On Balance: Social and Economic Report

Freese and Nichols is uniquely positioned to influence community-based economic development and enhance health, safety and wellness in the areas we serve and within our own business practice.

Resources for Our Team

Our people have always been a priority, and we continue to align resources to support our staff holistically. We have a focus on providing career growth and leadership opportunities, both physical and mental wellness initiatives, flexibility in the work environment, and financial support for a host of life’s changes.

Wellness

Wellness at Freese and Nichols includes offering the right insurance for the needs of our staff, so those offerings are annually reviewed. For example, in 2022 we adjusted our benefits to include a Paid Parental Leave program where Freese and Nichols approved 4,432 hours of leave for primary and secondary caregivers during the program’s first year. Our plans offer access to discounts on health products and programs you use every day, including things like vision and hearing care, gym memberships, mind/body programs and alternative medicine. Our LiveWell Program provides corporate memberships at YMCA, healthy snacks in our breakrooms, fun fitness activities and the option for an annual reimbursement for activities or purchases that help you focus on your everyday health.

Additionally, our Employee Assistance Program is a resource for every employee – and everyone in his or her household – to help with just about anything, from child care, handling stress, financial management, legal assistance, mental health, and finding a physician.

Wellness Initiatives in 2022

Nine webinars
Flu shot campaign
Wellness reimbursement program ($35 per employee)
Blue Cross Blue Shield resources
Fitness program (tier-pricing)
Well OnTarget (includes health assessment, tools and tips, and reward program)
Wondr Health weight loss assistance
Livongo diabetes and blood pressure program
Dental Wellness Center
Women’s and family health
Digital mental health
Mobile App
Virtual Visits
Alight (healthcare advisor)
Healthy snacks provided weekly in each office
Movember (men’s health awareness)
Executive Health Program (Principals/Associates)

Recruiting and Retention

Recruiting efforts are determined by client, group and project needs and are also guided by the needs of our staff as we continue to grow. We continually monitor utilization rates and overtime with group and practice leaders to keep a pulse on staff energy levels, prevent burnout.

Our recruiting efforts span across the United States leveraging technical professional organizations networks such as National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). We also focus recruiting efforts on our other technical professions such as planning, environmental, architecture and construction management professions. From Fall 2022 – Spring 2023, our university recruiting teams participated in 24 career fairs at campuses in several states, and are beginning to build relationships with the student chapters of the organizations listed above to increase our visibility. We also host on campus interviews, making it easier to meet with more diverse student candidates who may not have the resources to travel.

Career Development

In 2022 alone, we issued more than 17,000 PDH credits to internal staff and external attendees, and we offered 100 trainings through our Freese and Nichols University with Professional Development themes like “Advancing Your Career: Habits of Highly Effective Young Professionals,” “Assistant Project Manager Training,” and “Developing Skills for Difficult Conversations.” We focus on developing our currently hired staff into strong leaders to allow the most opportunities for their individual growth while also providing consistent, high-level service to our clients. Additionally, our courses are available for any staff member interested in expanding their professional expertise.

University Presentations

Freese and Nichols has formed a partnership with Oklahoma State University (OSU) to prepare engineering students with skills for sustainable design. Our Envision Certified staff serve as guest instructors every semester to teach the basics of Envision Rating System to senior design students at OSU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Envision Rating System, developed by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, is a tool for evaluating an infrastructure project’s sustainability elements. Instruction provided through our partnership allows students to learn directly from working professionals, and it gets them started on preparing to become credentialed as an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP).

Volunteer Work and Giving

Freese and Nichols is deeply rooted in the local communities in which we live, and we are committed to giving back to local, regional, and state organizations that help make our world a better place. We feel strongly about supporting our employees who volunteer their time to the organizations they care about most. As a firm, we also contribute regularly to hundreds of organizations for the betterment of our industry and communities.

Community Involvement Program

It’s important to us to give back to the communities where we live and work. As such, our Community Involvement Program focuses on supporting our employees’ efforts with the organizations they care most about. With manager approval, Freese and Nichols employees have an opportunity to utilize our flexible work schedule options to volunteer during the workday.

Our employee’s combined community service hours make a true difference to local, regional, and state organizations and we track employees’ volunteer hours so we can demonstrate Freese and Nichols’ combined impact to community leaders, clients and recruits – showing the great work we do every day in our local areas and neighborhoods.

Though our in-person volunteer hours reporting program was on hold during the pandemic, the re-opening of our reporting program since 2021 indicates that our teams have donated 3,258 hours of time to 76 different organizations like Boy Scouts of America, MIT, Fort Worth’s Chula Chaser for the Kids, the South Charlotte Recreation Association, Pflugerville’s Horse Empowered Learning Programs, the Pontchartrain Conservancy, and Feeding Tampa Bay.

We believe living out our LEADS values as we “Serve Always” is a true differentiator. Moving forward, we intend to expand the volunteer program by working with Division Managers on identifying future contributions. This allows the firm to make a larger positive impact on our local communities through our collective engagement.

