Eighty percent of HDR’s customers are repeat clients, and 25 percent of its work comes from the federal government.

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As a leading global architecture and engineering firm, HDR Inc. ’s practices inevitably cast a big shadow. Fortunately for the company’s 6,800 employees and numerous repeat customers, the example it sets is a positive one.

The Omaha, Neb.-based firm, now with 150 offices, was bought by its employees in 1996; 82 percent currently own company stock. HDR says this has produced a “strong entrepreneurial spirit,” as well as an earnest commitment to job satisfaction among employees.

“We make sure everyone has voice,” National Director and Senior Vice President Mike Doiel says. “It’s all about the individual’s impact in the communities we live and work in.”

HDR adopts five-year strategic plans, which it describes as “the roadmap to what we want to be, where we want to be and how we plan to get there,” through collaborating with hundreds of its employees in a variety of tiers.

“Since our employee buyout, we’re on our second five-year strategic plan,” Doiel explains. “One of the things we learned from it is that you need to have a level of involvement internally from staff with generational differences.  A lot of employees who contributed to our original success are now retiring. “

To identify specific goals for employee satisfaction and company success, it seeks input from a range of employees. “We learned the millennials and Gen Xers think much shorter-term,” Doiel says. “We learned what some of their priorities are, such as flexible work hours and having the ability to work from home through technology. Our business is very collaborative.”

The company has developed “collaboration Web sites” for increased communication. “We are constantly making sure that information is current and available to employees, so that we offer a consistency in our services,” Doiel says.

“It’s a way for our employees to keep on top of the constantly evolving industry.”

It is also a way for the company to keep qualified, loyal workers in an industry experiencing a labor drought.

“There’s definitely a talent shortage,” he says. “We try to make sure people who move through careers stay here as long as possible.

“Even some of those who are post-retirement still maintain a part-time role, by continuing in mentorship positions.”

Doiel says the company’s turnover rate is approximately 40 percent less than the industry standard.

“As we establish our initiatives to meet our goals and objectives, we build a balance scorecard,” he explains. “Our target rate for turnover was 8 percent, and the industry standard was over 12 percent last year for similar firms.”

HDR also incorporated benchmarks for a diversified work force into its plan. “We make sure that we have minority and female participation not only at our technical, professional levels, but within our management ranks as well,” Doiel says.

Clients for Life
Eighty percent of HDR’s customers are repeat clients, and 25 percent of its work comes from the federal government. “Much of HDR’s success has been built on the fact that we engage clients, a philosophy we refer to as creating ‘clients for life’,” the company says. “This partnership approach has allowed HDR to maintain healthy, long-term working relationships with clients of all types.”

Doiel says the company doesn’t “necessarily pursue projects, we pursue clients, because we have such a significant amount of repeat business.

“Many times we can help our clients formulate their plans. A lot of times, when you pursue a project, it just starts and finishes. However, many times, our clients have multiple needs before, during and after projects that we can help them with.”

Doiel says there are “regulatory changes” that create work for its clients. “In that vein, we want to be with them through a 360-degree continuum, from pre-design through post-construction,” he explains.

One of HDR’s clients for life is Methodist Hospital in Omaha.

“We were on the original design team that designed their hospital,” he says. “Now, we have worked with the client for over 40 years. We’re now designing a new women’s hospital for them.”

Doiel says the women’s facility is the first new hospital the client will build since its original facility in the 1960s, but HDR has done hundreds of small upgrades for Methodist over the years.

“We’ve maintained an excellent relationship with that client all this time,” he declares.

Methodist Hospital is an illustration of HDR’s plans to continue to grow aggressively and to expand and diversify its services. “We have expanded into areas such as justice and civic architecture, advanced research facility and laboratory planning and design, clean-room design and higher education facilities,” he says. “HDR also has evolved its traditional architecture offerings to address such 21st century needs as sustainability, financing, risk management and design/build.

“These diverse offerings provide unlimited career paths for HDR employees, who are continually encouraged to seek out advancement opportunities within the company,” he adds.