There’s a culture of mentorship and growth at GHD
While attending university in Waterloo, Ont., Sarah Legg began working with GHD as a co-op student – and the opportunities grew from there. Now in Western Canada, she has been able to follow her dream of improving the environment, from cleaning up contaminated sites in industrial settings to working with Indigenous communities on clean-water projects.
“I had that goal when I was fresh out of school 16 years ago and I didn’t know if it was attainable,” says Legg, business group leader and associate. “Now, we work with more than 70 First Nations communities across B.C. on projects for remediation, waste management, safe drinking water and more.”
Legg finds satisfaction being in an environmental role. She is able to see sites before GHD teams work on them and then see the difference at the end. “It might be a pulp mill or coal plant we take down and then do restoration and reclamation, or replace it with greener energy,” she says.
“At GHD, we support our people to learn and grow with opportunities to explore and find their true passion,” says Steve Lécuyer, executive general manager for Canada. “They are encouraged to express ideas and be themselves. We value the diversity of thought.”
GHD is a leading professional services company operating in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Nearly a quarter of employees are offered shares in the business, which is 100 per cent employee owned.
“As a professional services consulting firm, our people are the foundation of our business,” says Lécuyer. “We want to make sure our employees will be with us for the long term.”
To this end, employees have quarterly meetings with their managers to work on a development plan as well as a professional plan. New graduates have face to face meetings with leaders, and the company provides internal leadership programs right from the start.
Legg found a dedication to mentorship and growth at GHD. As soon as she indicated interest in a leadership role, she and her manager created a development plan. Among the training opportunities she has had was a three-day leadership course she recently attended in Orlando, Fla.
Legg also took advantage of the opportunity to be mentored in the organization, and she was connected with a leader in Australia. “There are no silos in GHD – we have connectivity to resources and mentors regardless of location,” says Legg.
After six monthly virtual meetings where Legg discussed challenges and goals and worked on homework between sessions, she was able to meet her mentor for coffee in person. He recently transferred to a position in Vancouver.
Lécuyer believes one reason people stay with GHD is the variety and the ability to grow into different functions. When he started, he was drawn to the solid group of senior people with a knowledge base he could rely upon. They answered his questions and trained him.
“I began work 25 years ago as a technical engineer and, over time, was provided growth opportunities,” says Lécuyer. “I transitioned into management and leadership, and now I am living proof of what GHD can provide.”
Legg describes a supportive culture that is innovative, inclusive, technically excellent and respectful. “There is a sense of teamwork in problem solving, and it feels like you are part of something bigger,” she says. “It was access to leaders that made me who I am as a business group leader and engineer.”
More than that, she adds, “There is an entrepreneurial mindset that if we link arms and work together and deliver strong technical work for clients, it can improve our environment and the communities we work in.”
Employees stay for the family feeling at GHD
Allison Quigley was so impressed with the people and the opportunities at GHD that she was hired by the company – twice.
After completing a postgraduate certificate in human resources, she found work at GHD right out of school. From 2008 to 2021 she progressed from human resources specialist to people business partner.
“Eventually, I felt I needed experience with another organization,” says Quigley, now senior people business partner. “I left to work at a startup, but it wasn’t the environment for me. I reflected back to the people and culture of GHD, contacted my previous manager to discuss opportunities to rejoin the company and was hired into my current position.”
With their largest Canadian office in Waterloo, GHD is a leading professional services company operating in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Nearly a quarter of GHD staff hold shares in GHD, which is 100 per cent employee-owned.
“It’s all about the people,” says Lisa Williams, Ontario finance manager. “If you take ownership of your career, there is opportunity and support from leaders.”
When the company Williams worked for merged with what is now GHD, she was asked to manage the project finance team from the office in Waterloo. “I discovered Waterloo has the benefits of a big city with a smaller, hometown feel,” says Williams. “We create a family feeling at GHD and people stay.” The average tenure for employees on Williams’ team is 10 years, and many have stayed much longer.
Some of the ways GHD creates a sense of belonging is through mentoring programs and professional groups. For instance, employees can tap into regional and global technical service lines. These allow access to the best resources, people and opportunities globally across 48 technical communities such as bridges, sustainability, or contamination assessment and remediation.
Another way employees come together is to participate in activities for local charities. Williams is treasurer of the Waterloo office social committee, which includes fundraising for office events. Often the committee funds lunches for employees to buy, sometimes raising up to $1,500. It directs the money to local charities such as the local Humane Society of Kitchener Waterloo & Stratford Perth, the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre and more.
Employees have built homes with Habitat for Humanity. And they take part in events in support of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region that typically raise between $25,000 and $30,000 each year. “People feel good about giving, and they connect with others they don't often see.” says Williams.
Quigley finds she has the opportunity to collaborate with people, learn and develop through project work, and she has joined a project team to focus on resource development. “From working on strategic projects to travelling internationally for workshops and team-building opportunities, my manager continually supports my growth and development,” she says.
The culture at GHD is fast-paced and collaborative with project teams looking to learn from one another. “We’re a team of teams,” Quigley says. “And not just locally, but across different regions and globally.”
Williams believes that no matter where GHD’s project work takes the company, it’s all about the purpose. “Together with our clients, we create lasting community benefit,” she says. “It brings you together in a way I haven’t experienced at other companies.”