Corporate Giving

Freese and Nichols has given more than $1.3 million in charitable contributions from 2018 through 2022. From community and nonprofit organizations, to professional and client organizations important to the success of our industry, our contributions span our locations across Texas and the United States. Our small and mid-size offices have contributed 31% of our total, in keeping with our goals to make a difference where we work.

Annual United Way Campaign

Freese and Nichols has been involved in and engaged with the United Way since the 1970s. Our CEO, Brian Coltharp, has been serving as a board member for United Way of Tarrant County since 2018, as Co-Chair of the Annual Campaign in 2021, and Chair of the Annual Campaign in 2022.

We sponsor a company-wide United Way campaign every fall, generating our largest combined donation to a given charitable organization. The campaign includes the opportunity for employees to donate to United Way via payroll deduction and participate in fundraising activities planned by each office. Freese and Nichols matches every employee donation, dollar for dollar. In 2022, our United Way campaign raised over $330,000 — one of the best in our history.

Below is just a sampling of our more than 1,000 corporate giving beneficiaries over the last five years.

Sample List From More Than 1,000 Corporate Giving Beneficiaries

American Diabetes Association
Bayou Preservation Organization
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Botanical Research Institute of Texas
CANstruction
Chattahoochee Nature Center
Coastal Bend Community Foundation
Colorado River Alliance

Communities in Schools
Fort Worth Women’s Center
Galveston Bay Foundation
Greater New Orleans Foundation
Gulf of Mexico Alliance
Headwaters at the Comal
Keep Oklahoma Beautiful
Leadership Fort Worth
MATHCOUNTS
Meals on Wheels

Multicultural Alliance
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
North Carolina Engineering Foundation
Ports to Plains Alliance
Streams & Valleys, Inc.
Texas Engineering Foundation
Water for People
Women’s Transportation Seminar

Safety

The safety of all our staff matters to Freese and Nichols. We want our teams to go home to their families each day safe and sound. Our Safety Program provides procedures, tools, and resources to keep staff healthy whether working on job sites, in offices or traveling. With the addition of our newly appointed Safety Director in 2018, Freese and Nichols has seen a significant decrease in workplace injuries. At the end of April 2023, our firm saw a full year without a single OSHA recordable injury, whereas the average for our industry is .7 injuries per 100 employees in a given year.

Reducing Workplace Injuries

While we always encourage reporting injuries to supervisors and the Safety Director, even if they seem minor, we have reduced our number of OSHA recordable injuries from just below the industry average to zero (0) in less than five years, and greatly improved our ability to keep staff safe at the workplace.

We accomplished this with a handful of tactics and trainings, including implementing WorkCare, a non-emergency occupational injury triage line, in 2019. WorkCare operates a 24-hour phone line that allows staff to talk to an occupational health nurse or physician to determine whether an injury requires evaluation or treatment at a clinic. Nurses can help direct staff to a facility that specializes in workplace injuries and has the necessary information about our company contacts and workers comp insurance, or recommend self-care measures.

Heath & Safety Trainings

In 2022, our employees completed 377 hours of safety training.

New Employee

All newly-hired Full-Time Employees, whether performing office work or on job sites, are required to participate in at least one safety training upon onboarding. Group Managers provide input on employee roles to help match them with the most relevant training offerings and ensure that, for example, office workers focus on topics like slips, trips and falls, and construction services roles are assigned more in-depth safety training ranging from 10-30 hours.

Driving Safety

Freese and Nichols travels frequently – typically 1.2 million to 1.3 million miles per month. As such, we emphasize reduction or prevention of safety incidents in driving. Online driving safety courses are required for anyone driving for company business, and most company vehicles have monitors. With these tools in place, when we a vehicle safety incident does happen, injuries do not result from it.

High-Risk Activities

For our firm, the highest safety risk activities at our project sites include fall protection, compliance, and excavation and trenching. To address these areas in particular, we require online training followed by in-person training by our Freese and Nichols safety experts. Courses range from one to three hours each.

Office Building Emergency Plans

We lease office space from multiple building owners and follow each of their building emergency plans. In 2023 we are enhancing office emergency plans by addressing weather situations, evacuations and muster points, and other safety events. These plans will include details for communicating with staff and posting information online for the quickest responses to any developing situation.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Because our work is devoted to improving communities, Freese and Nichols is also committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our business. We support our employees, and we are committed to policies and business practices that recognize individual worth and promote fairness and equality. Additionally, we are here to help our clients reach their goals for serving all their constituents and customers.

Brian Coltharp, our CEO, has served on the North Texas Leaders and Executives Advocating Diversity (LEAD) Board of Directors since 2016 and has been serving as the Chair of the Board since spring of 2022. Brian’s involvement in the group connects our firm with major north Texas businesses and organizations like hospitals, banks, DART, Trinity Metro, and the DFW Airport for sharing ideas related to DEI and business practices.

