Jacques Whitford

Good businessAs befits a firm of engineering, environmental and scientific consultants, Jacques Whitford is committed to sustainability and to the development of its people. CEO Bob Youden explains to Martin Ashcroft why itÔÇÖs good business all round. The first official definition of sustainability was provided by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations twenty years ago:  ÔÇ£Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.ÔÇØ Inherent in this definition is the understanding that it has three distinct elements: environmental, economic, and social. This is sometimes referred to in management speak as the triple bottom line, or people, planet, profit.But how can an organization hope to be a good corporate citizen in environmental and social terms, without compromising the sustainability of its balance sheet? Bob Youden, CEO of Jacques Whitford, believes that respect for the environment and investment in developing people are not just the right things to do, but are also best practices for the health of the business.Jacques Whitford is one of CanadaÔÇÖs largest privately owned engineering and scientific consulting firms. Established in 1972 in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Hector Jacques and Mike Whitford, the company is still 100 percent employee-owned, and now operates from over 45 locations across Canada, the US and internationally. While it offers a full range of services, its specialties are environmental permitting, geotechnical services and remediation. A growing company needs to attract good people, and once it has them, it needs to do all it can to keep them. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre double the size we were five years ago and weÔÇÖre growing very fast, and that creates a demand for talent,ÔÇØ says Youden. The company was founded on a philosophy to employ the best and brightest people, and that philosophy still guides the firm. One thing he has noticed is that young employees just starting their careers have learned about sustainability at school and college and are taking this into account when making employment decisions. ÔÇ£So weÔÇÖre very aware that if weÔÇÖre being evaluated on that front we need to be a good place to come to work.ÔÇØ As baby boomers retire, there is a people shortage coming, he adds, ÔÇ£so if you can show people that the environment is important in how you run your business then you have a better opportunity to get the people you want.ÔÇØJacques Whitford has won a number of awards in this field in the last few years. ÔÇ£For two years in a row we are one of the top 100 companies in Canada to work for,ÔÇØ says Youden. ÔÇ£Last year we were one of the top ten selected by the Financial Post. WeÔÇÖre surrounded by some great companies, so weÔÇÖre very proud of that and our people have done a great job. TodayÔÇÖs Parent magazine has selected us two years in a row as one of the top ten family-friendly companies to work for, so weÔÇÖre really pleased.ÔÇ£Where weÔÇÖve gone as a company is less to do with me and more to do with the talent and capabilities of our people,ÔÇØ Youden is quick to point out. ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm supported by a leadership team that has lots of experience in the business. Our job is two-fold. Listen, then take action on it.ÔÇØYouden explains that Jacques WhitfordÔÇÖs improvement programs are all driven by listening to people. A colleague survey is conducted every year which attracts a 90 percent response rate. It covers leadership, motivation and communication and provides an insight into how aligned people are to the organization. On top of that, the HR team went out into the field last year to talk to everybody, in groups of five to tenÔÇöno small task with around 1400 people on the books at the time. Those discussions helped senior management find out what was important to people, says Youden. ÔÇ£ThatÔÇÖs driven our program to where we are now. ItÔÇÖs not because any one of us here is so smart, but perhaps weÔÇÖre good listeners.ÔÇØ One of the keys to retaining people is to offer them career development. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve heard that loud and clear from our people, so we have put in a lot of programs to try and move in that direction,ÔÇØ says Youden. A web-based performance planning system has been introduced with performance metrics for everyone and a balanced scorecard for around 35 percent of employees where measures such as client satisfaction, safety and people development are appropriate.Technical development, leadership skills, and behavior skills are recorded, which provides a reference point for future reviews, but, more importantly, allows management a view of what skills it has in the organization, and where they are located. This informs decisions about training needs in the organization, but has the potential to do much more than that. A development page is being added, so that people can trace their career progress. A scientist level one, for example, who wants to become a scientist level four in five yearsÔÇÖ time, will be able to look at his or her development page and see what needs to be done to achieve that, and what the financial rewards will be. ÔÇ£They will be able to make educated choices about their future career,ÔÇØ says Youden. ÔÇ£The technical and financial matrix that weÔÇÖre building will help them understand what their career path looks like.ÔÇØThis is remarkable enough, but if youÔÇÖre going to develop people from level one to level four, you better have jobs for them at the higher grade, or they wonÔÇÖt be with you long. This is where the system will really pay offÔÇösuccession planning. ÔÇ£We have 650 people who have filed career plans with us,ÔÇØ says Youden. ÔÇ£Not everybody wants to advance, but for those people who would like to be doing something different in five years, weÔÇÖd like to know what it is. And weÔÇÖve asked them to define it in pretty specific terms.ÔÇØ This allows senior management and principals (the highest technical designation in Jacques Whitford) to identify potential successors and assess how much development they need before they are ready to fill those positions. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre in the process today of trying to match those positions to those 650 career plans. ItÔÇÖs an interesting volume exercise. We know that we need new area managers to cover retirement and growth, and we know that certain people want to be area managers or principals, so weÔÇÖre trying to match them.ÔÇØ There are abundant examples, sadly beyond the scope of this article, of initiatives that endorse Jacques WhitfordÔÇÖs commitment to the sustainability of the environment and the communities in which it operates. The company has, for instance, decided to switch to hybrid vehicles, which cost more up front, but pay back in energy cost savings and environmental benefits. ÔÇ£We are looking at energy consumption across our whole organization,ÔÇØ says Youden. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs going to cost us some money to study how much energy we consume, but if weÔÇÖre able to reduce our energy costs by five percent we will save. ItÔÇÖs balancing investment dollars for future savings. I think itÔÇÖs a great opportunity, and itÔÇÖs simply the right thing to do.ÔÇØThe award by TodayÔÇÖs Parent magazine, mentioned above, reflects the companyÔÇÖs commitment to families through its parental leave program, and flex-time arrangements. The company has also provided Wellness clinics for healthcare awareness, and subsidies to help people join fitness clubs. ItÔÇÖs very much a work in process, says Youden. It doesnÔÇÖt all work 100 percent of the time, but the commitment is to keep developing people. ÔÇ£As a consultancy, we have no hard assets,ÔÇØ he reminds me. ÔÇ£We have no equipment. Our offering to our clients is the intellect of our people and their motivation to do a good job. ÔÇ£Everything is changing around us,ÔÇØ he concludes. ÔÇ£Next yearÔÇÖs graduates will have different needs from this yearÔÇÖs graduates. In five years time there will be things weÔÇÖre not even thinking about now. The only thing we can do is have a process that keeps telling us whatÔÇÖs important.ÔÇØ First published January 2008┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á