Columbus CEO’s Top Workplaces 2023: Midsize Organizations Category Winner EMH&T
The 97-year-old civil engineering and consulting firm gives back by investing in employees at work and in the community.
As a child, Matthew McFadden was a Boy Scout who found rock climbing with ropes fascinating. As he grew up, he took different ropes courses as part of his passion for the outdoors. When he graduated from Ohio University with a degree in civil engineering in 2017, he looked for opportunities to volunteer his skills and found the Ohio Special Response Team, which responds to a variety of emergencies and disasters in support of civil authorities.
“They had a rope team, but it needed advancing,” says McFadden, who works as a project engineer – structures at EMH&T. “The past few years, my project has been to get it to a team that’s farther along. It faces challenges in training and acquiring new equipment. Rope rescue equipment does not come cheap.”
The self-funded OSRT deploys to help find lost hikers and missing persons, perform wilderness rescues, help with police evidence searches, provide safety education and assist in recovery operations. McFadden and his team members carry 200-foot ropes that cost $300 apiece and also need a variety of other elements such as pulleys, carabiners, descenders, anchor slings and storage bags. “This is life-saving equipment, so when you are hanging 50 feet in the air, you don’t want to have to question if your equipment is OK,” McFadden says.
When he heard about a new grant program EMH&T was launching in 2022 that contributes funding to organizations where employees serve and volunteer, he decided to apply. McFadden received one of the five inaugural awards the civil engineering consulting firm handed out at the end of the year.
“The firm is investing in me, not only during my time at work but as a member of the community by supporting my mission of helping others, even when it’s not really within my work practice,” McFadden says. “It’s awesome to see that for a group where it’s hard to get funding. It’s inspiring that my firm is supporting this work that directly serves our local community.”
The firm’s support of its employees and the community are among the elements that led it to be named the No. 1 Top Workplace among midsize organizations for the second year in a row.
President Sandy Doyle-Ahern says EMH&T, which was founded in 1926, has a long history of community service and volunteerism. Each year, its 320 employees participate in company-sponsored activities such as food and toy drives, blood drives, Special Olympics, Engineers Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity home builds. The firm also gives employees paid time off to volunteer. The new grant program expands on these efforts.
“We really expect our employees to be engaged in it; we’re looking for people who actively show up at an organization and assist and demonstrate a direct connection,” she says. “We ended up with quite a few applications, and every single one of the [grant recipients] is truly engaged. It was so great to see people get acknowledged for what they’re doing in the community for something they care about.”
Jim Dziatkowicz, director of planning and landscape architecture at EMH&T, says the grant initiative allows employees to see how others are contributing outside the office. “Of the five that won, three of them—I had no idea these co-workers were doing this in the community,” he says. “It’s created awareness and also inspired people who maybe think, ‘Oh, I just do this thing in the community.’ Now they probably think, ‘Oh, I could probably submit [an application] next year.’ It gets people inspired about what they are doing.”
Another new initiative for the company last year was an office refresh—the first in about two decades, says Doyle-Ahern, who has been with the firm 26 years. The undertaking included integrating pictures of the firm’s projects, community service and team building into the physical space to tell stories to prospective employees and clients about how the firm touches the community.
Diversity, equity and inclusion also is a top culture priority to create a workplace that is well-rounded, comprehensive and welcoming. EMH&T encourages and supports organizations, including STEM-based groups, that expose young people of all races, genders and backgrounds to professional service areas, such as civil engineering, land survey, environmental science and other specialties.
Professionally, EMH&T is dedicated to each employee’s enrichment and development. The firm strives to provide each person with a career journey that incorporates a range of possibilities. That includes providing the resources, opportunities, feedback and coaching to allow each individual to succeed.
Mike Keller, a partner and director of public works, said team leaders make it a point to give young professionals ongoing engagement opportunities with the 13 different service areas that exist within the firm. “It’s a chance for young engineers to learn about all the different elements of the business and understand all the parts that come together to make a project successful,” he says. “It also gives our younger employees a chance to visualize what their future here could hold and all the opportunities that are available to them.”
About EMH&T
5500 New Albany Road, Columbus; emht.com
Business: Land development and public works engineering consulting firm
President: Sandy Doyle-Ahern
Employees: 320
2022 revenue: $72 million
This story is from the Top Workplaces 2023 supplement in the Spring 2023 issue of Columbus CEO.