Management ideas for A/E Human Resources professionals

December 2009 A ZweigWhite Publication

Firms crafting policies Inside:

By the Numbers on social media 1 By the Numbers: Firms crafting
policies on social media
Some companies see web sites as an unnecessary distraction, others tap into the business
development opportunities. 1 HR plays special role in
maintaining ethical business
Almost half (48%) of the firm leaders who answered this month’s survey questions environment
in The Zweig HR Letter say they are working on policies that spell out how much 4 The Legal Corner: Preserving
time their employees can spend evidence of electronic theft
Does your firm have a policy regarding the time employees
can spend on social networking sites during work hours?
on social networking sites during 5 Beyond Benefits: Focus on
work hours. professional development to
48% No, but we are 17% No— social
networking is a key part
keep all levels of staff satisfied
working on a policy. The divide among survey respon-
of our strategy to
dents to the question about using 6 Growing People: Building
attract new communities of practice
clients and social networking during work
new work. hours is substantial, with 26% of 7 Guest Speaker: The economy
will rebound, but are we
those who answered the question prepared?
7% Yes—
saying using such tools are impor-
less than 1
hour per day tant pieces of a firms’ marketing
effort, and 17% banning the use 3 HR Briefs
of social networking during work 8 On the Move
2% Yes— hours altogether. 8 Resources
26% No— we don’t allow social less than 2
networking during work hours. At FRCH Worldwide
hours per day
(Cincinnati, OH), a 270-person Next month’s
architecture and design firm, there is no policy restricting the amount of time By the Numbers
employees can spend on social networking sites, says Donna Szarwark, senior vice
president of human resources. Your participation in this simple
see By the Numbers on page 3
online survey will take only minutes
and improve the overall results of
HR plays special role in maintaining ethical business next month’s By the Numbers data.
1) How many employees left your
environment firm involuntarily in 2009?
2) How many employees left your
Creating an employee handbook and maintaining transparent, enforceable standards are essential
firm voluntarily in 2009?
steps.
To participate in the survey, visit
Both the architecture and engineering industries have professional codes of ethics, www.zweigwhite.com/go/numbers.
but is your firm aware of the special role that a human resources department plays
in reinforcing ethical behavior?
Professional pressures
The first thing HR professionals in these fields should be thinking about is making sure
their firms have an employee handbook that reflects relevant professional codes.Among
In-house training
ZweigWhite’s customized in-house
other things, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ code of ethics emphasizes training sessions are facilitated by
safety and public responsibility, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in ZweigWhite principals who have
Washington, D.C., reflects on the social and environmental impact of architecture. industry-specific experience and
technical know-how. Schedule them to
“Publish an employee handbook that contains all the rules and regulations regarding work with your staff, right in your office.
the work space in the company, the promotion process, termination, disciplinary To discuss your specific needs, please
actions, etc.,” recommends Dr. Jamshid Mohammadi, a professor of structural engineer- contact Principal Christine Brack at
ing at the Armour College of Engineering 708-289-9099 or by e-mail
see Ethical on page 2 at cbrack@zweigwhite.com.

© Copyright 2009 ZweigWhite. All rights reserved.

ZWEIGWHITE
Visit us at: www.zweigwhite.com The Zweig HR Letter
2
December 2009 • Issue 46
Ethical, continued from page 1
at Illinois Institute of Technology in
Chicago.
In the AEC field, “there are a wide vari-
ety of opinions about what it means to
be successful in the business,” says Tim
Mazur, chief operating officer of the
Ethics & Compliance Officer
Association (Waltham, MA).
“When you bring in different groups
with different backgrounds, who have
different opinions about what’s allowed
and what’s not in business, you ve got
problems.”
Mazur points to a “race to the bottom”
at AEC firms when clients make it clear
they are looking for the lowest bids on
RFPs. “An organization is harmed when
it low-balls a bid to get the job, and as
part of its strategy, it will find a way to
add on expenses and mess up the pro-
cess,” he says. “It’s a terrible way to do
business.”
Common ethical issues
Other common ethical issues for AEC
firms include “not following the stan-
dards in preparing technical calculations;
practicing in an engineering area outside
of one’s specialty; accepting a recom-
mendation from a superior without
studying it; and not properly giving
credit to those who have been involved
in a project, especially when there is a
publication produced,” says
Mohammadi, who regularly makes pre-
sentations on ethical issues in the engi-
neering industry for IIT.
