Suggestions are in date order and color-coded with their status.
Red – Received.
Yellow – In progress.
Green – Response received and resolution noted in details.
05/07/2024, Sonora – Taylor Clements
Suggestion: “Boot brush outside office”
Follow Up: Fulfilled, Boot Brush delivered and placed near front entrance.
09/20/2023, Stockton – Laura Arista
Suggestion: “Condor hosting a blood drive in the Stockton office as part of Spring Fling”
Follow Up: Fulfilled; A week-long blood/book drive is scheduled for the 2024 Spring Fling
06/12/2023, Stockton – Autumn Halvorsen
Suggestion: “Taco Truck Taste Test”
Follow Up: Fulfilled; Stockton Office has created a board for scoring their Taco Truck Tastings
06/12/2023, Stockton – Autumn Halvorsen
Suggestion: “Fruit in the Kitchen”
Follow Up: Fulfilled; fruit has been provided in the Stockton Office Kitchen.
06/09/2023, Sonora – Bob Job
Suggestion: “Condor Scholarships for Family Members”
Follow Up: Reviewed by board, not feasible at this time.
06/09/2023, Stockton – Shannon Esser
Suggestion: “Volunteer Opportunities, such as helping at the Emergency Food Bank”
Follow Up: Condor supports all employees who wish to donate their own time or items to the charitable organization of their choice. The EOC and HR will review Condor’s philanthropic practices and seek to provide additional guidance in 2024. The EOC is excited to announce that our theme for the upcoming ESOP Month in October will be “Giving Back”.
06/09/2023, Stockton – Shannon Esser
Suggestion: “9/80 schedule option for all employees (every other Friday off).”
Follow Up: Condor strives to provide employees flexible schedules while meeting client demands and work deadlines. While we don’t plan to adopt a specific flexible schedule company-wide, we do encourage employees to discuss their specific scheduling requests with their direct supervisor.
07/21/2020, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Initiative Item: Remove ‘Visitor Parking’ sign from the Sonora office parking lot.”
Follow Up: It was found, that the visitor parking spot was originally required as part of the use permit, for our Sonora office building permit. So contractually, it must stay.
02/26/2020, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “During PAR season supervisors request input from colleagues, usually those who are in a supervisory position whom have worked directly with the individual during that year. Understanding that PARs are used for growth and development of the individual contributor, this also has a direct effect on the company. I assume a similar approach is taken with the management team. This suggestion is for the consideration of supervisors and management. Adding a new component to the yearly PAR process. Requesting input from staff on how they felt the year went, what worked and what didn’t. By inquiring input from staff, supervisors and management could gain insight to what approaches work and don’t, how communications with their team are progressing and whether items should be addressed. Adding this type of check and balance system would benefit the company.”
Follow Up: The EOC has forwarded this suggestion to HR for processing and feasibility to refining our PAR processes. The EOC fully supports the idea of bottom-up feedback.
Update (08/18/20): Management agrees adding a mechanism for employees to provide upward feedback can be useful and would like to evaluate options. Kristin will review options to add this to our annual Performance Appraisal Review (PAR) process and present it to management as soon as feasible.
Update (10/16/20): HR has introduced the Lattice system to Condors, providing a new platform for conducting our Annual Performance Appraisal Reviews. Within the workings of Lattice, there is the ability to leave feedback to both your fellow peers and management. For any questions on using Lattice, please contact hr@condorearth.com.
02/26/2020, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “While I have appreciated Bob’s financial updates, I don’t always find them to be the most informative of issues that are important to me. Can we solicit feedback from employees on the kind of information we are looking for from Bob? For example – providing a financial overview update is informational, but what am I supposed to do with this information? I don’t find it encouraging or discouraging per se, but I want to know what management’s plan is moving forward. What ideas they have to get through slow/busy times? And general information like: ‘Hey guys, our electricity bill went up last month – make sure you turn off lights and power down computers’; or ‘Our Sonora office lease is up for renewal, to be fair to you, we want you to know that we are investigating other locations to confirm fair pricing of rent.’ Knowing what employees consider to be important information to them, might make it easier to develop successful communication with staff and management. I don’t find it very encouraging that we get November financial information in January, or that a follow up in a couple of weeks is indicated and then we don’t hear anything for a month or more. Is there someone that is better suited to get information out more frequently to assist Bob in this area?”
