CELEBRATING 60 YEARS
#UR60N
KEN FULMER,
PE
President and CEO
In business, there are many milestones that warrant celebration. A contract with a brand new client is exciting. The completion of a project is satisfying. A long-time employee’s work anniversary is something to cheer. This past year, however, has marked a special milestone for Urban Engineers – our 60th year in business. One of Urban’s strengths is our ability to provide employees a dynamic career path. We take pride in giving staff the opportunity to not only grow their career, but shape it around their life, wherever it may lead. Employees at Urban don’t need to feel boxed into a specific specialty. As a multidiscipline firm with offices across the country, there are many opportunities to shift the service you provide or your location from one coast to the other. We have many examples, like transitioning from the MEP department to construction management, or moving from the Philadelphia region to the Southwest. Throughout our firm’s now more than 60-year history, it has been important to me and many at this firm to provide employees with career agility. To recognize our important milestone this past year, we created this magazine to reflect on Urban’s work culture, the homegrown-approach to cultivating staff, employee dividends, and our vision for the future. Please join us in learning about who we are as an organization, and who we want to be in the years to come.
Work Culture (title page) “An office used to be a thing you went to for a certain number of hours a day; now, work is an entire plane of existence.” - Amanda Mull, The Atlantic
OUR CORE VALUES
Ten years ago, we celebrated Urban’s 50th anniversary by showcasing the projects and people who had made Urban, Urban. The firm’s leadership at that time was preparing to retire and complete the transition of ownership to employees. Urban would not be bought out by another company; instead, employees who had put in the hours and effort to make Urban a success would own the firm in the form of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and leadership would be accountable to an elected board of directors. For much of the firm’s first half century, Urban’s culture grew organically by project-driven teamwork. Our culture rewarded anyone who valued transparency, accountability, and consistency. Each employee has been empowered to take ownership in their ideas and work with their colleagues, chipping in to work whatever hours were necessary to see projects finished and clients happy. There was an understanding that infrastructure was necessary to American success. Each employee’s contribution to a project was important. Over the last decade, and as we approached our 60th anniversary, Urban has developed a more inclusive culture. A culture with a foundation in the pride of ownership, delivering consistently competent work, empowering employees to lead professionally, and giving flexibility to employees to integrate the demands of life. Urban wants to support employees regardless of personal circumstances or goals. A strong, diverse culture comes from empowered employees who value their work but can also pursue and support what is important at home.
HOME GROWN
In today’s workplace, people seldom stay with the company where they began their career, let alone where they were working 10 years ago. For most, moving from one employer to the next is common and a way to advance one’s career and salary at the same time. With employees constantly moving, it is a challenge to build and sustain a workplace culture. Urban has worked hard to address this challenge by creating an environment that encourages employees to stay longer than the national average, and return if they do venture elsewhere.
“By investing in employees early on, we set them – and our firm – up for longterm success, we want our staff to reach their fullest potential, and ideally to do that while staying here at Urban.” -Meredith Clark, Director of Human Resources
“I knew when I started at Urban back in college, it was the place where I wanted to be. Sitting where I am now, I’m grateful Urban invested in me, not only as an employee, but as a person.” -Ken Fulmer, President & CEO
“I always envisioned having to switch firms to find challenging work and grow, never thinking I’d be here this long, but I was given opportunities to work on challenging projects and advance my career. I feel valued here at Urban” -Chris Gubeno, National Market Leader - Aviation
Part of what fosters this culture is our
but I was given opportunities to work
internship program, which began
on challenging projects and advance
during the firm’s infancy. “By investing
my career,” says Chris. “I feel valued
in employees early on, we set them
here at Urban.”
– and our firm – up for long-term success,” says Meredith Clark, Urban’s
Part of what makes the program
director of human resources. “We
so successful is that it is mutually
want our staff to reach their fullest
beneficial. During their time with
potential, and ideally to do that while
Urban, interns get hands-on
staying here at Urban.”
experience working on projects they wouldn’t have access to otherwise. In
Ken Fulmer began his career at Urban
return, the firm get access to talented
as a co-op while attending Drexel
young professionals and the chance
University. Twenty-five years later,
to form relationships with future
he worked his way up to become
leaders in our industry.
president and CEO of the company. “I knew when I started at Urban
Starting a career with Urban teaches
back in college, it was the place
more than just civil engineering. Most
where I wanted to be,” says Ken.
public projects are funded with public
“Sitting where I am now, I’m grateful
money – which is always limited – so
Urban invested in me, not only as an
in addition to the technical experience
employee, but as a person.”
interns receive, they are taught an important lesson in ethics. Streets,
Ken is one of a number of Urban
highways, and parks are for the
leaders who got their start at the firm
benefit of our fellow citizens, which
as an intern. Chris Gubeno – who
is why civil engineers must have the
leads the firm’s aviation group – and
highest ethics in everything that they
Mike Leinheiser – who leads the firm’s
do. Ethics are hard to measure, but
highway group – both interned at
are a key feature employeers look
Urban almost 30 years ago. “I always
for, as well as something held in high
envisioned having to switch firms
regard at Urban.
to find challenging work and grow, never thinking I’d be here this long,
EMPLOYEE DIVIDENDS Just like Fortune 500 companies, Urban’s dividends are a key value to its shareholders. As owners of the firm, the employees are the sole benefactors. These dividends are reinvested back into the company as employee benefits which are intended to enrich our culture. The focus of these benefits includes three main aspects: wellness, community, and education.
