Black & Veatch (Kansas City, MO) is the twelfth largest employee-owned company in the U.S., according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. So it tends to have policies that are employee driven. “Black & Veatch lets individuals who are in the organization determine what’s best,” says Lisa Weilert, manager of college relations. “Policies filter up instead of being mandated down.”
Black & Veatch is a global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in energy, water, telecommunications, management consulting, and federal and environmental infrastructure. The company deploys multidisciplinary teams around the world for projects in conceptual and preliminary engineering services, engineering design, procurement, construction, asset management, environmental, security design and consulting, and management consulting.
Informal groups at the company offer special interest programs that help with inclusion and diversity. Other efforts include the People Initiative, which brings together employees from across the company to work on diversity and inclusion activities on a large scale. Another program, Drive for Value, aligns every professional’s goals and performance measures with the company’s vision, mission, values and strategic objectives.
“Teams of people throughout the organization are developing initiatives that will be put into motion this year and over the coming years,” says Weilert. “They are essentially building the overarching strategies of daily life at Black & Veatch.”
The company targets about fifty U.S. colleges and universities including several HBCUs, where company recruiters work with campus organizations like NSBE, SWE and SHPE. “We target specific organizations to get the word out about who we are and what we do,” says Weilert. “We also do classroom presentations and attend career fairs to make sure we reach students in different ways.”
Black & Veatch is looking for mechanical, civil, electrical, nuclear, chemical, environmental, civil structure and construction management graduates; engineering technicians and technologists with two-year degrees are also in demand. The company has offices in 100 countries, but about 60 percent of new grads start at the Kansas City-area headquarters. Job listings are organized by location, and openings are available across the country.
“We try to work with students however we can,” says Weilert. “If they would rather be in Denver, we’ll work with that office.”
The company plans to hire about 175 full-time new grads in the coming year. New grads usually account for about a third of the company’s annual hiring. All new hires are matched with departmental mentors to help them settle in.
In the construction division new hires may participate in a rotation program and work in the field on projects in the Kansas City area. Rotation training programs are currently being planned for other divisions.
Black & Veatch University, the company’s in-house training organization, offers classes and Web-based courses to support employees. The company also has a tuition reimbursement program.
International assignments are often available, and employees are encouraged to get international experience. Work authorization and the ability to qualify for a security clearance are required, and language skills can help. Black & Veatch partners with the downtown Edwards campus and Confucius Institute (Overland Park) of the University of Kansas, where employees can learn such languages as Spanish and Mandarin.
More than 100 interns and co-ops work in Black & Veatch offices outside the Kansas City area. Interns work side by side with engineers on projects. Lunch & Learn programs during the summer provide interns with information about the company’s divisions as well as the basics of business etiquette. Interns based outside Kansas City can participate via conference calls.
Students are eligible for internships as early as the summer after their first year, provided they have acquired a basic engineering background. Even some high-school students have qualified through a pilot program launched in 2007. Of the first four local high-school interns, one is a woman and one is a minority.
Black & Veatch employees mentor grade-school students in math, science and other areas through Youth Friends, a community program. And engineers volunteer their talents to supervise Future Cities and First Robotics teams.
“A person coming in to Black & Veatch can make a big difference inside the organization as well as outside in the community,” Weilert says.
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Black & Veatch
www.bv.com
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Headquarters: |
Kansas City, MO |
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Employees: |
8,700 |
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Revenues: |
$2.2 billion |
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Business: |
Engineering, consulting and construction |
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