Bohannan Huston Inc. is the No. 4 mid-size company in Top Workplaces for 2022.
Description: Bohannan Huston Inc. is an Albuquerque-based engineering firm that specializes in engineering, spatial data and advanced technologies. The company, founded in 1959, has two New Mexico locations and one in Denver with more than 200 employees total. This is BHI’s fourth time appearing on the Top Workplaces list.
From the organization: “Bohannan Huston has established deep roots in the communities we serve. Simply by the nature of our work, our services play an important role in people’s daily lives and contribute long-term value in our communities.”
From the employees: One employee said they love their job because, “Bohannan Huston Inc. has challenged me, assisted me, and allowed me excellent opportunities to grow and advance during my career here. The people … are very talented, dedicated and caring.” Another employee said, “I have the opportunity to help people I respect. I feel good about my day and myself when I know I’ve helped make someone else’s day be a little less stressful.”
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Bohannan Huston Inc. president and CEO Bruce Stidworthy and Nancy Simutis, vice president of human resources. Their comments have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
If you could go back to the beginning of the pandemic, what would you do differently as a leader?
Stidworthy: “I would do even more than I did to communicate and stay in front of the entire staff. And by in front of, I mean, just talking to them. We did periodic what we jokingly called fireside chat, which was essentially just a company-wide Teams meeting where I would kind of give an update on what’s going on, how we were dealing with things, what changes we were contemplating and what we were seeing as it related to opportunities and trends and we did those.”
How has your concept of supporting the staff’s work and home life balance changed since the pandemic?
Simutis: “I think even before the pandemic we provided a great deal of flexibility in terms of both the number and the scheduling of an individual’s work hours and afforded people the opportunity to reduce their hours. If they needed to take care of something, be it welcoming a new baby or a new child into their family, or caring for a for a sick parent or relative, going back to school if they want. We work really hard to develop a relationship with our employees. So whether that’s at the corporate level or at the group level, and really making sure that we have an understanding of what people need and what we are able to do — it really is a discussion and an individualized space of ‘what do you need’ and ‘how can we help you?'”
Do you feel like innovation suffered during the pandemic?
Stidworthy: “I think for the most part it continued during the pandemic. For us innovation is thinking of a different way to do things and then trying it and working out the kinks. Collaboration might have been a little bit more challenging and sort of collaborating to come up with the better way to do things is part of innovation. So it probably took a little bit of a hit, but in general, I think we continued on with that.”