Add to those the size of typical projects,
which Mazur points out are huge and
involve so much money. “This increases
the presence of ethical challenges,” he
says. “Then there’s the long-term nature
of the projects.” He says with long-term
projects, firms can t just pick up and
switch contractors easily. “It’s important
to get the standards set at the beginning
of the process,” he adds.
HR’s special role
HR’s role is to make sure “people who
are committed to doing it the right
The Zweig HR Letter
way” work at the managerial and execu-
tive levels, Mazur says.With competing
project managers at different firms
involved in these big, long projects, it’s
important to set up incentive structures
so they are not designed around short-
term rewards, he explains. Building
longer-term incentives with bonuses
that come over time can help make sure
project managers are working to pre-
serve your firm’s relationship with
clients. Also, HR plays a role in helping
to create a culture where rainmakers are
not tacitly exempt from ethics and com-
pliance requirements.
“Half of the PR professionals I ve met
are only familiar with the old view of
compliance— OSHA,” says Mazur, who
distinguishes between the regulatory
compliance required by occupational
safety laws and criminal compliance reg-
ulations, which stem from the U.S.
Sentencing Commission that helped to
develop a new view of business compli-
ance.The commission produced the
Organizational Guidelines that became a
standard in the compliance field, with
their seven steps or criteria for effective
compliance plans:
(1) Establish effective compliance
standards and procedures.
The Zweig HR Letter
Management ideas for A/E Human Resources
professionals
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(2) Assign specific, high-level person(s)
to oversee compliance.
(3) Use due care not to delegate impor-
tant responsibilities to known high-risk
persons.
(4) Communicate your program effec-
tively to all employees and agents.
(5) Monitor and audit program opera-
tion and establish a retribution-free
means for employees to report possible
violations to management.
(6) Consistently discipline employee
violators.
(7) Respond promptly and appropriately
to any offenses and remedy any program
deficiencies.
“The greatest way to make a difference
is to have transparency,” says Mazur. “An
organization should lay out its standards
in writing.” He suggests adapting the
seven steps to your own organization
with specific language that includes
examples and a training process.
“HR is a very important player in the
process of enforcing the standards,” he
says. “The biggest issue is to enforce
them.” And it usually falls to HR to
investigate and terminate employees—
no matter at what level— who violate
the standards. 
Advisory Board
Pam Britton, Principal and Director of Learning,
Design Workshop
Monica Dugan, Vice President and Corporate
Director of Human Resources, SSOE, Inc.
Kimberly Filion, Associate and Director of Finance
and Human Resources, JMZ Architects and
Planners, P.C.
Eli Gould, Employment Attorney, MBV Law LLP
Gerri King, Social Psychologist and Organizational
Consultant, President, Human Dynamics Associates,
Inc.
A.J. Lindemann, Corporate Director of Human
Resources, Wood, Patel & Associates, Inc.
Debbie Norris, Vice President of Human Resources,
Merrick & Company
Melanie Rogers, Director of HR/Principal, DES
Architects + Engineers, Inc.
© 2009 ZweigWhite. All rights reserved
ISSN 1526-4483
ZWEIGWHITE

By the Numbers, continued from page 1
“Social networking is a key part of our
strategy to attract new clients and new
work. I believe it is a valuable business
development tool, particularly LinkedIn,”
Szarwark said.
By contrast, Wood Patel and
Associates (Phoenix,AZ), a 100-person
consulting engineering firm, allows no
social networking at work, said A. J.
Lindemann, human resources director.
“We live and die by billable hours,” wrote
one respondent who answered the survey
anonymously.“I do not foresee that we
would ever promote the idea of allotting
staff hours (for billable folks) for social
networking.We are trying to decide if
there is a benefit for our marketing direc-
tor or other leadership staff to participate
in social networking.”
Other firms attempt to find a middle
ground, allowing, but limiting, time
employees can spend on the Internet, and
restricting access to some sites.
“We allow 80 minutes, total, of personal
Internet time per day, in blocks of 10
minutes at a time,” said Keith Bloomfield,
director of human resources at
DeSimone Consulting Engineers
(New York, NY), a 250-person engineer-
ing services firm.
“Facebook and MySpace access is restrict-
ed, but Twitter and LinkedIn, at this point,
is not,” Bloomfield said.
Questions remain among survey respon-
dents about the effectiveness of social net-
working in drumming up new business
for the firm or leading to anything that
would affect the bottom line.
“This would work for products and
maybe services such as entertainment and
hospitality, but I don t foresee the AEC
industry using this,” one respondent said.
