1220

Sheth

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What are your steps for removal after they have prov- en to be ineffective, or even counterproductive, to your firm? RS: Employees receive ongoing feedback. If someone has done a great job on a project, that person is told so imme- diately. If they aren’t doing such a great job, they are also told that, including what they need to do to improve. We’ve spent time coaching our managers and supervisors on how to give constructive feedback to help employees grow and improve. That includes good listening skills. Perhaps an un- derperforming employee is having some personal issues; how will we know that unless we ask? Another question is how long has this been going on? Managers are encouraged to get to know members of their team as individuals so they can recognize when something is “off” with one of them. Even with regular feedback, we still do annual performance evaluations for goal setting and career planning. If an em- ployee just isn’t performing and we’ve tried to correct the issues, we do let people go. They know it’s coming. TZL: Firms that have principals and firm owners who lower their compensation and invest back into the firm perform better, grow quicker, and have higher valua- tions. How do you balance owner compensation with in- vestment in the firm? RS: As an employee owned firm (non-ESOP), approximately 30 percent of our employees are “owners.” We consistently retain some of our year-end profit for the future. We also ex- pect shareholders consistently to invest in the company by purchasing additional stock when the opportunity arises. Many of our shareholders use most, or all, of their year-end bonus to purchase additional stock, which is a fantastic tes- timony to the faith our employee owners have in the com- pany. Regarding salaries, we tend to be slightly above mar- ket and we’ve been careful to make sure that those of us in key leadership positions don’t receive any special treatment when it comes to our pay. TZL: How does marketing contribute to your success rate? Are you content with your marketing efforts, or do you think you should increase/decrease marketing? RS: Continuous marketing efforts and well thought out business development efforts are necessary for ongo- ing business success. Repeat clients are a large part of our See CONFERENCE CALL, page 8 “No one course, program, or degree will make a person successful in business. There is something to be said for gaining experience and being willing to listen and learn from the beginning of one’s career until one retires.”

their employees. Meet with them face-to-face; get to know them and what their concerns are and what they’re excited about. We offer multiple ways to submit ideas and sugges- tions and have often implemented them. Employees want to be treated as individuals and respected, regardless of the position they hold in the organization. “One size doesn’t fit all. Be prepared to be flexible and creative to attract and retain talent even if it might be out of your comfort zone. Things like allowing employees occasionally to bring their dog or child to work, telecommuting, flexible schedules, etc.” TZL: The talent war in the A/E industry is here. What steps do you take to create the leadership pipeline need- ed to retain your top people? RS: We have a well thought-out internal leadership devel- opment program, which we continue to improve. We pro- vide leadership development training opportunities to all employees. Those with high potential of moving into senior leadership positions receive advanced training, both inter- nal and external. We promote from within and therefore employees can see there is opportunity for them to move up as we grow. We also treat employees well so they aren’t tempted to leave us. TZL: In the event of failure, how does your firm react? RS: I assume the failure refers to a problem on a project. Our philosophy and practice is always to take care of our clients. As soon as we learn about any perceived failure, we meet with the client to understand the situation and find a responsible solution within the ethical, legal, and, if needed, insurance parameters. We’ve never lost a client because of any real or perceived failures. TZL: The A/E market is great right now. What are you do- ing to cushion your firm in the event of a downturn? RS: We’re careful to make sure we don’t staff up more than what our long-term needs will be. We do not believe in hir- ing full-time regular employees for short-term needs. We also are diversified in our client services so if one area of our business happens to be lagging, it’s almost inevitable that another area of our business is booming. Therefore, we encourage our employees to be versatile and learn as much as they can about the different aspects of our business so when things cycle, they are capable of assisting with oth- er departments or business units outside their assigned group. TZL: How do you deal with underperforming employees?

ober 16, 2017, ISSUE 1220

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