NJBIA Salutes New Jerey’s Finest: Schoor DePalma Inc.

Vision 2005: The Next Generation. It’s not a new science fiction television show, but a comprehensive strategy to propel Schoor DePalma from a $45 million engineering firm in New Jersey and Philadelphia to a $115 million mid-Atlantic company by 2005. And the plan relies heavily on developing the skills of its 540 employees.

Schoor DePalma, an engineering and design-consulting firm, launched their strategy from a solid foundation. The company already provides generous medical and dental coverage, a 401 K retirement plan, flex time, and work-from-home arrangements. The company’s employee stock ownership program allows the company to refer to its employees as coowners.

To achieve the Vision 2005 goals, Schoor DePalma has embarked on an ambitious professional development program and employee recognition/reward effort.

Schoor DePalma begins with a comprehensive tuition reimbursement program where all expenses for job-related courses, seminars and workshops are reimbursed on a sliding scale according to the participants grade. An A gets 100 percent reimbursement and a $50 cash bonus.

The firm has also started its own in-house professional development program called the Schoor DePalma Academy, offering a series of courses and workshops on communication, presentation, management, leadership and diversity t

raining. The courses are all provided internally and offered regularly Since the training programs began in 2001, 93 percent of the company’s co-owners have participated.