“Maybe (it could be used) for recruiting
when the economy rebounds, but not for
clients.”
Among the firms that do have policies in
place, three-quarters say employees can
use social networking for up to an hour a
day, with the other quarter saying it’s OK
© Copyright 2009 ZweigWhite. All rights reserved.
ZWEIGWHITE
as long as the time is restricted to two
hours a day or less.
For its part, ZweigWhite has taken a few
steps in to the social networking realm,
launching a Facebook page and a Twitter
account in the spring, and more recently,
starting a blog called The Board Room
(zweigwhite.blogspot.com) as a hub for news
and opinions on the industry from com-
pany staff and firm leaders across the AEC
space.
A new approach
One respondent sees no doubt in the
value of social networking and encourages
employees to utilize it whenever they feel
it could boost the firm’s profile and
backlog.
“Social networking will become, if it’s not
already, a key factor in how we brand
ourselves as a firm.The question is not
Will we use social networks?, but how. It
is also important to note that face-to-face
interaction will continue to be the best
way to build client relationships and social
networks will be a way to open the
door.”
Another respondent agreed that social
networking will not be the only way to
develop new business, but will play a key
role in the industry going forward.
“I think it will increasingly become more
important in the future to be able to suc-
cessful implement social networking into
the whole business development strategy
as a whole,” the respondent wrote.
Others wonder how quickly the social
networking craze will catch on, although
they acknowledge its merits.
“We support the use of LinkedIn for a
limited number of employees, not includ-
ing Facebook,Twitter or others that are
specifically blocked on our business sys-
tems,” one wrote.“For our company,
social networking is not likely to be pop-
ular; it’s too difficult to control the mes-
sage and can be an ineffective use of
time.We will, however, continue to eval-
uate the potential opportunity.The
highest potential is likely to be in the
area of recruiting.” 
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3
December 2009 • Issue 46
HR Briefs
EMPLOYEES DOING MORE: Government data
earlier this month showed U.S. employee
productivity rose at its fastest pace in six
years in the third quarter of this year,
according to Reuters.
The 9.5% jump at an annual rate in the
amount of output per employee came at a
time when many American employers are
slashing jobs in an effort to cut costs. The
U.S. unemployment rate was at 10% in
November. Rising worker productivity comes
as the U.S. economy continues to shed jobs.
As of November, U.S. employers payrolls had
declined for 23 months and 7.4 million
people had lost their jobs since December
2007.
A wide gauge of labor-market slack that
includes unemployed Americans who have
given up looking for work hit a record 17.5%
in October, the government said. While
employers are requiring more output from the
same or even fewer number of people, some
economists say the jump in productivity may
have used up much of the productivity slack
in the existing workforce.
DOCTOR MOM ON THE JOB: Big businesses
are spending serious time and money trying
to limit the swine flu pandemic’s impact on
operations, from bankrolling video on good
hygiene to training employees to cover for
co-workers with critical jobs, according to The
Associated Press.
Companies are arranging for employees with
flu symptoms or sick family members to work
from home where possible, holding fewer
in-person meetings, even discouraging
handshakes. Hand sanitizers, disinfectant
wipes and tissues are at the ready everywhere
as employers make keeping workers healthy
their first line of defense.
Employers are playing Dr. Mom, teaching
about hygiene, distributing information about
the pandemic, telling folks to stay home if
they get sick— generally with pay— and
scrapping the required doctor s note.
Many companies have provided seasonal flu
vaccines free to employees or even employees
families and stepped up cleaning schedules.
Just about every company has done staff
presentations on swine flu or set up an
information site on its intranet.
Besides promoting healthy behavior and
arranging to temporarily get by without some
workers, many employers are making backup
plans for distributing their products and
asking key suppliers what they ve done to
ensure they can keep delivering.
The Zweig HR Letter
4
December 2009 • Issue 46
The Legal Corner
Preserving evidence
of electronic theft
Computers keep all the records you need—
but take care to preserve them.
Remember the “bad old days” when
your best shot at proving that a former
employee had stolen your proprietary or
confidential information was if someone
saw her standing at the copier for hours
at a time, or watched him cart off boxes
of documents?
Today, when virtually every document
or piece of information is stored and
transmitted electronically, it is much eas-
ier to prove that an employee moved,
copied or destroyed documents or files
belonging to the employer.Virtually
every time an electronic document is
created, accessed, changed or moved, an
electronic record of that action is creat-
ed. In essence, a set of electronic finger-
prints are left, from which a computer
forensics expert can determine when a
document was last accessed, by whom
and what was done with the document.