Follow Up: The EOC discussed with HR/Accounting on the processes and length of time it takes to financially close, at the end of each month. We found that the data Bob is provided to present his financial updates to Owners, is based on the timing in which all statements, billing, expenses, etc. are submitted. The arrival of these items can vary within the month’s time and the closure of the month’s reports can be delayed by these processes. The EOC, would like to connect with Owners to get more information on these subjects and we look forward to candid conversations on what Condors view as most important to them. We invite more suggestions on what you view as important. HR and Management are also looking into methods to poll and receive feedback from Condors.
11/5/2019, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “The EOC has done a spectacular job with the employee bingo – seems to be a big hit! It must be a ton of work to gather the descriptions used on the bingo card – easy to find information about newer employees who have a recent new employee spotlight on the intranet. But what about those who have been here five years or longer and maybe their tastes/likes/dislikes have changed, or someone here before spotlights were written? Suggestion: Employee spotlight for employees who have been here more than five years. Ask the employees to fill out a short survey with tid-bits of info, then showcase them on the intranet and use for future bingo fodder.”
Follow up: The EOC thinks this is a great idea! HR has championed to put together a spotlight schedule. Spotlights to follow!
Update (11/24/20): The EOC has added an article section to the Intranet! On the homepage, Look to the far right and/or under the Navigation menu, to checkout the newest edition of the “EOC’s Employee Spotlight.”
11/5/2019, Sonora – Chris Feng
Suggestion: “Create an outlook calendar of food that’s up for grabs for offices with date entries of when they’re up for grabs up to when it’ll be thrown out if anything is left. Include options for people to make their own entries if they want to share anything to remove doubt whether people can take stuff or not.”
Follow up: Condor has a general food-share policy in place; HR will review the food/fridge policy, to add on the refrigerator in the Sonora office.
Update (01/23/19): HR and the EOC are currently working on generating and posting this policy. Posting to the Sonora, Building A refrigerator door to follow.
Update (02/03/20): The EOC has posted the new food policy on Building A’s, refrigerator door.
10/18/19, Stockton – Zach Solow
Suggestion: “Regular green tea and earl grey tea please. -Zach”.
Follow Up: Suggestion provided to Becky for her weekly office purchasing.
9/10/19, Sonora – Jeff Crovitz
Suggestion: “Prepare policy and procedures for office solid waste goal of net zero. I volunteer to help if response is positive.”
Follow up: Current recycling practices in Sonora and Stockton were discussed by the EOC. The EOC would like to circle back to Jeff and discuss his ideas.
Update (11/5/19): The EOC did discuss the suggestion and Jeff agreed it was a challenge, due to various recycling issues. Jeff indicated that reducing use of disposable plates and utensils, or use of paper instead of styrofoam tableware, may be beneficial. The office does not generate enough food waste for a disposal service to pickup, so this was not a viable option for reducing our footprint at this time. The EOC will follow up with Patty next, (who oversees purchasing) regarding use of paper instead of styrofoam. The EOC will also discuss potentially purchasing disposable utensils that are more sustainable (e.g. biodegradable).
7/8/19, Stockton – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Could sport drinks or juice be provided? Soda is great but having a variety would be even better!”
Follow up: Provided Rebecca with copy of suggestion for her consideration as she does purchasing for the Stockton office. Rebecca discussed the suggestion with Ron, and both agreed that the office does not have the space to store Gatorades or juice; however, she will purchase sport drink powdered mix packets (just add water), and employees are also welcome to bring in their drinks of choice and store them in the refrigerator.
6/18/19, Sonora – Tiffany Harrell
Suggestion: With the Tenant improvements and change of conference room names — can we use the conference rooms to showcase not only the work we do but our employee-owners as well? It may help the unification if all Condors are represented in the conference rooms.
Follow up: Sound-absorbing wall-art was already ordered for the conference rooms in Sonora. A digital option that rotates photos in a single space, was offered as a suggestion. Interest was voiced within the EOC, for Condor employees working, attending company functions, etc. to showcase Condor culture and each other (not showcasing projects) as photographs in the various rooms. The suggestion will be passed onto HR.
Update (08/13/20): The sound-absorbing wall are was installed as “The Main” conference room’s wall decor. There are no further plans to add any additional items.
6/18/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Lots of talk over the last year about the Performance-based Compensation Plan. It is tied to the Strategic Plan. How can I as an employee see the Incentive Compensation Plan?”
Follow up: This topic was discussed and a new Incentive Compensation Plan was rolled out by Bob Job, in his recent company-wide presentation.
6/18/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “9/80 schedule option for all employees (every other Friday off).”
