KPW Structural Engineers has joined the company, creating a combined firm of 35 offices with more than 850 team members, 200 registered professionals and clients including the most significant companies, institutions and government agencies in the United States. KPW represents a significant expansion of Salas O’Brien’s structural engineering services. The team’s focus on markets including education, data centers, corporate, science and technology, and healthcare complements Salas O’Brien’s similar markets and will enable the combined firm to offer even more coordinated services in-house to clients across the country. As the next step in Salas O’Brien’s “local everywhere, with national resources” growth strategy, KPW will continue to be managed by its current leaders and will adopt the Salas O’Brien name after a transition period. The transaction closed on June 30, 2020, and news of the merger was shared just after the close with the KPW and Salas O’Brien teams.
“This merger comes at an ideal moment for both KPW and Salas O’Brien,” said Darin Anderson, Salas O’Brien chairman and CEO. “With our past experience working as project partners, we knew that our teams had the chemistry to make this a perfect match. We have also been looking for opportunities to expand our structural services, and I’m thrilled that we can now do that with the outstanding talent of the KPW team.” KPW joins Salas O’Brien as part of an ambitious plan to create the best engineering, facility planning, and commissioning firm in the world – known for the highest-quality work and an outstanding reputation with its clients and team members. “Merging with Salas O’Brien is so clearly the right move for our team, our engineers, and clients,” said John Westphal, co-founder and KPW principal. Jim Passaglia added that “as we collaborate with Salas O’Brien’s team across the country, our team will have unprecedented opportunity to grow and serve more clients than ever. Likewise, both our clients and Salas O’Brien’s can now get even more services from a single, coordinated point of contact. We can’t wait to see what the future holds.” Salas O’Brien is a facility planning, design, constructionmanagement, andcommissioning firm with offices across the United States. Salas O’Brien uses its experience at the intersection of energy, infrastructure, and sustainability to help high-profile clients meet their critical needs.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 3
7) Chewing out someone publicly via email for a mistake they made or something they did wrong. A huge no-no, and generally accepted as bad management practice. Yet some people have short fuses and no filter, and are prone to periodically doing this and demotivating their people. 8) Telling the employees how much in total you gave out in bonuses, but excluding or shorting someone (in their view) on their bonus. It’s good to share your successes and point out your generosity but you’d have to be really naive if you think people don’t do the math of figuring out how many people got something and what their pro-rata share “should” be (in their minds). 9) Ignoring someone completely. Situations like this are where I always say, “HR problems, if ignored long enough, will eventually go away.” What I mean is the people you ignore will eventually quit. 10) Showing blatant favoritism. You can’t play favorites – either for real or perceived. All managers have to be cognizant of how anyone they promote may cause resentment and demotivation in those not being promoted. I could go on here but am out of time and space! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
clients as they try to determine who should be at their strategic planning meetings. Cutting someone out of the meeting who has always been there or who has a lot to offer demotivates them. 5) Not including someone on an email that they should be included on. In some cases, this is accidental because email “groups” aren’t updated. In other cases, it is deliberate and a real “gut punch” to those omitted. “When people don’t see their manager very often, if at all, and the external environment is in turmoil in terms of the economic and political climate, it’s easier than ever to inadvertently demotivate someone who works for you.” 6) Asking someone for their input and then disregarding it. This happens frequently with mentors and mentees, and it is very demotivational to the mentor. They wonder why they should even bother providing their advice or input.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 3, 2020, ISSUE 1355
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