Even electronic documents that have
been “deleted” often leave a trail that
leads the computer forensics expert to
where the document still exists so it can
be recovered. (The bad news is the elec-
tronic storage of documents makes it
even easier to spirit them off the
employer s premises.Thousands of pages
of documents can be downloaded onto
a single CD-ROM or e-mailed to an
outside address.)
The “fingerprints” and trails left when
electronic documents are copied, moved
or destroyed can be conclusive evidence
of theft or destruction of valuable com-
pany property by an employee, especial-
ly if explained to a judge or jury by a
computer forensics expert. However,
such evidence may be lost or compro-
mised if you do not proceed cautiously
and expeditiously to identify and pre-
serve it.
The Zweig HR Letter
One of the most common ways that the
electronic evidence is compromised,
often fatally, is when someone with no
expert technical knowledge searches the
suspected employee s computer to
determine if any theft or destruction has
occurred. Electronically stored docu-
ments and files typically are “stamped”
with three pertinent dates and times; (1)
the date the document was created, (2)
the date it was last modified, and (3) the
date it was last accessed.This last date is
often crucial in establishing that the sus-
pected employee accessed the stolen or
destroyed document immediately prior
to the time of loss or destruction, or
shortly before or after the end of
employment. However, the very act of
accessing the document by an internal
investigator trying to determine if theft
or destruction has occurred will alter
the last access date, thereby compromis-
ing what is possibly the best evidence
against the suspect employee.
In addition, delay in searching for and
retrieving destroyed or deleted docu-
ments can result in their irretrievable
loss.When an electronic document or
file is “deleted,” the document/file con-
tinues to exist somewhere in the com-
puter, usually in its “unallocated space,”
along with the time markers associated
with the document. However, if the
computer remains operating and con-
nected to the firm’s servers, the unallo-
cated space may be overwritten, or doc-
uments in it “cleaned” by the regular
clean up and space allocation processes
of the computer and/or servers.
Moving swiftly and cautiously, is the key
to securing and preserving the evidence
you may need to establish theft or
destruction of your property.You should
have a clear plan of action for dealing
with suspected theft or destruction.That
plan should include, at the very least, a
provision for a knowledgeable IT person
to disconnect the computer or storage
device from your system and secure the
Visit us at: www.zweigwhite.com
device where it cannot be accessed by
others.The plan may, and probably
should, provide that every computer or
device used by a departing employee be
disconnected and held for a period of
time after the employee has left, to
determine whether there is any reason
to believe that documents or files were
stolen or destroyed.Wiping a computer’s
hard drive and giving it to another
employee to use will almost certainly
result in the loss or compromise of the
evidence you could have used to estab-
lish theft or destruction.
Today, when virtually every
document or piece of
information is stored and
transmitted electronically, it is
much easier to prove that an
employee moved, copied or
destroyed documents or files
belonging to the employer.
Once you have determined that theft or
destruction may have occurred, your
plan of action should also include deter-
mining who should access the computer
or device to find out whether there was
theft or destruction of documents.That
person should be an expert with the
technology involved. At a very mini-
mum, that should be someone from
your IT staff.
I routinely recommend to my clients
that they retain a professional computer
forensics expert to conduct both the
search and the retrieval of the docu-
ments/files or date/time information.
The forensics expert should be conver-
sant with legal chain of custody issues, as
well as with technology traps to be
avoided.There are many self-described
forensics experts out in the market, but
the firm should take the time and
effort— ideally, in advance of the need
for his or her services— to be certain
the expert selected is truly expert. 
Eli Gould is an employment
attorney with MBV Law LLP
(San Francisco, CA). Contact
him at eligould@mbvlaw.com.
ZWEIGWHITE

Beyond Benefits: Lessons from Inside the A/E Industry
Focus on professional
development to keep all
levels of staff satisfied
One A/E firm gets it right by training early and
linking professional development to incentives
and performance.
Architecture and engineering firms know
how important training is. But does your
HR department know that providing
opportunities for professional develop-
ment can make your firm a top draw for
the best in the field?
Just ask GATE (Gibson Applied
Technology & Engineering)
(Houston,TX), a 27-person firm that is
one of the top three best multidisciplinary
firms to work for, according to
ZweigWhite and Stagnito Media’s 2009
Best Firms survey. GATE provides techni-
cal consultancy and project management
to the upstream oil and gas industry.