Follow up:Condor strives to provide employees flexible schedules while meeting client demands and work deadlines. While we don’t plan to adopt a specific flexible schedule company-wide, we do encourage employees to discuss their specific scheduling requests with their direct supervisor.
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “When will I hear the answer to this suggestion?”
“Can you please remind everyone what the process is on making suggestions, what happens once a suggestion is made and how long we can expect to wait until we hear a response?”
“I suggest that if there is not a protocol for this, please make one and stick to it.”
“I’m curious about Daniel’s suggestions on the backup generators and routers made September 28, 2018. Seems like a great idea. Don’t we lose up to $25,000 a day when the whole office is unproductive?”
Follow-up: The Employee Owner’s Committee (EOC) maintains suggestion boxes in break rooms to encourage a direct and open exchange of information and communicate employee suggestions or concerns regarding the well-being of Condor to managers and to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Members of the EOC pull suggestions received on a monthly or more frequent basis. The suggestions are entered into a file on the network. The responsible EOC member for that suggestion decides if the suggestion merits a response. The EOC decides how to respond, either with direct action or by forwarding the suggestion to an appropriate manager for consideration. Follow-up research is documented in a folder on the network. We accept anonymous suggestions, however direct feedback will be provided if the suggestion is signed. The EOC will respond to the individual with a link to the follow-up file. Or you can look on the intranet!
X:\Office\ESOP\ESOP Committee\Suggestion Box\What happens to my suggestions.docx
- See 9/28/2018 Sonora, below
- EOC emailed accounting the following 4/17/19: “An employee/owner would like to know how much it costs use when the office is down for a day.” Maybe add average daily billings to average daily indirect costs?” Bob and Michelle responded below:
“No doubt there was some cost/lost opportunity, but many found ways to work and anyone working in the field was likely unaffected from a revenue perspective. Had it been longer, losses would have mounted. Hard to know what revenue was made up after the fact by less OH on subsequent days or more hours. We could spend a fair bit of time investigating, but I would suggest we look at this at a higher level before, or instead of diving into the details. I suggest we estimate 10% lost professional revenue for the day company-wide (gross approximation). This amounts to just under $3,000 in lost revenue. If you don’t agree with my estimated percentage of lost revenue, pick your number and multiply it by $30,000 (our average daily professional revenue for the month of March). If everyone companywide stopped working for the day and all professional revenue stopped, multiply the number by 10. Our average daily expenses for March were about $24,000. Using my estimate of 10% drop in professional revenue and consider that 10% under-utilization of assets (e.g. 10% of the daily average expense), I get about $2,400. Total of lost profit on the professional revenue (15% of $3,000) plus expenses we had to pay anyway ($2,400), I get a cost for downtime of about $3,000. Keep working through adversity to satisfy our clients, including our internal clients and employee-owners. If everyone stops working, the number gets big, fast.
I’m open to suggestions if you don’t agree with my logic in this response.
Bob”
And from Michelle: “I would agree with Bob’s method below for a quick calculation of the cost for downtime. We have insurance to cover if the loss of revenue was for a greater period of time. We were fortunate that people were able to continue working.”
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “The Rancho office is very nice but is that large space necessary for the 3-4 employees there? A smaller less expensive office location would work just as well once the for the current office is up.”
Follow-up: The lease and office space are being evaluated by Alex and the team. We are growing quickly and are looking for the best possible options that will not limit our growth.
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Have we looked at combining our purchases for our office supply items and housekeeping items to save money and having multiple staff members doing the order for each office location?”
Follow-up: The EOC forwarded the suggestion to admin/assist staff, as they are in the best position to evaluate any benefit. As each of our offices use different office supply distributors, we invite the individuals responsible for purchasing, to discuss and evaluate.
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Wellness leads to productivity and reduces sick days. Offer wellness points for walking and healthy activities instead of Condor Bucks.”
Follow-up: EOC Forwarded to HR for Comment 4/17/19
Our current wellness program consists of the fresh fruit and snacks in the kitchens and gift cards for getting your wellness checkup each year – $50 value and previously included the healthy newsletters that were included with paycheck stubs, but that has been discontinued.
HR is looking into wellness programs. Most programs are administered by a 3rd party which costs a pretty significant amount of money. HR currently does not have the bandwidth in HR to track such a program manually. We are definitely looking at a lot of options and will roll out something that is a great fit for our organization. Thank you!
