Rodgers Consulting, based out of Germantown MD, is a recipient of PSMJ’s 2015 Circle of Excellence Award, having provided planning and engineering services for 58 years. With its low staff turnover rate, Rodgers has had enormous success retaining, and engaging, its hires, both new and experienced. We recently sat down with Dusty Rood, AICP, LEED-AP, President of Rodgers Consulting, to learn the secret to their success.

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1) In addition to being a multiple-year PSMJ Circle of Excellence winner, you also boast an exceptionally low staff turnover rate at your firm. To what do you attribute this success?

We are very clear in who we are and who we are not. We are very clear in our mission as a Firm that we focus on adding value to private sector, land development
and real estate clients in a politicized, highly regulated environment in the metropolitan area outside our nation’s capital. We distinguish ourselves from our mostly commodity-oriented competitors who operate in multiple sectors for different client types.

We dedicate time every year on operational and strategic planning, and engage a significant amount of staff in that process. We talk about our mission every chance we get; from the hiring process, in our day-to-day operations, at our monthly president’s meetings over pizza, annually during strategic planning and at our end of year company meeting. This helps create clarity of our mission, alignment among staff and engagement of everyone.

We are a meritocracy that treats our staff like the professionals they are, not as commodities, line items or a means to an end. With all of these parameters clicking,
the firm is highly productive, clients and projects are successful, collaboration is high and hopefully everyone’s having fun.

2) Recently, you began a Passion Pursuits program for your staff. Please tell us a little about it. In particular: how does it work? How did you develop it? Who can take advantage of it? How does it contribute to your low turnover? How does it differ from reward systems at other firms? Does it include education?

The Passion Pursuits program is predicated on the belief that all of our staff, considering that most are technically oriented professionals, are motivated by a passion to understand and contribute to solving complex problems, whether it’s a design problem or a community or organizational issue.

3) How does the Passion Pursuits program address the needs of the next generation of leaders—Gen Xers and Millennials?
Not surprisingly, the program is attractive to everyone regardless of when they were born. The Millennials are characterized as having the boldness to try new and different things, so a program like this is naturally appealing to them. But the truth is that everyone enjoys what Millennials are characterized as enjoying – Millennials just had the leverage and courage to demand it.

4) Is there a success story from the PP program that you can share with us?

This program has magnified the importance of passion in the work we do, which gives more meaning to our work. Additionally, the collaboration among staff in
openly sharing their passions and planning their passion pursuits has strengthened the workplace culture. It seems new relationships are being formed around this.

Looking forward, we expect that this program will pay dividends as time goes on. The creative ideas and thinking that will emerge from these experiences will bring fresh approaches and solutions to the project challenges we face.

5) What advice do you have for firm leaders wishing to integrate something similar to this?

People like authenticity and originality. Be authentic and real. If you can’t, allow others to. While every project presents a new set of challenges, we live in the paradox of standard details, regulatory constraints and procedural bureaucracy while constantly needing to respond to the needs of our firm and our clients to innovate around ever-changing technology, science, demographics and market conditions.

Breaking down artificial barriers to solve real problems and do great work separates us from others and we need to continuously raise the bar. The Passion Pursuits program helps fuel that fire.

Formally, the Passion Pursuits program gives all employees paid time off and covers expenses to pursue their professional passion. Your professional passion is that simple and pure reason you chose to pursue this career. However, that passion all too often gets lost in the day-to-day grind of the job as the years go by, and
we all need to be re-inspired every once in a while.

For example, if you have a passion for water quality, and then take a trip to Seattle to learn about what they’re doing to protect the Pugeot Sound. If it’s stormwater management, then see what’s happening in Portland, Oregon. If it’s architecture, then explore Charleston, South Carolina.

You get the idea. Meet with local officials. Talk to the consultants. Explore the area.
In a nutshell, we announced this program at the end of last year. We gave everyone creative license to define their passion, and develop a pursuit to fit their needs.
Some folks are pursuing their passion by themselves and/or tacking on a few extra days to family vacations, while others are teaming up with other staff.

All we ask is that upon return of their pursuit, that they share their experience over lunch. We trust our staff and since each passion is unique, we’re very deliberate to not constrain each pursuit.

Now it's your turn: What kind of program has your firm created to improve employee engagement and reduce turnover? Let us know!

The Circle of Excellence represents the top-performing participants in PSMJ’s annual A/E Financial Performance Benchmark Survey. PSMJ’s exclusive Circle of Excellence is designed to recognize architecture and engineering firms that are successfully managed, based on 13 key performance metrics that demonstrate outstanding achievements in profitability, overhead, cash flow, productivity, business development, staff growth, and turnover.