“The opportunity for professional devel-
opment is consistently cited by our staff as
an area that framed their decision to join
GATE and that makes them want to stay
with us in the long term,” says Lee
Jordan, an engineering manager at GATE.
Jordan points to low staff turnover and
the overall success of the firm as results of
GATE s continual professional develop-
ment program, or CPD, which was recog-
nized with a case study presentation at
the Best Firms to Work For Summit in
September in Chicago.
Training begins immediately
GATE s CPD process begins when a new
hire joins the firm. For the next six
months, they are provided with presenta-
tions and access to “GATE University,”
which provides regular introductory
courses to the technical side of the busi-
ness.Then, both in-house and external
technical courses are provided in a full
curriculum within the first two years of
employment.
“This formalized training program is aug-
mented by monthly lunch and learns,
© Copyright 2009 ZweigWhite. All rights reserved.
ZWEIGWHITE
GATE focuses on professional development
one-on-one mentoring, and half-yearly
career progression reviews where every-
one from the company— president to
our administrative staff— develops a
career progression action plan,” explains
Jordan.
“For junior staff, this may be focused on
training courses and work experience, but
for more experienced staff, this also
addresses business development and pro-
ject and personnel management skills,” he
says.
Real incentives
But GATE doesn’t stop there.The firm
links incentives and its performance
review program to its CPD program.
According to its presentation at the
Summit, participation in the program is a
defined part of performance bonuses.
“Management staff are rated against met-
rics including the quality and timeliness of
the CPD reviews that they have under-
taken, the level of action item close-outs
on the CPD reviews of their staff, their
provision of training courses and docu-
ments through the year, and the quality of
work generated by their teams,” says
Jordan.
Results are hard to beat
In addition to very low attrition rates, says
Jordan, other results of the firm’s profes-
sional development program include high
utilization of junior staff, as well as the
ability to effectively promote from within,
“which minimizes the risks associated
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5
December 2009 • Issue 46
with bringing in external hires who are
unfamiliar with GATE’s visions and goals,
and our philosophy of implementing
these.”
Staff response has been overwhelmingly
positive, according to GATE’s case study.
In both job satisfaction surveys and sur-
veys about performance review, GATE
employees responded with 100% positive
answers (“satisfied” or “very satisfied”),
compared to ranges from 58% to 96% for
other top firms, and even lower numbers
for all firms.
With numbers comes challenge
Of course such a rigorous program comes
with challenges. GATE plans to triple the
size of its technical staff in the next five
years— an aggressive growth strategy that
Jordan says “places an increased strain on
our ability to attract suitably qualified and
motivated individuals.”
“This anticipated influx of new staff gen-
erates a challenge in terms of how we
ensure that we continue to challenge,
motivate and develop all of our employ-
ees at all levels,” he explains. But that
won’t change the firm’s focus.“Only by
continuing to focus on professional devel-
opment can we provide the career
advancement opportunities demanded by
our current staff and by our future hires,”
he says.
Advice for other firms
During the case study, Jordan offered
advice to other firms that want to build
similar programs. He suggested examining
your firm’s vision and first determining if
you can get there without an investment
in a brand-new program like CPD.
“Recognize that it requires continuous
effort and unbillable time,” he cautioned.
Another thing to keep in mind is that
having “a wider view of potential results”
is better than narrowly defining how suc-
cess will be measured. He said to expect
an impact on your bottom line, and that
breaking even and payback periods are to
be expected. 
The Zweig HR Letter
6
December 2009 • Issue 46
Growing People
Building
communities
of practice
Find new ways to bring together people with
a common passion to explore, expand, share,
and implement new ideas.
Introduction
Community and collaboration are fun-
damental components of a successful
design firm.The power of multiple
minds rigorously exploring, sharing,
probing, and debating issues creates an
excellence that can be achieved in no
other way.This type of environment
provides the foundation for creating
vibrant communities of practice.
A growing number of people
and organizations in various
sectors are now focusing on
communities of practice as a
key to improving their
performance.
What is a community of practice?
The term “community of practice” was
coined relatively recently by Etienne
Wenger, a learning theorist most known
for his work on knowledge, groups, and
shared learning.This concept is provid-
ing a useful perspective on knowing and
learning. A growing number of people
and organizations in various sectors are
now focusing on communities of prac-
tice as a key to improving their
performance.
