Ingram's October 2023

Thought Leader Insights: Hiring at Scale

Q&A ... W ith R enee G artelos The director of human resources for Burns & McDonnell recalls the years-long, unprecedented wave of hiring that made it the region’s biggest firm in engineering, design and construction services.

Q: Update us on the pace of hiring over the past few years: Has it leveled off, or are you all still on after-burners? A: We’ve planned for 13 percent growth in 2023, so we’re still working toward bringing on that talent and making it happen. With the specific job disciplines and locations we have, it’s still going strong. I’m impressed with the year and the success we’ve had in finding the talent. A: That growth has been really driven by market expansion across all the busi ness lines we serve, across all markets and all regions, domestically and internation ally as well. Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, plus India, Canada, the UK and Mexico— the growth has been everywhere. Q: Have you set new hiring targets for 2024? A: Not yet, but that’s in the works. Q: Walk us, if you would, through any of the strategic planning processes that might have been adjusted before the big push began a few years ago. A: We’ve had significant growth over the course of my career here at Burns and McDonnell, so this wasn’t necessarily a new thing. In the last few years, as we’ve continued to grow, we’ve become pretty aggressive with our hiring targets. We all understood that from the beginning—the board of directors, the leadership, the hiring team—everyone coming together to approach that. We said there would be no growth for the sake of growth, but all were aligned and stayed true to integrity of our hiring process and selection process. We were committed to making sure we were getting the right people into the orga nization who could create long-term value with meaningful careers. Q: Tell us about the driving forces for that hiring.

Q: So it was more a matter of scal ing rather than creating new processes? A: Right. When we think about putting all of that into action, aligning all the executive leaders and market leaders on their growth plans, what it really takes is that ongoing collabora tion. It was not necessarily new to us, but we continued to get better at it and create that alignment. We attribute our hiring success to being aligned with common goals, and that comes from the top down. Our employee-owned busi ness model and drive for our people to provide great solutions to our clients set the foundation for everyone in the organization prioritizing, identifying and recruiting the right people. Having that involvement and commitment from the leadership helps to really create that interest and engagement by everyone involved. It helped that we had very well-established recruitment strategies in place, but we did have to make adjust ments to scale and find new ways to reach candidates. Q: Are those adjustments closely held practices, or can you offer details? A: Some of it is in-house, but the granular isn’t secretive. For a long time, we’ve had a strong early-careers recruit ment program. We’ve invested in building a pipeline through our internship program and creating meaningful experiences for college students to come in and see what our company is like, what the industry is like, what a career at Burns & McDonnell would look like. Being able to have that program lead to converting those individu als to full-time employees down the road. So it’s very important to our success that we establish those relationships across college campuses, interacting and engag ing with student to identify candidates early in the process.

Q: What about bringing on more experienced talent? A: When we talk about casting a wider net, we activate our employee owners to serve as recruiters themselves and refer great talent to our organization. As our employees speak to their industry peers or make great connections, those relationships are key drivers in demon strating to others what kind of career they could build at Burns & McDonnell. We also capitalize on strong involvement in profes sional society and industry organizations. Plus, from a digital marketing perspective, we promote open job opportunities and share about our culture, benefits, and the innovation we’re delivering to the indus try. Those tactics from a tech standpoint or engaging in more virtual events with candidates have been some of the ways we’ve adjusted our previous approach. Q: As a top-tier employer in that space, you most likely had your pick of the litter with applicants, but even then, not every applicant is a one-to-one fit. How do you address alignment? A: Our focus is on making sure we are not lowering our standards and quality of candidates. Future employee-owners are important to us. Sometimes that takes a lot of patience on the part of hiring man agers and the recruitment team to find the talent and basic qualifications of the job: Is this person going to be the right one to join Burns & McDonnell in that specific role? When it comes to talent, people tra ditionally have talked about finding the “culture fit.” But really, our goal should be to hire a “culture add.” Q: Can you expand on that notion of changing the communication? A: To shift the conversation to what this person is going to bring to this group with their unique perspective and experience, with that specific skill and

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October 2023

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