Seven of the fifteen entities of the LSC Engineering Group are merging to form LSC360. The aim of this merger is to provide even better guidance to its clients in the development of integrated projects of all sizes, combining efficiency and empathy.

Why did you decide to merge certain entities to create LSC360?

Myriam Hengesch: LSC has grown significantly in recent years and now offers all the services needed to complete a project. We decided to merge seven of our fifteen design offices to increase efficiency, but also to make LSC more visible in Luxembourg and internationally by creating a new company with a new identity and a new strategic vision.

Carl Kleefisch: This merger also aims to simplify not only administration but also decision-making. Managing a single large company with nearly 250 employees is naturally much more complex than managing seven companies with seven management committees. It is also much more efficient: decisions are made much more quickly and, given that 60% of our invoices were internal, we were creating unnecessary work for ourselves.

What is your new vision?

CK: Our vision is to support the client at every stage of their project, from B to Z (with the exception of A for architecture, which is not part of our remit), by offering them a single point of contact.

How did you manage this transition with your employees and customers?

MH: We informed our clients in a very transparent manner, many of whom asked us why we weren’t merging the entities. We did the same with our employees, with whom we have been discussing the subject for over a year now. We organised information sessions and workshops and created thematic working groups.

To make things more concrete, we decided to bring all three of us together in the same office. This sent a clear message that we are now working together and forming a single management team, whereas before we each managed a separate entity within the group. This has made the decision-making process faster and more efficient.

How has this transition changed the daily lives of your employees?

Alain Wagner: We have consolidated certain skills, which were previously spread across several companies, into a single division of LSC360, but geographically, most employees remain in the same office with the same colleagues and the same manager. It’s clear that any change will meet with resistance, but I feel that our employees are reassured about this transition because they were well informed in advance.

How do you integrate the pillars of sustainable development into your management style?

MH: I would define sustainable management as management that is transparent and based on consensus. This is what we have been doing in recent years by involving our staff in the development of our new entity through workshops and information sessions.

We are currently the largest player in environmental consulting in Luxembourg. For 30 years now, we have had an environmental department that carries out environmental impact and biodiversity studies, as well as landscape engineers who are able to implement these concepts.

However, the challenge remains for each engineer and project manager to integrate aspects of sustainable development into their way of working. That is why we have appointed a Sustainable Development Committee, one of whose missions is to raise awareness. For example, it organises workshops, the most recent of which focused on resilience.

This year, we published our second sustainability report, which sets out a very clear direction for where we want to go.

How is this vision reflected in the social sphere?

AW: We place great importance on people. Well-being has always been and will remain a priority for us. Promoting the well-being of our employees makes it easier, for example, to tackle projects that require more and more skills and therefore more and more interaction. To this end, we ensure that we offer them a friendly and ergonomic workspace where they enjoy working, and create a good atmosphere that even our visitors can feel.

We also support entrepreneurship. We will never stop someone who has an idea to move forward because we are, above all, entrepreneurs. Our Innovation & Development Committee is always listening to our employees. A digital “suggestion box” is also available to them. The ideas they submit are reviewed by a committee, published in our internal newsletter, and the best idea even receives an award at our Christmas party. Giving our employees free rein to develop ideas helps us diversify and offer new services to our clients. In this sense, it is an investment in the future. We don’t necessarily want to be the biggest, but we do want to offer the most comprehensive expertise. We started out with structural engineering 47 years ago, and today we cover around 60 professions. This is also what makes our firm a robust, solid and resilient company, even in times of crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing.

CK: Covering a wide range of professions also ensures greater stability for our employees and a certain versatility within the company. If they want to develop and increase their knowledge, they have the opportunity and freedom to do so internally.

Engineering firms are struggling to recruit because there is a shortage of construction specialists on the market. How do you attract new talent?

MH: We are very open to showing young people what we do here. For example, we welcomed nearly 70 interns last year and we participate in numerous programmes aimed at encouraging them to study engineering, urban planning or the environment.

We also maintain close ties with schools and are involved in certain university courses, teaching classes ourselves.

Finally, we highlight the healthy working environment and career development opportunities mentioned above, as well as the opportunities to travel to our offices in Germany, France and Africa. What’s more, the scale of our office allows us to work on particularly interesting projects. We work on the largest projects in Luxembourg and the Greater Region, projects that can bring together around twenty different trades at the same time and which we cover from the preliminary design stage right through to the handover of the works. And then there’s our attractive package. It includes one day of teleworking per week, very flexible working hours allowing you to arrive no later than 10 a.m. or leave as early as 3 p.m., a carpooling solution and funding for public transport across the border. The proximity of the railway station was also a decisive factor when we chose to establish our headquarters here in Contern. We also have a subsidised company restaurant.

AW: I would add that we encourage and support our employees in their professional development through our accredited internal training centre.

Furthermore, our shareholding structure is very open, which can motivate some of the great talents we rely on to stay with us.

Mélanie Trélat

Article published in Neomag 67