GHD builds communities with inclusion and respect
When Lyle Ahenakew was at university, he knew he wanted to use his education in environmental engineering to help Indigenous communities, like his own Snuneymuxw First Nation near Nanaimo, B.C. He found a way to do that by joining the Vancouver office of GHD Canada, part of the employee-owned global engineering, architecture and construction services company.
Ahenakew was able to take part in a GHD Canada internship program focused on Indigenous students with backgrounds in forestry, chemistry, STEM (sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics) or other sciences. Now, three years later, he is an engineer in training in GHD Canada’s Waste Management group.
“The job gives me an opportunity to help remote First Nations with waste management,” he says. “What I like is that it encompasses different things for different communities that include fulfilling needs for procurement, recycling logistics, civil design, leachate and gas collection.”
Jan Fontana, GHD’s people leader for Canada, says that the company’s focus on inclusion and diversity informs everything from hiring practices to committee appointments, as well as the establishment of employee resource groups to support diverse and often marginalized populations.
“The employee resource groups give our LGBTQ+, Hispanic, Asian, Black, neurodiverse, Indigenous and women employees opportunities to get together and network,” she says. “Everyone is invited, allies are welcome to come and talk about what’s going on in the world, and there’s strong support from our leaders.”
Ahenakew is chair of GHD Canada’s Indigenous Employee Resource Group. “We have regular meetings, we put on events and focus on recruitment and allies,” he says. “It’s open to all employees and supports an inclusive work environment, and I really like that. We’re taking a lot of steps in the right direction to build on diversity in the workplace.”
In addition to leading the group, he’s also a member of GHD Canada’s Reconciliation Action Plan committee, which works on ways to acknowledge and respect the rights of First Nations in all its projects, including using Indigenous contractors and vendors when possible. “I’ve also been involved in developing wording for land acknowledgments to show respect for the different territories we’re meeting or working on,” he says.
Ahenakew appreciates his job’s flexibility, with a hybrid work model that allows him to spend time with his family, and its variety. “I like that the work is always changing, there’s always a different project in a different community,” he says. “I also got a lot of responsibility early, which is great, because that’s how I learn.”
He also gets a lot of professional development support, including quarterly check-ins with his manager and mentorships with senior staff.
“On all the work I do, I have one or two senior engineers providing guidance and direction, so I’m never left to do projects on my own,” he says. “I can get my hands on things and get involved in projects, but I’m always being mentored and it’s great. It builds your professional skills and experience.”
Fontana says that diversity and inclusion, supporting employee development and sustainability are all part of the company’s vision to create lasting benefits in the communities it works with. “It’s built into our strategy and our purpose,” she says, “and it resonates with everyone at GHD.
Young professionals connect and collaborate at GHD
In only two years working with GHD, Catherine Dang has already spent two months on a project in the United Arab Emirates and has transferred from her core engineering team to work in digital strategy.
“I was drawn to the global aspect of GHD as I want to have the opportunity to work in other countries,” says Dang, digital strategy and transformation consultant. “It was just as important for me to join a company that offers a variety of services. I’m still exploring what I might want to do with my career.”
GHD is a leading professional services company operating in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Nearly a quarter of employees are offered shares in the business, which is 100 per cent employee-owned.
Across the world, GHD is a large employer of young professionals. The company hires scientists, engineers, project managers, planners and more. In North America, they enter into a graduate development program that offers structured learning over the first two years of their careers.
“Our young professionals are engaged in a variety of exciting projects across our business, collaborating with diverse multidisciplinary teams to drive innovation and growth,” says Malcolm Dixon, general manager - Western Canada and executive sponsor of the Young Professionals Employee Resource Group (ERG).
Dixon maintains that the Young Professionals ERG, which creates opportunities for new employees to collaborate and build relationships with each other, is just as important. The members of this group come together for structured meetings where they discuss activities and plan events. “They start to exercise their leadership muscle by learning how to plan, advance ideas and influence peers and colleagues,” he says.
Dang joined the Young Professionals ERG almost immediately. “I’m passionate about making my own opportunities,” she says. The group is allotted finances and coaching support from leaders, but the rest is up to them.
“The leaders invite us to do what we think would be valuable,” says Dang. In her case, the Young Professionals ERG developed an idea to invite other young professionals from GHD’s key clients to join with them at a conference. The GHD leadership supported the idea, and the planning committee organized a conference with professional development modules and workshops on energy, water and communities.
“We wanted to foster lasting relationships with our partners for the long term, and we made a good start!” says Dang.
Dang has also met new people and taken advantage of learning opportunities in the two-year graduate development program. She and her cohort worked through a module on a topic critical to professional success each month. The large, international group included young professionals from the United Kingdom. She was also connected to a small group of three employees from across Canada.
“It’s been great to have structured opportunities to make connections,” Dang says. “I feel like I’m in a small world, even within a company with nearly 11,000 employees. Everyone is always happy to introduce me to someone else. As a young professional, that’s what I need right now.”
Dang wanted to do work around sustainability. She’s been able to connect and work with a team that helps companies come up with action plans to achieve their sustainability goals.
“At GHD, our young professionals are critical to the growth and future success of our firm. Our leadership sees the Young Professionals ERG as a way of engaging and empowering the exceptional talent that we have in this cohort,” says Dixon. “Young people want to get involved and make a difference in the communities in which we live and work.”