It would be very easy for Knight Piesold Consulting Engineers to steal that old Navy recruiting logo about signing up and seeing the world.
The hallways of the Main Street offices are adorned with dramatic landscape photos taken by employees on project work in Greenland, Mexico, Madagascar and Canada''s Far North. The best ones, selected in their company's photo contest, end up in the annual calendar.
Knight Piesold is an international company of consulting engineers and environmental scientists who work on mining, environmental, hydropower, water resources, roads and construction services for projects around the world.
“In mining and renewable energy, which is the focus of our work, travel is key for a lot of people that want to get out, see things and get exposures to new cultures,” said Ken Embree, Knight Piesold's Managing Director at the North Bay office.
With 700 employees worldwide, Knight Piesold has offices in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Ghana, Peru, South Africa and the U.S. It means employees are exposed to a wide variety of work on a number of projects.
A good portion of their clients are in the mining industry so they travel wherever their clients are. It also affords an opportunity to assigned to projects around the world.
Embree's list of global assignments have taken him into the U.S., Peru, Argentina, Chile, Greenland and in the Asian countries of Kurdistan and Uzbekistan.
Extensive travel is how he learned Spanish during one project stay in Argentinan home. “At night after the work was done, we'd have a drink and they'd speak English and I'd speak Spanish.”
One of the engineers from North Bay is assigned to their project office in Ghana for a year where she's working on a number of enviromental projects at a gold mining site.
“In Greenland, we were working there (on a mining project) during the summer time where it's 24-hour daylight and one of our employees was really pleased to tell people he got a sunburn working the night shift.”
The North Bay office has 35 employees with 125 more in Vancouver.
“We're two offices within one company in Canada. We share projects, share people, and transfer back and forth as needed.”
Embree said it is a “lifestyle thing.” One engineer in North Bay found it to be more affordable to transfer from the Knight Piesold office in Vancouver to the Gateway City.
Embree, a Saskatchewan native, did the same nine years from Vancouver, and is now approaching 20 years of service with the firm.
At Knight Piesold, professional development is king.
The company has run a Global Career Development Plan for the last two years intended to fit the right people in the right location.
There is a very formalized continuing development program which starts on the day employees are hired which is described in their Welcome package. It includes the assignment of an in-house mentor to help them get that going.
Embree mentors nine employees and meet with them on a semi-annual basis – once in June and again at year's end – to review their career development plans.
“You've committed to do to this,” Embree explains to them, “and if you don't, we want to know why and make sure we catch up.”
There are a number of steps in the training program which begins with a mentor assigned to a new employee who presents their concepts for approval.
“Basically it's up to them to implement those plans on an annual basis.”
Embree said it's not just professional development, it's career planning.
“We try to get involved in their planning and help them choose the right things.”
These career plans can include attending conferences, conventions and in-house training seminars taught by some of best specialists in the field. “We want to make sure people are doing things are beneficial to them and the company.
Embree said it's done as a company investment to keep and retain the best people for their diverse range of clients.
“We want to be keep people relevant and current in the industry and be able to provide the best service for our clients.”
What makes the company special and makes people want to work for them is that consulting engineering can be highly rewarding career.
“Our group is young and dynamic. The average age is 34 so there's lots of opportunity to move up and learn from some of the best specialists in the field.”
Because they do such specialized work, it's also a close-knit team.
Most of their clients are in the mining sector with half that project work evenly split between Canadian and international sites.
Renewable energy projects are gaining ground in Canada and the company is about to embark on a large hydro project in Africa.
One of the major Canadian projects is the Mary River iron ore project on Baffin Island where the capital costs for the pre-feasiblity work alone for the environmental baseline work was more than $4 billion.
Embree said the company offers very attractive compensation with good starting salary, extended benefits program, company contribution to pension plans and performance-based profit sharing program.
Embree, who is involved in the hiring process, looks for prospective employees who combine a good attitude with an ability to be flexible and work as a team.
“We hire engineering students so everybody who comes through the doors pretty much has got the tools but what makes someone special is really their attitude. We talk a lot about passion and making sure that you're doing what you like and that comes through in performance.”
www.knightpiesold.com
