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Above all, we encourage our employees to simply do what’s right. We’ve found that our employees respond well to the freedom that our trust-based culture provides, and they take seriously the personal responsibility that it requires. We regularly see them do extraordinary work to serve our clients, which across time has helped us develop a large and loyal client base. TZL: How has COVID affected your business on a daily basis? WN: As you might guess, the most significant daily change has been our virtually across-the-board transition from working in the office to working from home. In addition, when it’s been necessary to do certain work on job sites and in our laboratories and offices, our staff have adopted new daily practices (social distancing, frequent hand washing, and wearing masks) to help protect everyone’s health and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. As an organization, we’ve also remained flexible, adapting internal systems and processes where needed to better support our employees and our clients. In particular, we’ve continued to enhance our already strong suite of technology and communications tools, including Zoom, Skype, and Teams. The good news for us has been that even though many daily practices have changed, our ability to deliver distinguished work product and exceptional service to our clients has not. Since the pandemic first hit, we’ve continued to do business from our homes, the field, and our offices and laboratories in accordance with government guidelines almost without interruption. TZL: What type of leader do you consider yourself to be? WN: First let me say that I consider the opportunity to fill a key leadership role at WJE an honor and a privilege. I work hard every day to be worthy of that honor and to continue to earn that privilege. Beyond that, I think it’s most important to ask what type of leader others consider me to be. In that regard, I hope I’m seen as a values- driven leader who cares profoundly about the success of our company as well as the success and well-being of every one of our employees. I also hope that I’m seen as someone who has high expectations of himself and others; who puts the good of the company and others first; who is strong

in his convictions, but still open to new and/or better ideas; who believes almost anything is possible; and who, above all, always strives to do what’s right. TZL: It is often said that people leave managers, not companies. What are you doing to ensure that your line leadership are great people managers? WN: For starters, we work hard to select the right people to be our managers. We believe that our front-line managers’ number one responsibility is to help the people they manage succeed. Almost all of our people managers have worked in our company for at least 10 years or more before they’re asked to become managers. This gives us a great opportunity to observe their behaviors and understand their talents. We often say that we’re always looking for people who have the “WJE manager gene” – people with selfless motivation and the innate ability to work with a variety of different individuals to help them succeed. “We’ve found that our employees respond well to the freedom that our trust-based culture provides, and they take seriously the personal responsibility that it requires.” Individuals selected to be our front-line managers initially go through a two-day “now that you’re a manager” internal orientation class. Once in the role, all our managers attend semi-annual two- day workshops to further develop their management/leadership knowledge and skills. In addition, we encourage each of our managers to develop and maintain informal relationships with other managers. We refer to it as “managers helping managers.” Across time, we’ve been fortunate to have exceptional front-line managers. Their diligence is one of the reasons we have such a strong and positive culture and a very low staff turnover. In fact, more than half our employees have worked at WJE for more than 20 years. TZL: If you had to pick one thing that you’re most proud of during your career with WJE to date, what springs to mind? WN: Almost from the day I started working at WJE, I realized that our founders had

HEADQUARTERS: Northbrook, IL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 725 YEAR FOUNDED: 1956 NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: 29 EXPERTISE:

❚ ❚ Engineering ❚ ❚ Architecture ❚ ❚ Field ❚ ❚ Forensics ❚ ❚ Design ❚ ❚ Laboratory ❚ ❚ Markets: ❚ ❚ Buildings ❚ ❚ Energy ❚ ❚ Construction ❚ ❚ Industrial

❚ ❚ Infrastructure ❚ ❚ Insurance and ❚ ❚ Testing ❚ ❚ Research EVERY YEAR: More than 7,000

projects are completed WHAT ARE C 2 E 2 PEOPLE?

WJE seeks to employ only C 2 E 2 people – people with outstanding character, unwavering commitment, strong expertise, and genuine enthusiasm.

See CULTURE CARRIER, page 8

MBER 14, 2020, ISSUE 1371

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