Overview

HEC is a technical services company, and the level of those services offered is directly related to the skill level of our people. As typical with most engineering disciplines, naval architecture, and marine engineering are fields that are continually changing and developing, and to stay competitive, our employees must maintain a high level of technical competence and efficiency in performing their work.

Goal

To maintain this technical competitiveness, the technical skills of our employees require continuous development. Our engineering employees are expected to eventually become principals in the firm, where they exhibit a high level of technical expertise. Further, as employees gain experience with the firm, they also need to develop business skills of various kinds, including project management, cost control, scheduling, estimating, marketing, and sales. Eventually, these employees will move into positions of company management and will need the tools to properly execute those responsibilities as well.

Employee Development

Topics that employee development covers, in both technical and business areas, follow:

Technical development:

• Maintaining and improving technical skills in employees’ areas of interest and competence.

• Learning new skills commensurate with employee desires and HEC business development objectives.

• Encouraging and supporting participation at technical conferences and on technical committees.

• Encouraging professional engineer licensing or other certification.

• Encouraging writing and presenting technical papers on novel/innovative work.

Business skill development:

• Project management, project scheduling, and project cost control.

• Communication, both oral and written.

• Marketing, proposal preparation, project cost estimating, and sales.

• Company management (as one grows).

• Developing interpersonal skills (as needed).

HEC currently has a formal process of employee development. The HEC employee manual discusses how expenses and timekeeping are to be handled for activities related to professional development.

Most technical development of employees once out of school typically happens on the job, with the employees taking on tasks that are a little outside their previous experience and increasing responsibility. It also occurs through participation in professional societies, particularly technical committees, and conferences, perhaps writing and presenting papers. Senior project managers act to mentor staff engineers, passing on their experience and giving more responsibility for technical and business aspects of projects as the engineers are able and willing.

Participation in professional societies (e.g., SNAME) and technical committees, attending conferences, and perhaps taking outside courses in relevant technical or professional topics are encouraged. It is understood that employees must show initiative to find courses in areas they are interested in (and have a clear application to our business) and request to participate. Depending on circumstances, time and funding can usually be made available. Company-supported classes and courses might include engineering review courses for professional engineer licensing or achieving AWS certification as a welding inspector.

Mentoring should be integral to our work. On many projects, staff members are teamed with more experienced engineers, and there is usually quite a bit of latitude given in the assignment of tasks. Generally, most project managers would like the staff engineers to take as much technical responsibility as possible. HEC’s present Alameda and Glasgow offices are set up generally to place a staff engineer and a principal together to foster communication and exchange of ideas. The Annapolis office is more of an open concept that should naturally foster open communication.

Costs and time, such as advanced degrees, are typically not covered for further education. However, HEC will work with employees who wish to take a leave of absence or provide a flexible schedule to allow an employee to work part-time while studying.

Corporate Management responsibilities:

• Identify core technical and professional competencies to meet business and client needs.

• Identify potential employees who could possess or can develop those skills.

• Determine whether resources (i.e., time and funding) are available to implement in-house technical training or seek outside assistance. With in-house seminars, the instructor is around afterward for consultation. Budgeting such classes/seminars should consider that preparation of class materials may take 3 to 8 times longer than the time required to give the class.

• Conduct an annual review with each employee to formulate an individual employee development plan outlining clear goals and schedules to meet both the company and employee needs and desires regarding technical and professional development. A questionnaire is provided at the end of this document as a guideline to facilitate this review.

• Clarify that advancement in the company correlates directly with developing advanced technical and professional skills. Advancement within the company should be more formalized, with goals attained before advancement to the next level is awarded.

• Follow up with each employee regularly during the year to ensure the employee is progressing against the plan and provide resources as needed to achieve the plan goals.

• Ensure that funding is made available for the training and development of employees to achieve the goals set out in the plan and communicate that to employees.

• Foster internal communications among staff, including:

o Encouraging Friday lunch discussions on timely technical topics and sharing of project experiences.

o Communicating staff skills to others in the firm, especially as new skills are acquired.

o Promote intra-company graduate training by means of short and medium periods of work in offices other than the one graduate normally works in.

o Communicating specific company or project skills needed to employees and encouraging targeted employees to pursue these.

o Emphasize that advancement in the company (and raises) are correlated with acquiring enhanced professional and technical abilities.

• Assign one (or more) individuals to implement the process. This person should encourage development and help facilitate the plans arranged in the annual reviews. This person need not be the same person that conducts the annual reviews but should work closely with the reviewer(s) to organize a strategy for the year. This person should follow through on the following:

o Encouraging employees to take the initiative for their own development, to seek appropriate classes or other means to expand their knowledge, and to develop their technical and business skills

o Encouraging employees to request funding for classes or other broadening experiences that fit with company and client needs.

o Encouraging the preparation of papers or presentations to appropriate audiences for notable work performed by employees.

o Communicating with employees to ensure they are satisfied with their professional progress.

o Facilitate management and employee communication to ensure the development of employees is continuous over time.

o Communicating specific company or project skills needed to employees.

o Work with each engineer to develop a custom employee development plan specific to that employee’s skills, interests, and goals, matching with company needs, and work with the employee over time to implement.

Employee Responsibilities:

• Participate in annual reviews and further employee development meetings with the manager to formulate the plan.

• Show initiative and communicate their interests and desires for technical and professional development to management.

• Work to develop new skills and achieve the goals identified in the personal employee development plan.

• Take on increasing responsibility for project results through picking up project management tasks, results checking, and other higher-level activities.

• Participate in professional societies, conferences, and technical committees when appropriate. Write papers to document interesting new technology developed or discuss unusual projects. Give presentations as appropriate to local, national, or international conferences.

Project Manager/Mentor Responsibilities:

• Pass on knowledge acquired through their experience to project team members.

• Provide constructive technical review of project work with direct feedback to team members.

• Push team members to pick up ownership and responsibility for their own work.

• Challenge team members to take on tasks outside their existing skill set, understanding that this may reduce present project efficiency but will foster learning and improve efficiency on future projects.