TZL 1300

“CAD Mentor” for younger staff. TZL: In one word or phrase, what do you describe as your number one job responsibility? GM: Planning for diversification and de- veloping business. TZL: What happens to the firm if you leave tomorrow? GM: We would lose all of our govern- ment contracts. As a Federally-Certified Service Disabled Veteran company we do work on contracts that are specifical- ly set aside for Service Disabled Veter- an-owned companies. If I were to leave, Calibre would lose the certification and those contracts. In order to transition this work to a new owner I have to find, mentor, and gain trust in another Ser- vice Disabled Veteran and then work on the financial side of ownership transi- tion. I’m at ground zero right now and looking for someone to bring in who fits that bill. TZL: With technology reducing the time it takes to complete design work, how do you get the AEC industry to start pricing on value instead of hours? GM: I don’t know that you can do this. Free market economy dictates that price is a factor. “The myth that things need to go back to ‘when they were great’ is ridiculous. I’m 60 years old and everything is better today than it was in the 1960s. Any effort to resist change scares me.” TZL: If the worker shortage continues, do you see wages increasing to encour- age more talent to enter the AEC space, or will technology be used to counter the reduced work force? GM: I see wages paralleling the overall economy. Technology will eventually re- duce the workforce, but software manu- facturers drive the technology, and they have no interest in robotizing the indus- try by making it too easy to design, so they gate-keep the software to ensure that users need to interact. Eventually, though, 90 percent of civil engineering will be programmable, so there will have

to be a drop-off in labor demand. How- ever, I don’t see there being a drop in de- mand for project management over the next 20 to 30 years. “We are working to make sure that there is a revenue split at the end of the year so that overall compensation makes it in the employees’ best interest to stay. It’s all about addressing their needs and their interests.” TZL: Engineers love being engineers, but what are you doing to instill a busi- ness culture in your firm? GM: We work to engage the mid-level engineers in some of the executive deci- sions and also do coaching. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? GM: We are working to make sure that there is a revenue split at the end of the year so that overall compensation makes it in the employees’ best interest to stay. It’s all about addressing their needs and their interests. People will always move in the direction of their best interest. TZL: Benefits are evolving. Are you of- fering any new ones due to the chang- ing demographic? GM: Most of the effort is toward getting staff more time off. I’m a big believer in quality of life and more time off. We have a PTO policy that I like to think is in the top quartile in the industry. The addi- tional time off I’m talking about would be pretty radical. I got this idea when the economy tanked in 2008, and we had to lay people off. Af- ter the lay-offs started impacting really great employees I had enough. I decided that we would do no more lay-offs, but we would split the work hours evenly among everyone. What I found was that when we all worked 20 hours, it was a huge financial burden on everyone, but when we worked say 30 to 36 hours, ev- eryone really appreciated that additional time off, to the point that it was worth

YEAR FOUNDED: 2000 HEADQUARTERS: Denver, CO OFFICE LOCATIONS: 3 NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 35 TYPES OF PROJECTS: ❚ ❚ Military and federal ❚ ❚ Commercial and retail ❚ ❚ Infrastructure ❚ ❚ Healthcare and research

❚ ❚ Mixed-use and TOD ❚ ❚ Schools and training ❚ ❚ Residential ❚ ❚ Public sector (municipal) ❚ ❚ District ❚ ❚ IDIQ and on-call ❚ ❚ Industrial ❚ ❚ Design/build SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Water ❚ ❚ Master/site planning ❚ ❚ Storm ❚ ❚ Sanitary sewer ❚ ❚ Roads ❚ ❚ Parking ❚ ❚ Drives ❚ ❚ Grading and earthwork ❚ ❚ Low impact design ❚ ❚ Costing ❚ ❚ Construction COMPANY CULTURE: The CAT (Calibre Appreciation and Team-Building) program encourages togetherness, engagement, and company morale through monthly company-sponsored events. The goal of the program is to provide diversified events that cater to a variety of interests for individual employees and, often, employee family and friends. Events range from happy hours and go-kart racing to cooking contests and more. GREG MURPHY: Founded Calibre Engineering in 2000. His vision was to provide client-centered, civil engineering services that consistently met budget and schedule. He’s a military veteran with more than 30 years of design and management experience.

See RADICAL BENEFITS, page 8

ne 10, 2019, ISSUE 1300

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