November/December 2017

On Ethics
Texas Firm Gains Recognition For Ethical Principles

It’s not unusual for clients to tell NSPE member Patrick Kunz, P.E., that they believe that he and other staff members at Halff Associates Inc. care just as deeply, if not more, about their projects as they do. Hearing this from time to time reminds Kunz, the firm’s president, of the importance of serving clients with the highest integrity and that both clients and employees deserve honesty and transparency.

The firm, headquartered in Richardson, Texas, was recently recognized by the Better Business Bureau and the Dallas Business Journal for its ethical leadership and business practices with the Torch Award for Ethics. Since 1996, the organization has recognized for-profit businesses that demonstrate best practices, leadership, social responsibility, and high standards of organizational ethics that benefit customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and communities.

PE spoke with Kunz about how the firm’s ethical values and culture have positively influenced its business reputation since its founding in 1950.

Question: What defines Halff’s ethical values and culture?

Answer: Our culture and core values have been defined by many strong characteristics since our firm’s founding in Dallas by Albert H. Halff in 1950. We are proud to carry on his legacy and be considered one of the most professional and trusted full-service engineering/architecture firms in the Southwest. We wouldn’t be as successful as we have been without showing integrity, honesty, and transparency to our employees, clients, vendors, and partners.

It’s all about Halff’s leadership abiding by ethical standards and ensuring our employees do the same. It’s about valuing and respecting the wide range of people we work with and for. It’s about creating an environment where employees can learn, grow, and be innovative. It’s about using our client’s funds responsibly without compromising our responsibility to protect the public. It’s about caring for our communities. It’s about holding people accountable for their actions. It’s about striving for excellence in all that we do.

Question: How are the company’s ethical values infused into hiring and business practices?

Answer: Our firm’s ethical values are infused in the following ways:

• Every employee is given an 8.5" x 5.5" laminated graphic of our culture and core values that they are encouraged to hang in their workstations as a constant reminder.
• Our culture and core values are easily accessible on our website for potential employees and are introduced during a new employee orientation.
• Our up-and-coming project managers are required to go through a year-long training program. In one of the sessions, I teach about our culture and core values. Another class focuses on ethics in our industry with instruction by our in-house legal counsel.
• Twice a year, our leadership team visits all our offices and discusses in a very transparent manner the health and strategic plan of our firm. We highlight how our culture and core values are being displayed through the work and activities of our firm.
• I visit all our offices throughout the year and hold informal meetings called “Chat With Pat,” in which I model and reinforce our culture and core values to our employees. I always welcome any feedback, address concerns, and remind employees that I have an open-door policy.

Question: Can you share a time when your firm faced an ethical challenge and how the firm handled that challenge?

Answer: During one of our oil and gas survey projects, a new oil well surface location was placed in the wrong location because of an error made in a staff member’s calculation. After drilling had already begun, a surveyor for another company noticed we were in the wrong location and brought it to our client’s attention. We did our due diligence and determined that it was, indeed, in the wrong location. We initiated a meeting with the client to disclose the error, admitting that this was our mistake. We covered the loss. The client was shocked and refreshed that we took such a posture, because the client was accustomed to vendors denying issues and casting blame. For that reason, the client continues to contract with Halff to this day.

Question: How important was it to receive the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Ethics?

Answer: It is of utmost importance. Out of all the awards a company can receive, this is one of the greatest, in my opinion. We believe success only matters when it is achieved by always doing the right thing. We know that trust is one of the top—if not the top—characteristics that clients want in us as a consultant. Trust is developed over time, but we hope that an award like this—which required letters of recommendation from a client, a vendor, and a community representative, as well as other rigorous proofs and documentation—solidifies to our clients, potential clients, and peers that we are a top-notch organization that you can feel confident doing business with. We also hope that the award will continue to attract the right type of talent who will be the best fit for our company.