In a few short years, Nordmin Engineering Ltd. of Thunder Bay has not only tripled its staff, relocated into a state-of-the-art head office and significantly boosted its bottom line, but it’s also been named one of the top five employers in Northern Ontario.
As a consulting engineering firm specializing in the resource and industrial sectors, Nordmin supports local, national and international clients including mining companies, utility companies, and the pulp and paper industry.
Chris Dougherty, president of Nordmin, credited the employees for the company’s success.
“We value our people. They are the lifeblood of our company. Without them we don’t have a successful business; we have four walls and a roof.
With them we thrive, we grow and we prosper together.”
Years before he started Nordmin, Dougherty worked for a number of consulting engineering firms. At the time he had a very young family, with two children aged four and one. He says long hours and challenging work environments had a lasting impact on his own career and the choices he made for Nordmin.
“I’ve learned from the mistakes of other companies,” he said. “Many companies fail to recognize just how important people are. I’ve seen companies fail by losing just one or two very key people.”
Those experiences also changed his expectations of his own employees in the workplace.
Dougherty said one of his leading priorities is to ensure his employees gain satisfaction in the workplace. In fact, the company has an extremely high retention rate. In the last eight years, the company has only had nine people leave out of a total of 112 personnel.
“Our appreciation of our employees is reflected in our low turnover rate,” Dougherty said. “Our strong record is extremely enviable.” Financial benefits
Three unique attributes of the company that have helped attract and retain employees include competitive salaries and annual profit-sharing bonuses, strongly discouraging overtime, and the robust employee benefits package.
At the end of each year, annual profit sharing bonuses are released. Staff members are rewarded according to how well the company is doing — in some cases upward of 25 per cent of the company’s net annual profits.
Dougherty said he sits down with every employee and discusses their contribution to the overall profitability of the company, and explains what their portion of the profit share will be.
The employee then can decide how that money is paid to them — either by a company sponsored RRSP, or paid out as cash, or a combination of the two.
Work-life balance
Working overtime is “very strongly discouraged” to Dougherty. “I don’t want employees to work more than 40 hours per week because ultimately overtime impacts people’s quality of life. An additional 10 hours per week over the course of one year leads to another three months of work. Overtime seriously impacts people’s private lives.”
Although Dougherty admits it is impossible to avoid overtime completely, he says he avoids putting his employees in a position where they are compelled to take on projects with extremely tight timelines. Instead he has turned down projects with unreasonable schedules.
Physical Workspace
In November 2012, Nordmin purchased and renovated the former Sir John A. MacDonald Public School in Thunder Bay, transforming it into Nordmin's new technical head office. The new building has offered much needed space for expansion.
Employees are accommodated with private offices and workstations designed around natural light to illuminate the interior spaces. Each workspace is equipped with an opaque sliding door for privacy and high performance seating designed by Humanscale.
As well, eight soundproof pods provide private spaces for meetings and phone calls.
Nordmin is also now in the process of creating a designer studio. Future planning and family health benefits Employees at Nordmin also credit the company’s success to the robust employee benefit package and RRSP program.
The RRSP program was tailored specifically in partnership with TD Group, offering every employee a TD Waterhouse Account usually reserved for those of high net worth.
Nordmin offers an additional health spending account, a stipend for an athletic membership, considerable vacation time (agreed upon hire) and continuing education rewards and wage reviews.
“A friend once told me ‘I work first to better myself, secondly to educate myself and thirdly for money,’” Dougherty said. “It is important that people are able to gain satisfaction, and they succeed with well-paid positions that also allow them to maintain their lifestyles at home.”
“You can’t put a price tag on a valuable employee… you must ensure people have the right tools to do their jobs happily, with satisfaction.”
