Two things can make or break your future: the company you keep and those who keep your company.
For the latter, a broad-based Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) can translate into numerous benefits. It’s the model HDR has followed for decades, after buying back its firm from a French engineering conglomerate in the mid-’90s. Today, HDR is the largest employee-owned company in the engineering-architecture industry, with more than 14,200 employees, annual revenue approaching $4 billion, and over 200 offices in 15 countries.
The company employs professionals with design and technical expertise responsible for improving roadways, runways, railways and waterways. The firm provides solutions for clients and communities in both the built and natural environments across various specialties.
Aside from common demands for engineering and architecture projects, HDR employees are tagging endangered whales, conducting radiocarbon dating on archaeological features, surveying the Grand Canyon with drones, reducing contaminated water in silver mines, designing the first all-mass timber acute care hospital in North America, and are now involved in the infrastructure for launching rockets into outer space.
In 1996, Dick Bell led HDR’s buyback as its CEO, a long and arduous task that involved sacrifices by a group of initial employee investors. HDR’s workforce was approximately 1,600 at the time, and as its leaders have noted, the real excitement occurred when about 1,000 of those employees decided to buy into the firm. That shared mentality continues today. “HDR has a family culture, and if you want to invest in the company, you have that opportunity,” Bell said.
The mutual ethos that employees are in it together is what makes HDR attractive to clients, as well. Since the buyback, 70 firms have chosen to join HDR due to its culture and expanding opportunities.
John Henderson is a former client and current HDR chairman and CEO. “There’s something special about a team where employee-owners know they will receive the benefits of their hard work,” he said. “It makes us all want to work harder, serves as an engine for growth, and establishes an aligned commitment for our success as our clients’ success. It’s a fun place to be when everybody’s working hard and growing together.”
In general, ESOP companies such as HDR have proven to be more stable during recessions, as well as during the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple studies reported by the NCEO. These companies also tend to have employees with greater retirement savings compared to non-ESOP firms.
Another study, reported by the Employee-owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), showed that employee-owned companies outperform their non-employee-owned counterparts in both good times and bad times.
As HDR’s track record can attest, when the company you keep and those who keep your company are the same, it’s better for all.
For more information, please visit hdrinc.com.