A community of practice (COP) is a
group of individuals who share a com-
mon interest and passion and choose to
collaboratively explore, expand, share,
and apply a pool of knowledge to create
greater value for themselves, the firm,
the clients and communities they serve.
Not everything called a community is a
community of practice. A neighborhood
for instance, is often called a community,
but is usually not a community of
The Zweig HR Letter
practice. Communities of practice often
engage in the following types of
interactions:
Problem solving— “Can we work on
this design and brainstorm some ideas?
I’m stuck.”
Requests for information— “Where
can I find the code to connect to the
server?”
Seeking experience— “Has anyone
dealt with a client in this situation?”
Reusing assets— “I have a proposal I
wrote for a client last year. I can send it
to you as a template for your new
proposal.”
Coordination and synergy— “Can
we combine our purchases to achieve
bulk discounts?”
Discussing developments— “What
do you think of the new CADD
system?”
Document projects— “We have faced
this problem five times now. Let s write
it down once and for all.”
Mapping knowledge— “Who knows
what, and what are we missing? What
other groups should we connect with?”
Characteristics of communities
of practice
Communities often appear and function
somewhat differently than a work
group. First of all, COPs self-manage
through the shared leadership of mem-
bers.They are not managed by the
organization.
However, they do generate knowledge
that supports the practice. Communities
seek, share, and create new knowledge
to enrich the members of the commu-
nity and the firm at large.
Communities create and pursue their
own “action agenda” by identifying
opportunities to advance their areas of
interest. Some of the contributions they
make include identifying and promoting
best practices related to their areas of
interest and introducing new knowledge
into the firm.They monitor the value
Visit us at: www.zweigwhite.com
they produce and share it enthusiastical-
ly with others.
In many cases, COPs receive some types
of support from the organization.This
can include simply acknowledging the
COP s value and embracing their con-
tributions, or providing guidance and
support to nurture their success, and/or
supplying resources as needed.
Nurturing communities of practice
Communities of Practice are often best
when they develop independently, rather
than being structured and created by the
firm. Some things you can do to help
budding COPs develop include:
1. Identify/support the community
leader(s)— These are folks with a pas-
sionate interest in a focus area who are
willing to devote some time and effort
to starting and maintaining the commu-
nity. Meet with them and encourage
their efforts.
2. Provide resources that support
the COP— These resources might
include meeting space, communication
options such as a blog or wiki on the
firm’s intranet site, and/or a small
amount of funding for materials or
events (such as a conference) that could
advance the community’s understanding
of their area of interest.
3. Provide venues for the commu-
nity to share their knowledge with
others— This could include informal
presentations of the areas they are
exploring, or space in the company
newsletter or on the firm’s intranet site.
Firms that recognize the social nature of
learning and the role communities of
practice can play in advancing knowl-
edge in the firm as well as fulfilling
individual interests can add a unique and
valuable approach to organizational
excellence. 
Pamela Britton is a learning
and organizational development
consultant at The Knowledge
Environment, LLC (Aspen, CO).
Contact her at
pam@theknowledge
environment.com.
ZWEIGWHITE

Guest Speaker:
The economy will
rebound, but are
we prepared?
Recruiting the best talent is even more critical
as the AEC industry turns around.
As the focus for many firms over the
past 18 months has been on layoffs, fur-
loughs, and reduced work days, it is
important to note that, as in down
cycles in the past, the economy can
rebound very rapidly.
When the dust settles, our organizations
will still be facing a shortage of talent in
the A/E industry. Here are some neces-
sary steps in recruiting top talent:
 Set up a tracking system. An
internal recordkeeping tool is critical to
the recruitment process. Not only does
it make it easy to keep track of appli-
cants, it also provides a better record for
what needs to happen next. From start
(receipt acknowledgement) to finish
(offer letter), there is a great deal of
coordination along the way and com-
munication is key.There is nothing
more frustrating to an interviewee than
to meet and then not hear anything for
weeks on end.The way you are treated
as an applicant is generally a good indi-
cation of the way you will be treated as
an employee. Databases allow firms to
set schedules and keep the process
moving.
 Build a recruitment team.
Identify who the key personnel are that
will serve as an interview team.
Generally it is always good to have a
team comprised of the immediate
supervisor and a human resources repre-
sentative for the initial interview. In our
firm, project delivery and HR are always
a constant, with the supervisor being the
variable, depending on the position.
Continuity is also important, so that
each candidate has the opportunity to
answer the same set of questions and
you can compare apples to apples.Your
interview team needs to be able to
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effectively communicate your corporate
culture, or what makes your company
special.
