Arizona design firm EPS Group has nearly doubled in size over the past four years, keeping its momentum on track throughout the pandemic, a feat its leaders attribute to lessons learned in diversification and its emphasis on company culture.

该公司在梅萨，凤凰城和图森的办事处专门从事土地开发，运输和运输设计，测量，地理空间工作，水资源和排水，规划，景观设计，建筑管理和市政工程。EPS于2021年雇用了西南地区的84名新员工，其中大多数从事测量和地理空间服务，将其区域​​总数提高到285名员工。

EPS最近还在科罗拉多州北部开设了一个小型卫星办公室，并正在德克萨斯州搜寻第五办公室的地点。该公司的2021年收入为4,410万美元，高于2020年报道的3,370万美元。

Diversity has been key to the firm’s growth—both geographically as well as in the services it offers.

该公司的首席执行官凯西·瓦格纳（Kathey Wagner）表示：“ EPS集团是由一小撮人于2003年创立的，他们经历了许多收购和合并，并希望创建一家将其同事放在首位的公司。那种秘密酱汁已经起作用，即使我们达到300名员工，我们的企业家精神也活在今天。”

The SR 347 Union Pacific Railroad Bridge Overpass project in Maricopa, Ariz., includes the design of a new bridge, traffic engineering and utility coordination for ADOT.
Image courtesy of EPS Group

People First

“We have spent a lot of time on our company culture over the past two years to make sure that as we continue to grow, the foundation of our success—[our people]—remains at the core of everything we do. It’s more important now than ever as our team is located in multiple locations and we continue to support hybrid work options for our team,” Wagner says. She was hired from outside the industry in 2018 to focus on strategic planning for EPS and was promoted to the role of CEO in 2019.

At EPS, a big piece of the culture is that when the firm wins, its associates win through a quarterly incentive program, Wagner explains. The company also introduced EPS University—an in-house program for associates to build technical and leadership skills through both classroom settings and cohort training. Other recent employee-focused initiatives include establishing a new hybrid work program (Work Your Way), formalizing the Path to Ownership initiative and “I Am EPS,” an associate engagement program.

“If you had told me two years ago that we would have success moving everyone remote, I would have doubted you,” says EPS land department manager and principal Bryan Kitchen. “While it was forced on us during the pandemic, we, by luck, had delved into Microsoft Teams about eight months prior [in order to] connect our various offices.”

While the pandemic pushed everyone into virtual interactions and collaboration, the new work arrangement worked so well for EPS that it instituted a new program called Work Your Way. Based on flexible scheduling and task-oriented accountability, the program also has helped to alleviate recruiting challenges and opened the national market to employees who want to live in and work from another state, Kitchen says. As a result, the majority of the firm’s new employees in the last three to four months have come from outside Arizona.

Intentional Growth

厨房说：“虽然我们做得很好，但现在我们正在努力在地理上前进。”“在大萧条期间，我们没有那么多样化，这很痛苦。”

EPS is working strategically with a client in Northern Colorado to solidify its market presence there. “This will be a growth market for some time to come,” Kitchen says.

在欧文（Irvine）东部的南加州，EPS有两个人努力加强市场。“我们正在考虑下一步发展到德克萨斯州。这是一个稳定的经济，将帮助我们随着时间的推移发展。”

瓦格纳说：“我们的目标是到2025年成为前五名的设计公司，并成为西南地区的领导者。”“我们正在寻找所有邻近的州，以在地理位置和客户群上多样化。我们都知道市场会下降，我们需要在这样做时处于更好的位置。”

“环境和能源市场将another good way for us to diversify—in addition to the geographical diversification—and we’re looking at moving into those markets as well,” Kitchen adds. “We’re trying to grasp the ability to work remotely and make that a permanent fixture of EPS Group, and we see that as a definite advantage [for expansion] moving forward.”

Phases 1 and 2 of Bella Vista Farms features 1,100 single-family lots, a community pool, playgrounds and walking paths in San Tan Valley, Ariz.
Image courtesy of EPS Group

公共工程

EPS校长兼公共工程部经理Greg Froehlich说，在公共工程方面，道路设计是EPS集团的面包和黄油。The firm also performs water, sewer and gas line design and completed the sitework design during the pandemic for Phoenix Rising Stadium, a new 10,000-seat stadium at the Gila River Indian Community’s Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Ariz. EPS Group provided land planning, civil engineering, surveying and landscape architecture services for the project.

除了扩大地理位置外，EP还继续使其客户群多样化，其中包括较大的客户，例如亚利桑那州，以及较小的市政当局，开发商和其他公共代理商客户。弗罗里奇说：“这种多元化为每股收益带来了很多工作。”

EPS is currently designing improvements to five miles of U.S.60X for the Arizona Dept. of Transportation (ADOT) and is working on a roadway project for the town of Gilbert. EPS recently designed an award-winning ADOT project, State Route 347 in Maricopa.

“We pride ourselves in being very available to our clients. We are trying to solve problems for them in the most efficient and effective way to save their budgets and schedule,” Froehlich adds.

Looking Ahead

厨房说，持续的波动性 - 随着通货膨胀的上升，材料成本和供应链问题的不断增加以及乌克兰的战争的不断增加 - 都有可能影响该公司增长的潜力。18luck.cub“我们将继续关注建筑面向租赁的住房和工业市场，以捕获巨大的增长，归因于目前的住房负担能力缺乏，以及加利福尼亚州内陆帝国的几乎不存在的空缺率，这些空缺率正在推动工业发展，以推动工业发展凤凰市场。”他说。“从建筑物中获得的联邦资金是去年下半年通过的更好的立法，这将被推到市场上以打击我们的老化基础设施，这也是我们最大的机会，因为这笔钱淹没了市场。”

In the build-to-rent sector, EPS recently provided land planning, civil engineering, surveying, landscape architecture and construction management services for BB Living on multiple projects within the Phoenix metro area. By providing a one-stop shop where EPS can carry the project from due diligence and entitlement to a finished horizontal product helps streamline development for BB Living.

EPS还正在与Willis Property合作，在Casa Grande占地320英亩的工业场所的规划和工程上，以利用当前的工业市场，特别是在Pinal County的Casa Grande中，由于涌入，该市继续看到巨大的增长Lucid，Nikola和Kohler等大型雇主的工作。EPS还正在协助Willis财产在该地区开发4,000多个单户地段，以利用这种工业发展及其相关的就业需求的涌入所产生的住房需求。

“They are people people,” says Dale Willis, president, Willis Property, referring to EPS employees. “They handle the full gamut of planning, surveying, engineering and construction management, and they work great not only with us but also with city planning staff, community leaders [and others]. That’s what I’ve been impressed with, and they are just terrific to work alongside.”