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PROFILE
Creating lasting change: Jim Stephenson President and CEO of CHA Consulting (Albany, NY), an innovative, full-service engineering consulting and construction management firm.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
S tephenson became president and CEO of CHA Consulting in January 2020. He was almost instantly faced with navigating and managing through a global pandemic that had no historical blueprint for success. Despite the headwinds of the pandemic, CHA continued to prosper and deliver for its clients in extraordinary ways. Stephenson says he’s proud of creating a culture of growth and excellence and expanding rewards and recognition deeper into the organization for exceptional performance. CREATING LASTING CHANGE. “Our organization has successfully executed a complete organizational restructure and go-to-market strategy to be more operationally- and client-focused, while also being more scalable and efficient,” he says. This strategy included a pivot to pushing decision-making further down into the organization to be more nimble and empowering management to take ownership of their respective businesses, as well as executing on and fully integrating eight accretive acquisitions over the last four years that have aligned with the firm’s strategic growth plan.
The impact of COVID-19 also reinforced that CHA can be effective in a hybrid working environment that provides for a better work-life balance for its employees. It has found a solid balance by instituting a more-flexible, hybrid model that has opened up recruitment, helped with employee retention, reduced unnecessary travel expenses, trimmed the office footprint, and is widely embraced by staff. “We also understand that there’s great value to be had from in-person collaboration and believe it’s vital to have staff in our offices each week,” he shares. That’s one of the reasons why CHA has invested in upgrading office spaces – so its working environments are welcoming, collaborative, and somewhere employees want to come to work. From project work collaboration to building relationships with colleagues and fostering junior-level employee professional development – these things cannot happen at home. “Ultimately, creating a fun, engaging, and entrepreneurial
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