Wellness Urban believes the wellness of its employees are essential. Healthy employees are not only are happier, but are also more productive. Our firm promotes physical fitness, while also understanding the importance of mental health. This includes benefits that encourage healthy life/ work balances. At Urban, wellness is achieved through a variety of ways, including flextime, competitive healthcare benefits, free health seminars, on-site fitness centers, extracurricular sports, and even on-site massages.
Community At Urban we don’t just “do well,” we “do good.” We believe that we have an obligation to actively maintain the health and well-being of the communities in which we do business, and we enjoy giving back to the places that give so much to us. Our employees strive to make our communities better places to live through their projects and volunteerism. We promote service to our communities and professions as a way to translate our values and standards into visible action, adding value and depth to the communities in which we live. Additionally, Urban provides internal vehicles to promote community within the organization. These include groups like the Urban Young Member Forum, Urban Women’s Professional Network, and the new Urban Alliance. These groups develop leadership opportunities within the firm and will foster innovative best practices for our next 60 years of business.
Education By promoting educational opportunities, Urban is not only a company of learners and innovators, but a developer of leaders. At Urban’s core, our training department provides every employee educational classes for free. Recognizing our own expertise within the industry, many of the Urban Training Institute’s courses are taught by in-house instructors. Beyond the institute, Urban offers generous tuition reimbursement programs to help accelerate one’s career. We also support memberships to numerous professional organizations throughout the country so we can collaborate with our peers and help propel our industry forward.
OUR FUTURE Our firm has taken the opportunity of our 60th anniversary to highlight our culture and look ahead to where we are going in the future. We are always looking to expand our business and enhance the services we are able to provide to our clients in new and innovative ways. We are also looking to improve our social responsibility, diversity, and how we can be better partners to our communities and future clients.
Social Responsibilty At Urban, we believe in actively maintaining the health and wellbeing of the neighborhoods in which we live and do business through community outreach. This is led by our talented and dedicated staff who volunteer their time to many organizations that promote the A/E/C industry and service minority communities. Urban contributes financially and offers the use of our office space to help these programs continue to do good work. Urban also has a proud and significant history of developing solutions for complex challenges. Looking ahead, we as a firm want to continue our reputation as a steward of infrastructure.
Our firm works to protect our nation’s transportation network and public spaces in a variety of ways. In addition to our design, planning, and construction support services - which touch all aspects of infrastructure projects - our environmental services team has helped transform blighted properties and aging infrastructure into livable, equitable, and sustainable community hubs. We have also enabled construction to occur safely and efficiently in locations that were once deemed infeasible for new development or reuse.
Improving Diversity Urban values a diverse workforce. We believe that building a workforce through inclusion, acceptance, understanding, and respect of diverse cultures and backgrounds leads to the production of fresh ideas. It also provides personal and professional growth for our staff, and ultimately, better projects and service for our clients. Urban is not only committed to providing equal employment opportunities, but to being a consciously diverse employer. To achieve this, we have taken many steps to attract more diverse talent, like changing the career events we attend, expanding our reach through minority- and womenfocused publications that specialize in targeted recruitment campaigns, and involvement with organizations like Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO). Thanks to these efforts, the firm has seen an increase in diverse hires.
Future Partners We at Urban communicate and collaborate with our clients in order to fully understand projects so that we can successfully deliver on their goals. We understand exactly how we do our work, and this results in a standard for excellence – as well as measurable maintenance and improvement – in our client communications and overall project management. Heading into our future, we want to strengthen the bonds with the clients we have worked with, and align ourselves with future clients who share our goals. We also plan to foster and continue community partnerships that help move our world forward. Urban has long supported DBE firms, and not just because teaming can be a contract requirement. Our firm supports them because it is crucial to our profession, our peers, and our principles. We have strong ties to the DBE community and have mentored and helped those DBE firms grow through our work with them. We share many of our clients’ goals to create opportunities for these businesses and look for like-minded new partners. If there is anything to take away from the events of the recent past, it is the importance of valuing people. Urban’s top priority has always been to protect the safety and wellness of our staff. The challenges faced by our firm and our country have only highlighted this priority. The firm is determined to provide suitable and sustainable working environments for employees and give them the resources they need to support themselves and their families. This has enabled us to maintain competitiveness in challenging environments and pave the way for forthcoming success. In seeking out future partners, we anticipate to team with organizations who do the same for their staff.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM COVERING OUR 60TH YEAR