The Shaw Group Inc. was founded in 1986 as a fabrication shop in Baton Rouge, LA. Driven by leaders with bold vision and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, the company has evolved into a diverse engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, environmental and industrial services organization with 27,000 employees in strategic locations around the world.
Challenge
Shaw Power has more than $10 billion of backlogged work to complete over the next five years, which is beyond the capacity of the current employee base. Additionally, a significant portion of its workforce will likely retire before the completion of the current backlog. Hiring the best talent, transferring knowledge capital and training to the existing workforce and establishing compelling career paths is critical for Shaw to successfully meet current schedules and commitments as well as prepare for the future.
Solution Deployed
Shaw Power’s Learning & Organizational Development group engaged Perficient to define specific, actionable and measurable job descriptions and technical competencies that will serve as the building blocks for recruiting, training and development and performance management activities. Perficient facilitated dozens of sessions with senior-level employees from across Shaw Power to define role-specific, level-specific job descriptions and technical competencies within 20 organizations.
A key guiding principle for this work was to define career paths with an eye toward the future – not necessarily where the group is today. Once the initial drafting sessions were completed, the information was validated with the other Shaw offices, as well as other key executives.
Business Value Delivered
Perficient delivered 18 different volumes – one for each organization – of Shaw Power’s Career Path Guides which document job descriptions and technical competencies for more than 70 unique roles. These products give Shaw the tools it needs to more effectively recruit, train, and retain employees, which will be key drivers for meeting its business objectives.
Many of the participating organizations have already reported that they are directly applying the content they helped create. Said one senior manager, “The Perficient team is tops! Feedback has been very positive from every function you have touched. Your products have been well received and the value continues to be recognized by all … You are truly a partner of excellence.”