Freese and Nichols’ DEI Committee

Our DEI Committee was formed in 2020 to help foster a workplace that reflects and contributes to the diverse communities in which we do business. Over two years, the committee has built a charter with goals, held numerous internal listening sessions to understand staff perceptions, enhanced our Code of Conduct case studies, provided suggestions to expand our recruitment and hiring initiatives, and created a DEI-centric resource intranet page. The activities of our various region’s DEI subcommittees are promoted both internally and externally.

Employees from North Carolina, Georgia and Florida publish quarterly DEI newsletters highlighting relevant topics and events. Examples of regional activities include luncheons to celebrate Black History Month in Pearland and International Women’s Day in Austin; and a DEI Potluck in Tampa featuring dishes reflecting employees’ heritages from Hungary, Trinidad, Sri Lanka, Italy, and Vietnam.

Employee Resource Groups

To support inclusion, Freese and Nichols launched two Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in 2022 supporting women and veteran/military staff members. The goal of our ERGs is to provide support, enhance career development, and contribute to personal development in the work environment. They are employee-led groups that join in the workplace based on shared characteristics or life experiences and are designed to be supportive rather than exclusive – allies are welcome. These voluntary groups run separately from each other, have their own charters and leadership teams. The Women’s Empowered group has several chapters throughout the company, while the Next Mission group has one centralized group with leads regionally.

Our Austin Women’s Empowered group celebrated International Women’s Day, and worked with a local, woman-owned business to sponsor a pop-up candle-making class in the office.

Diversity in Hiring

We recognize the historical gap in our industry in employing women and minorities in technical roles and have placed a value in recruiting in these areas as we grow geographically and in our service offerings. We have numerous staff who are members of the Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and our technical staff actively network at chapter events and regional conferences to develop relationships with clients, seek out potential employee candidates, and network with peers.

At the university level, in 2022 we attended recruiting events with two HBCU universities: North Carolina A&T State University and Prairie View A&M University. We also participated in an NSBE-sponsored event at Texas Tech University. To understand better our focus on university hiring, 42% of university hires in the 2021-22 season were female.

Supplier Diversity

Freese and Nichols values our partners, subconsultants and vendors and view them as essential collaborators in delivering successful projects to our clients and their constituents. We choose to work with firms who share our company values: adhering to ethical business practices, providing excellent client service, and committing to long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

FNI understands and recognizes our clients’ interest in using Small, M/W/DBE and HUB partners, and we aim to integrate diverse firms into our project teams in a meaningful capacity. We actively build relationships with Small, M/W/DBE and HUB firm partners by participating in local organizations that support, develop and collaborate with small-, woman- and minority-owned businesses in the communities that we serve. More than 10% of our current projects have a good faith effort goal associated with M/W/D/SBE subcontracting.

For the last six years, 2017-2023, we’ve participated in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s All Small Mentor Protégé Agreements (ASMPP). We are also members of several local city-managed mentor-protégé programs.

Mentor-Protégé Program

For more than two decades, FNI has developed mutually beneficial relationships with Small, M/W/DBE and HUB firms, specifically through our collaborative mentor-protégé partnerships. Some of these relationships are sponsored and managed by our municipal clients, and others have organically grown through our ongoing relationships and our own internal program. We currently are participating in eight mentor-protégé partnerships.

Our partnership starts by entering into an agreement that sets expectations for both parties, develop a mentor-protégé plan, and meet regularly to provide opportunities and education. Sessions between our firms include sharing best practices and knowledge of current industry regulations; sessions on strategic planning, risk management, human resources, IT, sales and marketing; recommending accounting efficiencies; and positioning together for client projects that would benefit both parties.

More About Social and Economic Sustainability

Cook Park Rejuvenates Atlanta's Historic Westside

The new $40 million Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood showcases how engineering can improve community health and economic well-being by creating a vibrant green space that doubles as a hard-working instrument to prevent flooding and improve water quality. The park empowers the Vine City neighborhood — once home to civil rights icons — by transforming 16 acres of empty lots into a welcoming destination that benefits residents and encourages further revitalization. Cook Park combines innovative engineering with acres of amenities, helping to fulfill City goals and applying green infrastructure to tackle long-standing challenges.

New Unified Development Code Embraces Brownsville's Culture, Spurring Revitalization

In the Rio Grande Valley, an innovative hybrid development code embraces the City of Brownsville’s culture to spur revitalization, avoid gentrification, and support incremental, organic development. It provides increased possibilities for development in under-represented areas missing things like middle housing, giving the community opportunities to invest in their own places. It also makes small business ownership easier by lowering the cost of entry and increasing accessibility. After the code’s adoption, the City saw a sharp increase in small-scale/missing-middle infill development in previously under-represented areas.

Freese and Nichols Partners with Historically Underutilized Business

Freese and Nichols values its mentor-protégé partnership with Brownstone Associates, a historically underutilized business (HUB), led by President and CEO Eric Brown and CFO/COO Michele Brown. Brownstone Associates, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a construction management firm with a primary concentration on program management, engineering services, environmental consulting, pre-construction and post-construction processes. Among the many advantages that the mentor-protégé partnership offers Brownstone Associates are more credibility in the industry and greater availability of resources.

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