A Conversation With ... Brent Stevens

H Design Group has been recognized for offering unique employee benefits, such as telecommuting and half workdays on Friday. What’s the latest perk to keep the staff engaged?
We’re shifting toward an unplugged office. We’ve got everybody a laptop, except for two people now. We want people to come to the office, but not have a desk where they are chained to all day. People can roam around the office and collaborate. If they need some privacy, they can go to the second-floor studio, Panera Bread, our conference room or outside.

We’re also investing in an Internet-based server so that people can work from anywhere. We’re studying all that. I don’t know it’ll be on the cloud, because it’s not as secure as we want, but definitely Internet-based to access anywhere.

Has the company scaled back on the financial incentives?
If you were to strictly compare salaries and benefits of architecture firms, we would be in the middle somewhere. We’re not going to have the highest and best salaries and incentives, but I think we offset that by the investment in the business and the atmosphere. We try to hit that middle ground.

There is the numbers game of the salaries and the benefits and then there are the perks of the environment and the dynamics of the office.

Last year, company bonuses averaged over $1,000 per person. What is the company’s bonus structure?
We have different tiers. We have the principals and we have an associate program, and they get quarterly bonuses. With the rest of the staff, we do pretty nice bonuses at the end of the year – and sometimes in the middle, spot bonuses or performance or project bonuses.

Are the company’s financials open to staff?
We do open-book management on the project side. The staff knows our overall fee and how much of that is going out to consultants. It’s important for them to be drilled into that. As far as the financials of the company, that’s the principals and the associates. The rest see part of it. I’ve worked at about five other firms, and we’ve never had that information.

Have the changes resulted in recruitment and retention?
Yes, both. We’ve got some very talented staff right now. People who are treating this like a career, not a job. They don’t count their hours, they’re not looking at the clock. It’s really loosened up the environment around here.

Does the company have a formal flex-time program?
It used to be formal. For a while, we were micromanaging time. We no longer have time sheets. We want people who get the business and get how it needs to work. When we were micromanaging and making sure people weren’t abusing it, it seemed like that’s when it was getting more abused.

We’re flexible. If someone needs to come in two hours late, they’ll make it up. We have a core staff that won’t abuse it. We provide a service, and we have deadlines. As long as those are being met … we have guys who will work an all-nighter. They come in and say, “Brent, I’m sacked. I need to go home.” I say, “Yeah, get out of here.” They do and they come back rejuvenated.

With that environment, how do you ensure tasks are still on track?
It’s a balance. You have to find people you can trust. When we interview people, every one of the partners reviews those people and we introduce them to the entire office. They have to gel.

With the health insurance enrollment period upon us, what’s the outlook for the dozen staff members at H Design?
We’re in the midst of looking at that. Rate increases are over 40 percent. We’re looking at other options. We’re moving toward a lifestyle health plan that benefits the individuals for healthy living.

In (the Lifestyle Health Plans) program – we’re about to sign on the dotted line – your rates go down if you prove you have a gym membership, or run a 5K or if your kids are in gymnastics. It benefits those who are healthy and promotes health. [[In-content Ad]]