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ON THE MOVE CASEY SVEIVEN JOINS WGI IN AUSTIN OFFICE WGI is pleased to announce that Casey Sveiven joined the firm’s MEP Engineering Division as a project engineer in its Austin office. Sveiven comes to WGI with more than three years of experience, and specific expertise in commercial and residential electrical design – the majority in national retail rollout programs. Casey passed the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University, Chico.
As a multidisciplinary solutions-providing consulting firm, WGI has 18 offices in six states, serving an active client base in more than 30 states, specializing in the following disciplines: Land development/municipal engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, parking solutions, geospatial services, subsurface utility engineering, structures, landscape architecture, environmental sciences, architecture, land planning, MEP engineering, and creative services. Zweig Group ranked WGI No. 11 on its 2018
Hot Firms list and No. 23 on the 2018 Best Firms to Work For list. South Florida Business Journal ranked WGI No. 5 on its 2018 Top 25 Engineering Firms, WGI No. 61 in its 2017 Top 100 Private Companies, and No. 16 in the $25 million and over category as a 2017 Fast 50 Honoree from the same publication. In 2018, ENR ranked WGI No. 250 on its list of the Top 500 Design Firms, No. 24 on its Top Southeast Design Firms, and No. 10 in the Florida market. In 2018, WGI ranked No. 4380 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
THE RIGHT DIRECTION, from page 7
are working to take the seller/doer model to the next tier and distributing more to project managers. Right now we have three to four department managers who do it all. We’re looking to train more mid-level people to handle more of these tasks. It’s similar to our internal transition leadership model. We have to manage burnout. TZL: Diversity and inclusion is lacking. What steps are you taking to address this issue? MN: We are looking to have more female managers and working through internship programs and with universi- ties. Currently, three out of our eight owners are women and we are pretty proud of that. We have a high level of di- versity at the firm and have tribal members as key manag- ers. It’s important to have a variety of opinions and back- grounds – we need different perspectives. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? MN: We have declared that we want to be among the Best Firms To Work For. We’re a professional but fun place. While we can’t compete with the perks offered at places like Google and Apple, we do pretty well in that department. We have lots of social events, ping pong tables, and communi- cate to people that we’re not just a place to have a job – we build careers. We want people to know that we’re in it for the long-term. “We promoted our staff doing community service events, traveling, enjoying nature, going to site visits on projects or anything else they are passionate about in their LACO shirt. Our staff really enjoyed it and went above and beyond from skydiving to international travel and even a wedding!” TZL: If the worker shortage continues, do you see wag- es increasing to encourage more talent to enter the AEC space, or will technology be used to counter the reduced work force?
MN: There’s continued wage pressure. We’re working to bridge the gap and are promoting our strong culture. We en- courage flexibility, promote working from home, and high- light that we are in an area where there is a lower cost of liv- ing when compared to many other regions. We’re working to capitalize on our culture – smaller teams on projects and opportunities to work on specialty projects. So, quality of life, cost of living, and interesting jobs. TZL: Engineers love being engineers, but what are you doing to instill a business culture in your firm? MN: We’re working to train project manager assistants or project coordinators. It’s rare to get people who can do it all well. People tend to gravitate to what they like to do. We’re pairing up people to work together. For example, tech peo- ple who show a strong affinity for financials – they’re likely a strong candidate for the leadership track.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER May 6, 2019, ISSUE 1295
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