It’s Not All About the Money: SSOE Grows Their Business with Benefits
Ohio-based firm lets employees decide how they’ll be compensated

by Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

How do you . . . attract and retain architects at a large firm after exiting a period of business stagnation?

Summary: Architecture firm SSOE has been able to open three new offices and expand their workforce by 40 percent up to 1,000 people by offering employees expanded benefits, continuing education classes, and other programs as part of their Total Employment Value Proposition, which lets staff members personalize their set of benefits. In response to this, several trade media publications have recognized the firm as a superior place to work.

Throughout the 1990s, Toledo-based SSOE made a conscious decision to consolidate their recent expansions and plateau their business. The long-suffering economies in Ohio and Michigan were casting a pallor of stagnation in the region, and the company wasn’t attracting the new employees needed to expand. In the first part of the decade, Senior Vice President Dave Verner, AIA, says this conservative business model worked, but lethargy began to overstay its welcome, and a transition was needed.

“It took us another five or six years to really move forward,” he says.

So the company looked outward, bringing in a new CEO (Tony Damon, AIA) in 2002. SSOE employees say he became a catalyst for change, encouraging new ideas to take root in the company.

They also looked inward, initially with a survey in 2002, which revealed that employees wanted to be compensated in ways beyond their paychecks, especially with improved benefits. Later, career training, alternative career paths, and flexible schedule programs were rolled out to meet this need.

In September, Crain’s Detroit Business named the company the sixth “Coolest Place to Work” in southeastern Michigan for a company of its size.The industry has taken notice. In May, Building Design & Construction magazine recognized SSOE (which specializes in industrial and commercial facilities and is nearing its 60th anniversary) as one of the nation’s nine best architecture, engineering, and construction firms to work at. In September, Crain’s Detroit Business named the company the sixth “Coolest Place to Work” in southeastern Michigan for a company of its size.

The statistics driving this recognition make it clear that the firm is a prized place to work. Since 2004, SSOE has increased its staff by 40 percent, and in 2006 it had a voluntary retention rate of 94 percent, according to Building Design & Construction.

The proposition
“We have been very successful in our retention rates, but we are not naive enough to think that we can rest on that legacy, because there truly is a war for talent out there,” says Monica Dugan, the vice president and corporate director of human resources at SSOE. “It truly is getting worse and worse.”

While SSOE was rapidly expanding their staff last year, a 2006 AIA survey indicated that more than a third of firms that report personnel matters said that staff turnover had increased since the previous year. Only 14 percent said it had decreased. During both 2006 and 2007, another AIA survey revealed that Ohio and Michigan (where SSOE does much of their business) has some of the weakest business conditions in the nation.

The largest change SSOE made in their quest to win the war for staff was a complete revision and expansion of their benefits package

The largest change SSOE made in their quest to win the war for staff was a complete revision and expansion of their benefits package. Their previous set of benefits was a traditional one-size-fits-all plan with little choice and flexibility. The new plan (implemented in 2003) added vision coverage, gave employees more 401k investment options, and offered flexible health benefit credits that can be applied to different health insurance types, according to Building Design & Construction. All these options are part of what SSOE calls its “Total Employment Value Proposition”—a philosophy that encourages staff to personalize how they are compensated beyond their paycheck.

“We understand that not everyone responds to the same offerings, so we have a package that lets an individual almost create their own employment value proposition,” says Dugan.

Getting the tools
For younger potential employees, this proposition often includes raised expectations of what an employer should do for its workers. Generational shifts in the workforce (detailed in Marsha Littell’s Aug. 10 Faces of the AIA column and the corresponding blog entry) have younger employees demanding a more equitable work-life balance, opportunities to continue their education, and individualized attention from bosses and managers. Dugan says continuing education has especially been a desire for younger employees, and SSOE offers many in-house and out-of-house classes that staff can attend in person or by Web cast. These classes cover personnel and technical issues, like accounting, hazard awareness, conflict management, and career development.

“SSOE really is concerned about how you personally contribute, and they do as much as they can to make sure you have the tools you need to do your job well”

Matt Bedee, an intern architect at SSOE’s Toledo home base, has taken classes on CAD, leadership, and time management. He’s been with the company for seven years and says the training and benefits offered to him have encouraged him to stay. “SSOE really is concerned about how you personally contribute, and they do as much as they can to make sure you have the tools you need to do your job well,” he says.

The whole package
SSOE offers several other non-traditional benefits and programs for employees:

• Technical employees with no interest in advancing their careers into management positions can opt for the Tech Path plan, which will let them continue to work on the technical side of projects, yet still be compensated at management levels
• Workers can buy or sell up to 40 hours of vacation time per year from the company
• To keep a parade of fresh faces coming through the door, SSOE will go to 36 college career fairs in the next year and offer up to $1,250 to employees who refer potential hires, according to Building Design & Construction.

“Everybody feels that they have a voice in this company”

To manage all of this, continual rounds of surveys and feedback forums let SSOE know how the system should be tweaked. “Everybody feels that they have a voice in this company,” says Lisa Delano, AIA, who was hired a year ago to open the newest SSOE office in Phoenix.

Since she began, she’s hired 15 people in her office, and her goal is to hire at least 50 more in three years. Bedee has seen similar growth. When he began with SSOE in 2000, there were five people working in the automotive and industrial team in Toledo, and now there are 33. Nine new offices have opened in the last three years, and each of these years has seen revenue growth greater than 15 percent. Just this year, the company hired 270 people across all experience levels.

“Everyone can maybe make 10 cents more,” says Dugan. “Everyone can get one or two benefits that perk up their interest more, but we believe in what I consider a holistic approach.”