 Update job descriptions. Job
descriptions identifying responsibilities,
required skills, abilities, knowledge and
experience are extremely important in
the interviewing process. It should be
noted in the interview that descriptions
do not encompass all aspects of the
position, but are considered to be a gen-
eral overview.
The first thing that an applicant
does is log on to your web site.
Use these lean times to make
sure that you are sending the
right message.
 Evaluate your web site. The first
thing that an applicant does is log on to
your website. Use these lean times to
make sure that you are sending the right
message. If you say you are a great place
to work, does your web site reflect that?
 Use networking web sites.
Whether or not we agree with the
premise of business/social networking
sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook,
they will play a major role in the future.
New members are being added to these
sites at a rate of one per second, and
experts are now saying that social media
skills are considered basic job require-
ments, on a level with Word, Excel, etc.
Get in the game!
 Connect with your recruiters.
Make sure you maintain good relation-
ships with your external recruiters and
make them aware of hard-to-fill posi-
tions, even during slow periods.
Recruiters are only as good as the
information you provide, so expose
them to the culture of your
organization.
 Identify strategic hires. Now is a
good time to target individuals that
would improve your competitive edge.
Even though your focus may be on
reducing payrolls, the benefits generated
Visit us at: www.zweigwhite.com
7
December 2009 • Issue 46
from filling a key position can outweigh
the additional cost.
 Involve your employees.
Generally, employee referrals are great
opportunities for finding talent. It can
often account for 60%, or more, of the
overall recruitment effort. Generally,
your employees only recommend indi-
viduals that they want to work with. Let
your employees know that you are
always interested in talking to good
candidates.
 Conduct a staffing assessment.
Are there new markets that you will be
pursuing in the future? Have your mar-
keting efforts identified areas where
your talent pool is weak? Don t just
assume its business as usual.
 Determine skills requirement of
new talent. Should all new hires in the
A/E field already be BIM trained
and/or LEED certified? Remember
when CAD was an optional skill?
 Don t forget your laid-off alum-
ni. Often when reductions occur, you
have to terminate employees that you
really didn t want to lose. Keep in touch
with those employees and assist them in
any way you can. Maintaining a positive
relationship makes it easier to bring
them back when things improve.
 Attend campus job fairs. If you
generally recruit junior talent on cam-
pus, show up for job fairs even if you
are not currently recruiting.Your pres-
ence is importance and sends a positive
message to the university that they will
remember in the heavy recruitment
years. It also helps to build relationships
with faculty, which can result in excel-
lent referrals.
A new year brings renewed hope.
Let’s be ready. 
Melanie Rogers is director of
human resources/principal at
DES Architects + Engineers
(Redwood City, CA). Contact
her at mrogers@des-ae.com.
The Zweig HR Letter
8
December 2009 • Issue 46
On the Move
NEW MARKETING TEAM AT KCCT: Karn
Charuhas Chapman and Twohey (KCCT)
(Washington, DC), a 100-person architecture
firm has formed a new marketing team that
includes Amy Meininger, marketing
coordinator at KCCT, and Marilynn Mendell,
president at WinSpinCIC, Inc. (Fredericksburg,
VA), a 200-person branding and PR firm.
LEMARTEC NAMES MARKETING DIRECTOR:
Felipe Aguiar has been named director of
marketing and communications for Lemartec
Engineering and Construction Corporation
(Miami, FL), a 18-person design-build
engineering and construction firm.
AMA NAMES CEO: Todd Woerner has been
appointed president and chief executive
officer of Aerosol Monitoring & Analysis, Inc.
(AMA) (Hanover, MD),a 42-person specialized
industrial hygiene, and health and safety
consulting firm that provides services to
government agencies, institutions, building
owners, property managers, architects and
engineers.
SPAWGLASS PROMOTES TWO: SpawGlass
Contractors, Inc. (Austin, TX), a commercial
general contracting, construction
management, design-build, and civil
contracting firm, has promoted Casey Cowman
to marketing manager, and Melissa Totten to
manager of business relations.
GRAEF NAMES MARKETING MANAGER:
GRAEF (Milwaukee, WI), a 325-person
consulting engineering firm, recently promoted
Jennifer Kraft to corporate marketing manager.
KLEINFELDER NAMES BD VP: Gene
Matthews has been named vice president of
business development of the energy division at
Kleinfelder (San Diego, CA), a 2,000-person
science and engineering consulting firm.
