A Series of Significant Decisions

by Loren Paulsson on August 25, 2010 | photography by Loren Paulsson and EDG Staff

EDG logo EDG CEO Tim Moreau rocked back behind his desk and shared a few parting thoughts. “This can’t come from upper management….” He said, “It has to come up from the employees, and that’s a lot more powerful.” He said management can create an environment that rewards employees who invest in the workplace, but he believes EDG is unique because of its employees’ commitment to a positive workplace.

EDG is a consulting engineering firm serving the oil and gas industry and employs over 500 people in Metairie, La. Houston, Texas, and around the world. When Paul Mogabgab and Dwight Paulsen founded EDG in 1982, they aimed to establish a workplace where people could take pride in the excellence of their work and where individuals treated others the way they’d like to be treated.

Recognizing that people are a service organization’s primary resource, the founders emphasized employee development and eschewed group think. Mogabgab said, “You want people to challenge things, inside of a basic respect for humanity.” Rather than merely avoid conflict, Moreau’s goal is to make sure conflict is resolved so that it doesn’t get in the way.

EDG added a Houston office in 1990. Moreau became CEO in 1996. But as Moreau puts it, Mogabgab and Paulsen had made promises to other engineers but hadn’t yet worked out a way to deliver, and Moreau said, a number of engineers became concerned about their futures.

Those engineers and Paulsen, Mogabgab, Moreau, and Ed Ruppert worked out a plan whereby EDG would become an employee-owned organization. The plan rolled out in 1998, and all the engineers stayed with EDG.

EDG engineers Everybody at EDG discusses this transition delicately, but everyone who was there at the time remembers it. The plan means major decision makers in the organization are also major stakeholders, and it also incentivizes the development of future leadership within the organization. Moreau sees it as fulfillment of a promise and faithfulness to the priority of people.

Structural engineer Tara Adams started working at EDG’s Metairie office in 1994 and worked her way up to supervisor. In 2005, she got married, found out she was expecting their first child, and survived Hurricane Katrina.

As soon as EDG leadership knew their Metairie building had been damaged, they decided to move their entire staff to the Houston office. In the process, they had to overcome the loss of communication and utilities in the New Orleans area, and they didn’t just move employees’ jobs; they provided housing for employees and their families for three to five months.

Adams remembers calling the Houston office for information and reporting for work the Tuesday after Labor Day, roughly a week after Katrina hit New Orleans. “I was very proud of EDG and proud to be a part of EDG,” she said.

Further evidence of a commitment to support employees’ family responsibilities, EDG allowed Adams to remain in Houston and step back from her supervisory responsibility in order to meet the needs of her young children.

President Ed Ruppert observed Houston is bigger, has more competition for employees, and has a much more mobile population than New Orleans, which poses some challenges for EDG’s internal culture.

EDG Lobby EDG started using Character First in 1996. Each location has a character council—or champion in the smaller offices—and there’s a company-wide character steering team. Members of the steering team rotate writing or assembling a monthly character e-mail, which goes to each employee. The steering team has also come up with a CARE card (for Character Awareness Recognition Excellence) employees can hand out when they see another employee showing particular integrity. As part of monthly meetings, someone presents a character quality, employees celebrating employment anniversaries are recognized for a character quality, and CARE card recipients are also recognized.

“Character First…gives us a valuable tool to create a work culture that we think provides for a positive atmosphere in the workplace,” Moreau said.

Project manager Scott Paxton joined EDG’s Houston office six years ago. He said, while he thinks EDG faces the same challenges similar firms face, he also thinks EDG’s culture has a better chance of “creating loyalty.”

Houston procurement manager Mike LeJeune uses the word “sincerity” to describe the EDG workplace—more focused on excellent work and less preoccupied with hidden agendas or office politics. He said managers have responsibility to create this environment, and “employees have an active role in making that environment real.”

At monthly company meetings, EDG employees review one of these “Unifying Principles.”

Our business goal is to provide to our customers the highest quality products and services, efficiently, professionally, at competitive prices, meeting their needs and expectations, and making a fair profit.

Our customers are the lifeblood of our business. We will keep our focus always on our customers; on finding and understanding their needs, and assuring that our efforts are meeting or exceeding these needs within the context of our business objectives. We will strive to give our customers value, and to earn their respect and loyalty.

The ultimate owner of our business is our Creator, to whom each of us is accountable for its operation for good purposes. We are accountable to God.

Individual character is of value in itself, and reflects in our business. We will strive for honesty, fairness, openness, courage, trustworthiness, diligence, forgiveness, enthusiasm, willingness, faith and spiritual growth. We are accountable to ourselves.

Each individual possesses innate human dignity, and is unique and important to our business. We will respect, support, and encourage one another. We understand that all have human weaknesses, but we will work together as a team so that each can attain their best, and share in our successes and accomplishments. We are accountable to each other.

Continuous improvement and growth are essential to our success, as individuals and as a company. We will constantly pursue excellence by encouraging study, learning, initiative, innovation, and positive change.

Work is enjoyable with an attitude of cheerfulness, humor, courtesy and patience, along with concerted effort. We will strive to give our very best effort at all times. We choose to dwell on the positive.

We believe in the Golden Rule. We will endeavor to treat each other, our clients, our suppliers, and all others as we would have them treat us.

Each of us has a leadership role within the company. We welcome responsibility, and will strive to be role models for the common good. We will contribute to the group effort in all ways possible, understanding that our individual well being is dependent on the success of the whole.

Safety is a primary consideration in all of our work. The safety of our customers, ourselves, and the general public shall always take precedence over other objectives.

Our work responsibilities and activities must be kept in balance with our responsibilities to God, family, and country. We will strive to be supportive of each individual’s pursuit of health of spirit, mind, and body.

We believe that we receive as we give. As individuals and as a business we will give generously of our time, talent and resources to the needs of our community, and promote these unifying principles which we share.