Kaiser-Hill has nearly completed its mission and is now in the process of shutting down. But its parent company, CH2M Hill, is absorbing many of the Kaiser-Hill workers and hiring additional staff at all levels.
The Kaiser-Hill subsidiary has been managing the closure of the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats environmental technology site outside Denver. Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons production facility, is a Superfund cleanup site.
Len Martinez, VP of admin and CFO for Kaiser-Hill, says the company has already placed some 200 engineers, tech employees and support and hourly workers at CH2M Hill. Kaiser-Hill subcontracted its IT function to the parent company in January, placing 100 people; another 250 to 300 technical people have been placed with CH2M Hill since then.
The idea, Martinez says, is to give CH2M Hill the experienced techies it needs to handle the nuclear closure business.
At the peak of the program, Kaiser-Hill had more than 5,500 people working at Rocky Flats. It set up a retention incentive program for employees who were willing to stay and accelerate the closing, even though they'd be out of a job when it was done. But CH2M Hill has provided many opportunities, and most folks see the move to that company as a "natural transition," Martinez says.
Kaiser-Hill hasn't recruited for Rocky Flats in about two years, Martinez notes. Instead, it subcontracts its engineering needs to the Washington Group International (Boise, ID) and others.
Even though Kaiser-Hill is going out of business, it's still recruiting some recent grads, Martinez adds. One of them is Marco Calder—n from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), an environmental and civil engineer. "His degrees will help us with the takedown of the clean side of the plant, and then we intend to take him to our next job. We'll make sure he gets mentored and given challenges," Martinez says.
Diversity plays a large role in Kaiser-Hill's and CH2M Hill's employment arena, Martinez says. "It's a goal to have diversity in the workforce, because it brings forth new ideas and a different perspective on problem solving, and provides the integration we need to complete this complex project."
The company has maintained about 19 percent minorities since 1995. Minorities and women had a good chance to climb the corporate ladder at Kaiser-Hill, Martinez declares. For example, Jody Giacomini, deputy project manager for safeguards and security, began her career as an hourly worker.
Chuck Marrero, division manager for diversity for Kaiser-Hill, notes that both Kaiser-Hill and CH2M Hill have a strong commitment to communities. Kaiser-Hill supports the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and more. It has also contributed $150,000 a year to educational programs that support engineering, science and technology for minorities and women.
CH2M Hill has a formal diversity program that includes its Hispanic Employee Network, with Martinez as chair and exec sponsor. Martinez is also the company's executive sponsor for the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC). The parent company also has a women's group and a GLBT group, and Kaiser-Hill has an African American Alliance and a group of hourly workers that calls itself the Women of Steel.
Valencia Faye Tate, VP and director for diversity initiatives at CH2M Hill, has people assigned to address diversity issues and awareness in the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest. "My colleagues in these regions are responsible for focusing on education and awareness and continuing to make the business case for diversity," Tate says.
The southeast region, for example, has developed an "attract, develop and retain" team. "They're involved with recruiting women and people of color and promoting supplier diversity," Tate says.
Tate also coordinates the company's presence in regional and national activities, such as NSBE conferences.
Tate notes that recruiting a diverse technical workforce is a challenge. "We've seen improvement over time, but it's been slow," she says. "We're continually working to help the demographics of our firm better reflect the demographics of society."
Kaiser-Hill provides a workforce transition program for its workers and subcontractors, and provides training, education and KHEcareer.com, a Web-based tool. "They go from working for us to working for other industries like biotech, or from environmental waste specialist to radiological technician," Martinez explains.
"I meet with all my counterparts at CH2M Hill to foster communication and place people as we downsize. We were doing this even before we started downsizing, to provide opportunities for our employees who were ready for the next step."
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Kaiser-Hill Co (subsidiary of CH2M Hill)
www.ch2mhill.com
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Headquarters: |
Denver, CO (Kaiser-Hill); Englewood, CO (CH2M Hill) |
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Employees: |
11,000 (CH2M Hill) |
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Revenues: |
$2.59 billion gross in 2003 (CH2M Hill) |
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Business: |
CH2M Hill helps clients apply technology and safeguard the environment. Its Kaiser-Hill subsidiary is closing out its nuclear decontamination, decommissioning and environmental restoration services for the Rocky Flats superfund cleanup site |
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