By NICK STEWART
When Wardrop Engineering Inc.’s vice-president of human resources James Popel says that Northern Ontario personnel are key to the international firm, he’s not just blowing smoke.
The company’s current president, Brent Thompson, emerged from the Thunder Bay office alongside the head of the company’s infrastructure division and the head of the product development group.
“Northern Ontario is an important place for Wardrop,” says Popel.
“We’ve been there for 40 years, and it’s a great resource for strongly skilled and experienced people. Thunder Bay in particular is one of the prime development offices for executives and managers.”
These individuals also serve as a solid example of how the company is structured to allow for chances to climb the corporate ladder for the many employees spread across its offices throughout Canada, the United States, China, India and the United Kingdom.
Growth has been the name of the game for the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Wardrop in recent years. In less than a decade, the company has gone from 200 employees to more than 1,200.
Wardrop’s Sudbury and Thunder Bay offices have a combined 170 employees, with the latter office being “the largest it’s ever been” due to a combination of great local skill sets and abundant global opportunities.
To keep the ever-growing workforce interested and engaged, various internal programs have been put in place.
For instance, a company-wide belief in helping to provide the proper formative training to its staff has led to the creation of a professional development program. This teaches staff the skills necessary to become consultants, and how to deal directly with clients.
“Our company is filled with smart technical folks, but most have never been taught how to do these things,” says Popel. “We’re moulding skills to help them become full-fledged professionals.”
Similarly, a leadership development program has been put into place not only for managers and supervisors, but anyone who might fit into the category of a leader. This three-and-a-half-month program provides extensive training for 24 people at a time, including one-on-one coaching from external professionals.
Response to such initiatives has been good, as hiring rates are high and turnover is low.
Wardrop has consistently seen accolades for its ongoing efforts for its employees. The company has been declared one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for the eighth time by Mediacorp Canada Inc., making the list again this year among 71,000 companies examined from across the nation.
Many other notable initiatives have helped to shine a national light on Wardrop’s efforts.
In recognition of the role employees have in Wardrop’s explosive growth, officials begun to put a system in place that opens up company ownership to those who help make it great.
The 37 majority owners, including Popel, are working on making everyone among its worldwide workforce eligible for ownership, a project that’s set to fully roll out in the coming months.
There’s also a strong belief in listening to the employees and turning their
recommendations into reality. This has taken shape through the annual employee attitude survey, which has led to several major changes within Wardrop in recent years.
Most recently, this has led the company to make changes to its IT systems to allow for a significantly more flexible benefits package.
Rather than dictating a set roster of benefits and locking employees into it, employees are given access to a credit-rated system. This allows them to tailor their own package to suit their needs.
For instance, if an employee’s spouse has a particularly good health plan, the individual could then redirect the credits from Wardrop’s health plan into another area, including RRSPs.
Employee feedback has also fed into an overhaul of the corporate management structure, which is now much flatter and more empowering on the ground level.
Social events are also an important part of staff appreciation, including a summer family day, barbecues and various parties.
