Southland experts share COVID-19 business and management tips

Anthony Roner and Peter Pobjoy from Southland provide tips for maintaining an engineering business in a COVID-19 world

By Anthony Roner and Peter Pobjoy, PE June 17, 2020

Do you anticipate your firm’s professional office spaces will change in the next six months? Be redesigned or changed in size?

Anthony Roner: We do anticipate some changes; however, we’re not planning to significantly redesign or change the size of our office spaces. We’re working to reconfigure how we use them to ensure adequate social distancing. Some examples include changing the layout of open office space, creating one-way traffic patterns at entry and exit points and encouraging employees to work from home when it’s not essential to be in the office.

Peter Pobjoy: Based on the most recent recommendations, we have reorganized our office space to meet lower occupancy numbers, provide one-way directional corridor flow, limited occupants in areas such as conference rooms and provided a rigorous cleaning and sanitizing regimen. So far, this effort has not resulted in any physical modifications to the work space, however we are evaluating how to provide the required distancing and utilize the existing floor plan as efficiently as possible. With employees now working remotely, we are not anticipating that we will see the same occupancy on a full-time basis since we have developed work processes to accommodate remote employees.

How are engineering or technical aspects of the job being completed remotely?

Anthony Roner: Leveraging technology has really helped to minimize the impacts for many of our employees that are working remotely. Video conferencing software has been extremely useful for conducting project kickoff and turn-over meetings, client training and sales presentations. We’ve also deployed Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) so that our engineers and detailers can quickly access data from anywhere. It provides a seamless experience across multiple projects and locations and enables effective collaboration for geographically dispersed teams.

Is your firm conducting any travel to visit clients or projects? If so, what types of projects are you working on?

Anthony Roner: We’ve limited air travel to critical business only until we feel it’s safe for our employees to travel. However, as a national mechanical, electrical and plumbing building systems firm, we have clients and projects located throughout the country. We’ve continued to support our clients and staff our projects to ensure business and project continuity.

Peter Pobjoy: Due to the nature of our work, we do need to access buildings to make physical inspections, gather data and perform audits. For this type of work, we follow social distancing, wear face masks and sanitize all tools and equipment that employees are in contact with. For client meetings, we are meeting virtually.

What supply chain issues are you experiencing? Is your firm dealing with any challenges with materials or products from manufacturers or suppliers?

Anthony Roner: We’ve experienced minimal impact on material orders and some slight delays on equipment.

What financial implications do you think COVID-19 will have on the engineering industry in the next three months? Six months? Twelve months?

Anthony Roner: The short-term impacts on the architectural and engineering industry will be minimal as companies work through their existing backlog of work; however, the longer-term effects will be more significant. Capital budgets of state and local governments will be hit hard and projects will be delayed or canceled. Parts of the private sector such as hospitality and commercial office will also suffer. Firms will need to shift their focus to leverage opportunities in other markets and transform their workforce to adapt to a more virtual and tech-savvy future.

In down markets, retrofit/renovation and maintenance/repair/operation tend to increase. How is your firm working with clients and building owners to keep this conversation going (and keep the money coming in)?

Anthony Roner: Our Energy division specializes in retrofitting facilities to maximize energy and operational efficiency. In a down economy where capital for facility improvements is shrinking or disappearing, we’re working with our clients to provide creative financial solutions that enable them to leverage third-party financing, low-interest infrastructure loans and utility incentives to upgrade their facilities and address infrastructure and maintenance backlog with no out-of-pocket money. These types of solutions help solve some many of our client’s energy and infrastructure challenges while also relieving pressure on their capital budget.


Author Bio: Anthony Roner is Vice President at Southland Energy in San Diego. As Vice President of Southland Energy, Roner is responsible for the overall performance of Southland’s national energy efficiency business. Peter Pobjoy, PE, is Senior Vice President at Southland Industries in Garden Grove, Calif.