WISER COMPANY HIRES NEW EXECS: Wiser
Company (Murfreesboro, TN), a 171-person
engineering, construction and geospatial
mapping services firm, recently hired Robert
Oglesby as executive vice president of AEC
services. Oglesby was with Everton Oglesby
Askew (EOA) Architects (Nashville, TN), for 18
years before joining Wiser. He will oversee
Wiser’s expansion and integration of
building-related AEC services with its existing
geospatial, civil and transportation engineering
services.
Wiser also named Tom Reed risk management
director and general counsel. In the role, he
will be responsible for overseeing and
coordinating all legal affairs of Wiser and will
function as a key member of the executive
management team. Reed previously served for
The Zweig HR Letter
30 years as city attorney of Murfreesboro.
He provided legal services for the construction
and development of more than $150 million
of new building construction in the city and
administered a self-insured risk fund that is
credited with saving the city more than $1
million annually.
RETTEW PROMOTES, ADDS OFFICE:
RETTEW (Lancaster, PA), a 250-person
multidiscipline engineering, planning, land
development, environmental consulting and
surveying firm, has promoted Clayton Bubeck
to vice president for northeastern
Pennsylvania, and named Ronald Madison
senior project manager, environmental
engineering. RETTEW also opened a new
office in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In their roles, Bubeck is responsible for
overseeing the firm’s Schuylkill Haven,
Pennsylvania, office and new Bethlehem
office, as well as leading overall business
development efforts in northeastern
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Madison will be
responsible for, among other things,
developing the firm’s business with
municipalities.
ROYAL HASKONING APPOINTS TWO: Royal
Haskoning (Nijmegen, NL), a 4,000-person
independent consultancy firm appointed Auke
Piek division director of industrial concepts,
and named Anton van der Sanden division
director of industrial engineering.
SKANSKA NAMES MARKETING DIRECTOR:
Skanska USA Building Inc. (Parsippany, NJ),
an international project development and
construction company, has named Dorothy
Verdon marketing director for its offices in
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and Rockville,
Maryland.
EMTEC NAMES BD MANAGER: Jodi Wladyka
has been named business development and
marketing manager for Emtec Consulting
Engineers (Long Island, NY), a consulting
engineering firm specializing in the design of
mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire
protection systems for commercial,
educational and institutional buildings.
PEACE JOINS LEO A DALY: Charles Peace has
joined Leo A Daly (Omaha, NE),
a 1,100-person architecture, planning,
engineering, interior design and program
management firm as regional director for Asia.
He will be based in Beijing.
Send your employee news
to Senior Writer Craig MacCormack
at cmaccormack@zweigwhite.com
Visit us at: www.zweigwhite.com
Firm Index
FRCH Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
DES Architects + Engineers . . . . . . . . . . 7
DeSimone Consulting Engineers . . . . . . . 3
Emtec Consulting Engineers . . . . . . . . . . 8
Everton Oglesby Askew (EOA) Architects . 8
GATE (Gibson Applied Technology &
Engineering) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
GRAEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Kleinfelder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Leo A Daly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
MBV Law LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
RETTEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Royal Haskoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Knowledge Environment, LLC . . . . . 6
Wiser Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Wood Patel and Associates . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Some firm names were omitted due
to space constraints.
Resources
LEARNING PROGRAM FOUR-PART
WEBINAR: People are a key asset in any
organization. They represent not only the
labor force, but far more importantly the
intellectual capital of a firm. To sustain a
competitive advantage in our industry’s
knowledge-based economy, especially now
when the competition for all projects is
extreme, organizations must use creative,
cost-effective ways to continue to nurture
this important asset. Neglecting the key
product that we in this industry sell—
knowledge— represents a tremendous risk
in these already risky times.
In ZweigWhite’s four-part webinar series The
Nuts and Bolts of Building a Learning
Program in Your AEC Firm, Pamela Britton,
principal and director of learning for Design
Workshop (Aspen, CO), will show you how to
establish effective and economical learning
activities in your firm that safeguard your
intellectual capital resulting in economic
benefits, a competitive advantage, and staff
satisfaction.
For more information or to order a copy, call
1-800-466-6275 or log on to
www.zweigwhite.com/zw-847.aspx. If you
are interested in personalized in-house
consulting with Pamela Britton, please
contact ZweigWhite Webinar and Sales
Manager Lucas Walsh at 508-651-1559,
extension 240.
ZWEIGWHITE