TZL 1319

commitment to mentoring and a “getting in the trenches” mentality if needed. Taking a hands-on approach has enabled me to better understand how to address the working “on” part of the business. TZL: What role does your family play in your career? Are work and family separate, or is there overlap? MR: We like to refer to ourselves as the “Falcon Family,” and often use the hashtag #FalconFamily in our social media posts. We also speak to it on the culture page of our website. This is not just a tagline we use for recruiting purposes. We really are a close-knit family of staff who genuinely care about one another. We want to see each other succeed inside and outside the confines of our job. Being a small company, we not only know our staff members’ spouse and children’s names, but we often see them at our events or during an office visit. When the babysitter doesn’t work out or family schedules are derailed, we welcome our staffs’ children to come to the office. Just a few weeks ago, one of our staff members said over a lunch conversation that coming to work everyday is like getting paid to come hang out with their friends. To solidify our whole familial approach, we also put out a quarterly internal newsletter that is very much employee-focused, which we mail home to staff’s families. Any way you look at it, family is important to us. TZL: It’s often said that people leave managers, not companies. What are you doing to ensure that your line leadership are great people managers? MR: This statement could not be truer, as we have experienced it first-hand. Falcon came to a bump in the road a few years back that warranted some redirection and leadership change. Prior to the transition, morale was low and employee turnover was high. Something needed to change – leadership structure. It’s been more than five years now, and it’s safe to say we have come out on the other side with a fresh perspective and a bright future. Since the change, we’ve had four former Falcon employees return to us and our retention rate is at an all-time high. The redirection has also allowed us to implement some new tools to ensure staff is happy and our management team is well-trained – not only in their technical work, but also in team management. We encourage and pay for our staff to gain the training they need to serve their teams well, one of which was Zweig Group’s Excellence in Project Management seminar. Also, as part of the onboarding process, we gift each employee with Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder

book and require them to take the associated StrengthsFinder test. Their results are put into a master spreadsheet, alongside the rest of our employees’, and is shared with leadership and project managers. We have found this to be a great tool to better understand our staff, their individual strengths, and their unique working styles. TZL: What novel approaches are you bringing to recruitment, and how are your brand and differentiators performing in the talent wars? MR: Because anyone who comes to Falcon can affirm that we are in fact a family- oriented culture, it has gained us a handful of employees through referrals. Our staff acts as cheerleaders and they often are the ones bringing in new talent. We’ve also partnered with NC Works – a partner of the NC Department of Commerce that provides an online resource for job seekers and employers in North Carolina. They have 94 career centers in the state with more than 4,000 resumes uploaded weekly. So far, we have used their services to hire three employees. We feel that NC Works is an untapped resource for employers of North Carolina. Like other firms, we also attend career fairs. While this may not be a novel approach, it’s a great way to interact with the incoming work-force talent and get a feel for what young jobseekers are looking for in their career. TZL: What financial metrics do you monitor to gauge the health of your firm? MR: We primarily monitor backlog, billings, gross margin, bottom line profit, and AR/ cash flow. These key metrics are directly compared to our previously established annual budget/projections on monthly financial reports as well as other interim reports. They are also directly compared to some industry standard key financial metrics when applicable. Quarterly, our leadership team gets together to discuss our performance year-to-date, and determines if we need to adjust our budget/projections and/or adjust our operations, such that our annual revenue and profit goals are met or exceeded by year end. TZL: They say failure is a great teacher. What’s the biggest lesson you have had to learn the hard way? MR: Taking calculated risks in business is inherent for success. Sometimes failure happens regardless of how much research, due diligence, or information gathering is performed. The greatest lesson I’ve learned See IN THE TRENCHES, page 8

HEADQUARTERS: Cary, NC NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 40 YEAR FOUNDED: 1993 (originally named Tierra); rebranded as Falcon in 2008 NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: 1 SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Geotechnical engineering ❚ ❚ Testing and inspections ❚ ❚ Environmental services ❚ ❚ Laboratory services DESIGNATIONS: ❚ ❚ Woman Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (WDBE) ❚ ❚ North Carolina Department of Administration, Historically Underutilized Business (HUB)

❚ ❚ North Carolina Department of

Transportation, Small Professional Services Firm (SPSF)

ABOUT AASHTO ACCREDITED LABORATORY: This in-house, state-of-the-art, AASHTO- accredited laboratory provides physical testing of soil, concrete, aggregate, asphalt, and building materials. In addition to the in-house laboratory, Falcon can provide mobile, on-site laboratory services anywhere in the state or region.

ember 4, 2019, ISSUE 1319

Made with FlippingBook Annual report