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Telecommuting – Offer telecommuting days to employees to save on company electricity and pollution. Maybe have dark days once a month where employees can work from home and reduce building costs.”
Follow-up: EOC Forwarded to HR for Comment 4/17/19
This is done indirectly by a number of our staff who work outside of our office locations. I would encourage individual staff who would like to work remotely to work with their supervisors/department managers to see what makes sense for the support needs of the firm and go forward from there.
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “LED Light$”
Follow-up: EOC forwarded to Kristin for comment 4/18/19
Sonora is currently swapping out burned out bulbs for LED lights. Stockton has looked into but is not currently able to do this with their current light fixtures.
Also see: 6/16/16 Suggestion follow-up
4/17/19, Sonora – David Belt
Suggestion: “Solar saves money. Period. Let’s make strategic investments to save on energy costs. Energy costs will rise significantly in the years to come. Evaluate Solar.”
Follow-up: We do not own the buildings and the cost benefit and decision should lay with the landlord. See full comments on 6/16/16 Sonora Suggestion Box Log
4/17/19, Sonora – David Belt
Suggestion: “Why pay rent on rock core storage? Why not purchase 20′ conex container we could store in Sonora or Jamestown?”
Follow-up: Done! The container is in Sonora as we move forward with some other projects and soon the container will have a permanent home in Jamestown to store our rock cores.
4/17/19, Sonora – David Belt
Suggestion: “Publish our indirect expenses (rent, energy bills, insurance rates and more). Full transparency on operational costs except for what individuals get paid. It if it open and everyone has skin in the game we can come up with ways to save.”
Follow-up: 4/17/19 Condor has management specialists who review operational efficiencies and we monitor our expenses for any abnormal changes – as well as being mindful when contracts end for contracted services to price shop before renewals. Most of this type of data is available if specifically requested. We are publishing our monthly financial snapshot and would welcome conversations around expenses in person should an employee-owner want to have a deeper conversation around it.
4/17/19, Sonora – David Belt
Suggestion: “Efficient mapping programs that anyone can use. Lots of maps for routine work rarely change and the people that use them can’t edit. CAD/GIS is expensive and really not needed for a lot of our simple maps.”
Follow up: Ken did some homework for us.
Basically, True Type vs. SHX Font Types.
AutoCAD Titleblocks has been changed to Arial TT Font.
Moving forward, Well GW elevations, Gradients, and similar will be changed to be Acrobat editable.
Jerimiah has verified the GIS Titleblocks are Arial
4/17/19, Stockton – Anonymous
Suggestion: “EOC please evaluate gym membership as a part of our wellness plan. Perhaps Condor could help with payment if we went X number of times per week/month.”
Follow up: HR is working to evaluate wellness programs that would incorporate gym memberships some way. HR will demo platforms with EOC for feedback on the systems and content.
4/17/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Dear EOC, Suggestion: Like the t-shirt contest for the company picnic, it might be fun and beneficial for the company to have content to redesign our mascot. Our soaring condor just needs some sparkles or something. It looks outdated.”
Follow up: The EOC forwarded this suggestion to the Board for discussion.
1/18/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Can the EOC explore increasing the maximum accruable vacation time pay, especially for employees with less than 5 years at the company?”
Follow up: Discussion has been referred to senior leadership. From here, any updates will be published by HR.
1/7/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Dear EOC, Suggestion: Like the T-shirt contest for the company picnic, it might be fun and beneficial for the company to have a contest to redesign our mascot. Our soaring condor just needs some sparkles or something. It looks outdated.”
Follow up: After a discussion with Marketing, the Condor is our Entity. it is in fact a trademarked logo. Marketing stated that this suggestion has been a topic of discussion before, however, it is felt that this would need direction from the BOD. A brief write-up on this matter was added to the agenda for their next meeting.
Update (08/13/20): The BOD reviewed the idea and expressed similar hesitation to Marketing’s sentiments. The EOC has also found that there doesn’t seem to be a large amount of interest in changing the company logo to date.
1/7/19, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Welcome new EOC members, can we go with digital spot bonuses? It would be so much more efficient. It can be creative (think Bitcoin). Thanks.”
Follow up: HR is reevaluating the Spot Bonus program and will take this into consideration as they work with the EOC and look at the program’s components. However, it is important to remember that the Spot Bonus is intended for a SHOUT OUT in the moment of action and letting them know that their hard work and dedication is appreciated!
11/14/2018, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Request for metal flatware and more dishes to replace the paper plates and utensils – and a bigger shelf to make storage for the dishes more suitable.”
