St Louis Shop Named ‘Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For’

By Cathy Kingsley

A collaborative culture among professionals is what led to St. Louis-based Cole & Associates Inc. being named to the Top 50 Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For list compiled by CE News, a business magazine serving the civil engineering market.

There is a great deal of collaboration between disciplines serving engineering, architectural landscape and planning, said Jeremy Roach, director of planning. There is a greater level of communication amongst ourselves that allows us to do better work.

Cole & Associates ranked No. 32 among companies nationwide and No. 8 among companies under 100 employees. It has received this award for the second consecutive year and is the only Missouri firm to make the list.

The multidisciplined firm, founded in 1991, provides civil engineering, land surveying, planning and landscape architecture services and has extensive experience with residential, commercial and municipal projects.

Roach says Cole is a friendly environment and one of mutual respect. Because they are a diverse group of individuals, many of whom are out in the field during the day, the company plans events so that employees get to know each other on a personal level.

Once a month, they have company meetings or birthday celebrations off-site at a restaurant in a private room or a patio setting. Then there is the annul company picnic.

In addition, Cole employees participate in corporate challenges through activities like putt-putt golf or go-cart rides.

There is quite a bit of personal time amongst the professionals, he said.

There is also some flexibility with working hours, as long as employees are available between the core hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

We balance life and work as best we can but give people enough latitude to succeed within their specific responsibilities, Roach said.

In addition to working on road and bridge projects such as improvements to Interstate 40, a large part of their business involves collaborating with developers to create a master plan for a site. Recent projects the company helped design include a shopping center by Opus Development in Dardenne Prairie and a mixed-used development by Centrum/Fischer & Frichtel in Ellisville.

We have great clients, Roach said. There is a core group of four to five clients that we have strong relationships with.

Cole & Associates is owned by 12 partners and currently has a staff of 60. The firm nearly doubled its size in a two-year period. It was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies last year, ranking No. 22 with a 75 percent growth in revenue from the previous year.

There’s a direct relationship between being one of the top 50 firms to work for and also being ranked as one of the 100 fastest- growing firms in the nation, said Kevin Riggs, P.E., Cole & Associates’ president and CEO, in a press release. People who are motivated and share in the success of the firm do great work and provide great service to our clients, the cornerstones of our business.

All of the firms that participated in the Top 50 contest by CE News completed an extensive questionnaire about workplace practices and implemented an employee satisfaction survey to their staff.

More than 130 firms were evaluated by a judging panel in nearly 40 individual areas.

Judges look at the whole picture of a firm, including the following: growth in total billings during the last five years, turnover rates, history of downsizing events, training and mentoring programs, internal communication, culture, insurance and fringe benefits, compensation and bonus practices, corporate philanthropy and community service, time-off policies, values and ethics.

The key to the firm’s success has been our ability to recruit and retain the brightest, most qualified people available to enable the firm to continue to grow and provide a high level of quality and efficiency to meet our clients’ needs, Riggs said in press release.

In the No. 1 spot for Best Civil Engineering Firm for those with 100 or fewer employees was Pacific Advanced Civil Engineering Inc. of Fountain Valley, Calif., with a turnover rate of only 2.13 percent. The average turnover of competing firms was 9.81 percent.