在过去的四年中，亚利桑那州设计公司EPS Group的规模几乎翻了一番，在整个大流行期间一直保持势头，这一壮举将其领导者归因于多元化的经验教训及其对公司文化的重视。

公司的办公室在台面、凤凰城和图森specialize in land development, transportation and transit design, surveying, geospatial work, water resources and drainage, planning, landscape design, construction management and municipal engineering. EPS hired 84 new associates in the Southwest region in 2021, most of them in surveying and geospatial services, boosting its regional total to 285 employees.

EPS also recently opened a small satellite office in Northern Colorado and is scouting locations in Texas for a fifth office. The company posted $44.1 million in revenue for 2021, up from the $33.7 million it reported in 2020.

多样性是该公司增长的关键 - 无论是地理位置以及其提供的服务而言。

The firm’s CEO Kathey Wagner says, “EPS Group was founded in 2003 by a small group of folks who had gone through a number of acquisitions and mergers and wanted to create a company that put its associates first. That secret sauce has worked, and our entrepreneurial spirit lives on today even as we are reaching 300 associates.”

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

人们首先

“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.

Wagner解释说，在EPS上，很大一部分文化是，当公司获胜时，其同事通过季度激励计划获胜。该公司还推出了EPS大学 - 一项内部计划，旨在通过课堂环境和队列培训来建立技术和领导能力。最近以员工为重点的其他举措包括建立新的混合工作计划（Work Your Way），正式化拥有所有权倡议的道路和“我是EPS”，这是一项助理参与计划。

“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.

故意增长

“While we have done a good job developing Arizona, now we are pushing to move forward geographically,” Kitchen says. “We weren’t as diversified during the Great Recession, and that was painful.”

EPS正在与科罗拉多州北部的一名客户合作，以​​巩固其在那里的市场存在。厨房说：“这将在未来的一段时间内成为一个增长市场。”

In Southern California, just east of Irvine, EPS has two individuals working to bolster the market. “We’re looking at growing into Texas next. It’s a stable economy that will help us grow over time.”

“Our goal is to be a top five design firm by 2025 and a leader in the Southwest region,” Wagner says. “We’re looking at all our neighboring states to diversify geographically and our client base. We all know a market downturn will happen, and we need to be in a better position when it does.”

“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

Public Works

On the public works side, roadway design is the EPS Group’s bread and butter, says Greg Froehlich, EPS principal and public works department manager. 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.

In addition to expanding its reach geographically, EPS has continued to diversify its client base, which includes larger clients like the state of Arizona, along with smaller municipalities, developers and other public agency clients. “That diversification has brought a lot of work to EPS,” Froehlich says.

EPS目前正在为亚利桑那州运输部（ADOT）设计对5英里的美国60倍的改进，并正在为吉尔伯特镇开展一个道路项目。EPS最近在马里科帕（Maricopa）设计了一个屡获殊荣的ADOT项目，即347号州际公路。

“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

Kitchen says that continued volatility—with the uptick in inflation, the constant increases in material costs and supply chain issues as well as the war in Ukraine—all have the potential to affect the firm’s growth. “We will continue to look at the build-to-rent housing sector and the industrial market to capture significant growth attributed to the current lack of affordability in housing and the almost nonexistent vacancy rates in the inland empire in California that is driving industrial development to the metro Phoenix market,” he says. “The federal dollars from the Build Back Better legislation that was passed late last year and that will be pushed into the market to combat our aging infrastructure is also our biggest opportunity as that money floods the market.”

在建造领域，EPS最近提供了土地规划，土木工程，测量，景观建筑和建筑管理服务，为BB生活在凤凰城都会区内的多个项目上。新利18备用网址通过提供一站式商店，EPS可以从尽职调查和权利到成品水平产品来携带该项目，这有助于简化BB Living的开发。

EPS also is working with Willis Property on the planning and engineering of a 320-acre industrial site in Casa Grande to capitalize on the current industrial market, specifically within Casa Grande, a city in Pinal County that continues to see tremendous growth due to the influx of jobs with large employers like Lucid, Nikola and Kohler moving to the market. EPS also is assisting Willis Property on developing more than 4,000 single-family lots within the area to take advantage of the housing demand that will take place from this influx of industrial development and its associated employment needs.

“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.”