Follow up: Sue has purchased metal flatware and dishes for the Sonora lunchroom in Building A. Shelf is still being determined.
9/28/2018, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Get a backup generator and/or Add the routers to the UPS system so the internet works during power outages”
Follow up: Due to recent news about induced multiday power outages in California, the Board has decided to move forward with generators. I am assisting Kristin in evaluating options.
5/8/2018, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Chair massage in the office on Fridays once or twice a month.”
Follow up: 8/20/18 intranet posting
Hello from the EOC! We recently received a suggestion box entry proposing a “[c]hair massage in the office on Fridays once or twice a month.” First, we’d like to thank the employee-owner who posed this suggestion! We agree – chair massages on Fridays would be a great way to end a busy week. Desirae reached out to several potential massage therapy businesses to discuss our options and unfortunately, we were unable to negotiate group rates or discounts, and none of the businesses contacted were willing to work outside of their business (we would need to go to them). Office massages are therefore not a viable health and wellness benefit for our company at this time. An alternative may be using your wellness gift card ($50 for going to your annual well-visit) to a massage therapist near you – see Desirae for specific details. We’d also like to take a moment to remind you of our anonymous suggestion boxes, located in each of our offices, and to encourage you to submit an entry whenever you have a question or suggestion for the EOC. We promise that we review and consider each entry we receive!
11/30/17, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Beef Jerky, Turkey Jerky or other types (Elk, Buffalo, Venison) will work. We need healthier heartier snacks.”
Follow up: Provided Patty with a copy of the suggestion for consideration during her next store run for the Sonora Office.”
8/16/16, Stockton – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Cans of Iced Tea/Lemonade or Iced Tea with Lemon”
Follow up: Provided Rebecca with a copy of the suggestion for consideration during her next store run for the Stockton office.
6/16/16, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion:
“#1 Solar Panels. Why do we not have solar panels?”
“#2 Why are you not checking this box?”
“#3 Can we get some solar panels, let’s go green. Thank you.”
Follow up: While going green may be appealing it must also make financial sense for the company. Solar panels are a long-term investment requiring many years to “pay back”, even with government tax subsidies, available to property owners. The payback period for installing solar panels exceeds Condor’s office lease periods. Condor leases it’s office space to allows us to focus on our core business. We leave the details and risks of property ownership to others. Options for promoting solar power on our offices in partnership with the landlords could be investigated in the next lease cycle.
LED lighting, while not as outwardly visible as solar panels on the roof is another green technology with better prospects for increasing our efficiency. Conversion to LED lighting has a much quicker payback and would be an energy initiative that would help scratch the green itch indicated by the comment.
1/26/16, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “We need Condor watches. Cheap Plastic for newbies, Gold Rolex for 10 year anniversary”
Follow-up: JHK inquired with Becky if we could get watches with CONDOR Face-plates through our clothing supplier. Yes we can! – for less than $20 each, but you have to order 25 – 50 at a time (see email train below). Minimum order would run around $500. How do we evaluate if they are warranted or needed?
“Subject: RE: Condor Watches
Unisex PVC looks sleek, but cheap.
#2 is easier to read with a dark background, but looks old-fashioned.
Which do you prefer? If I was getting a watch, I would want the third one.
Does the third choice have glow-in the dark hands? I’ll check into that. She said there are not manufacture notes stating glow in the dark hands, they are just white.
What’s their price? The first two are $13-15. The third one is $18-20.
What does ladies specific mean? It is smaller than the men’s to fit our smaller wrists.
Would we have to buy two 25 lots to get both men and ladies versions? Yes, you are correct.
I have attached a couple of photos of some unisex styles in the $13-$15 range with 50 piece minimums.
For a few dollars more (around the $18-$20 range) there are some options for mens and ladies-specific styles that look a little nicer (from the photos online) – I’ve also attached a photo of a ladies watch with a 25 pc. minimum for reference.
Sincerely,
Kelly Menefee”
3/24/16, Sonora – Anonymous
Suggestion: “Print out of an Internet ad for Car Leasing with the following sentence highlighted. ‘This means that if you lease a business car, you will come out ahead rather than if you purchase the same car for cash.'”
Follow up: The add may be correct, but we do not usually pay cash for our vehicles, and we keep them a looong time so that ownership is a greater value, compared to turning them over more frequently in a lease.
Please acknowledge and thank the person making the suggestion.
Ron Skaggs, PE, GE
Principal and Vice President