Donovan Mattole, CHRO at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services

Show Notes

Building a Magnet for Engineers: Langan’s CHRO on AI, Flexibility, and Teamship

Summary

When retirements equal graduates and infrastructure demand surges, how do you grow a human-capital business?

Donovan Mattole, Chief Human Resources Officer at Langan, a global engineering and environmental consulting firm, breaks down how his team competes in a structural talent shortage.

He shares Langan’s “magnet for talent” strategy blending hybrid flexibility, development-first leadership, and unique rewards like compensatory time with an industry-wide push to expand the pipeline through STEM outreach and smart immigration.

Donovan details a practical listening strategy (surveys, focus groups, and on-the-ground visits to 50 offices), reframes the Gen Z value proposition around purpose and long-term careers, and shows how his HR team is preparing for 2026 with AI-powered development plans.

Expect candid lessons on when to build vs. buy AI (from Microsoft Copilot-enabled chatbots to partnering with Atlas Copilot), why “teamship” beats leader-centric models, and how values must anchor decision-making amid fast-changing tech.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Who Langan serves and why it’s a pure human-capital business

[02:07] – 2026 challenge: engineering talent crunch and the scale of demand

[03:43] – Becoming a “magnet for talent”: flexibility, development, and comp time

[05:50] – Expanding the pipeline: STEM outreach, F‑1 to H‑1B, and industry collaboration

[06:48] – Listening strategy: surveys, pulses, focus groups, and site visits across 50 offices

[08:23] – Rethinking Gen Z retention: purpose, connection, and full-career value at one company

[10:09] – Upskilling HR for 2026: development plans and AI-created learning pathways

[11:38] – Build vs. buy AI: Atlas Copilot pilots and an in-house HR policy chatbot

[16:31] – Don’t chase shiny objects: keep trust, values, and managers at the center

[18:02] – From leadership to “teamship”: distributing accountability across the team

[19:40] – Final advice: live your values and use them for daily decision-making

Takeaways

- Compete in tight talent markets by designing a true “magnet employer”: flexible hybrid work, visible development paths, and unique rewards like comp time.

- Expand supply, not just demand: partner across industry, invest in K–12 STEM interest, and leverage F‑1 OPT to H‑1B for critical skills.

- Listen systemically and locally combine surveys and focus groups with leadership walkabouts to surface what employees actually value.

- Reposition retention for Gen Z: sell purpose, connection, growth, and the benefits of building a full career at one company.

- Use AI intentionally: buy solutions for well-defined outcomes, build selectively in-house, and equip HR with AI-driven learning pathways.

- Shift from leader-centric management to “teamship” so accountability, communication, and innovation are shared across the team.

- Anchor transformation in values use them as decision-making guardrails amid rapid technological change.

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Emily Fenech (00:00.928)
Welcome to HR Voices. I'm your host, Emily Fenech and today we're talking to Donovan Mattole CHRO at Langan the engineering consulting firm behind iconic buildings, skylines, infrastructure all around the world. Welcome, Donovan.

Donovan Mattole (00:16.12)
It's so good to be here and nice to meet you in person.

Emily Fenech (00:19.474)
Yes, and thank you for taking time out in Vegas at your conference to take a minute to speak with us. I'm so honored.

Donovan Mattole (00:26.828)
No, it's it's fantastic. These conferences are always great. We're talking about HR technology and all of the transformational things that are coming down the pipeline so fast. It's just incredible how fast change is happening right now, but it's it's good and it's good to be here.

Emily Fenech (00:46.902)
Yeah, well, let's talk about it. But before we get into it, could you start by telling us a little bit more about Langan? Who are the people working there? Where are they? What's their mission? And what is your role as their CHRO?

Donovan Mattole (00:57.026)
Mm-hmm.

Donovan Mattole (01:00.75)
So we are professional services. So it's a human capital business. So we don't make anything, distribute anything. It's all about our people. And our business, our firm is made up of engineers. highly educated, detail oriented, knowledgeable workforce, scientists and archaeologists. So they're all individuals who've

got advanced degrees and are experts in their field. And we're global, although primarily focused on the US. So we have about 50 offices around the US and then Canada, UK, Panama. So a few international locations.

Emily Fenech (01:49.59)
Yeah. So as you know, you're at an HR tech conference right now. I'm sure everyone's talking about 2026. Everyone's planning. Everyone's thinking about what they're going to spend their budgets on, what projects they're going to undertake. So I'm curious, what's the biggest challenge that's on your mind right now?

Donovan Mattole (01:54.121)
Mm-hmm.

Donovan Mattole (02:07.302)
Well, I mentioned we're a human capital business, as you know, Emily. And so our biggest challenge is talent. it's something that, you know, technology, I think, is going to help us. It's going to make our experts, it's going to free them up from some of the administrative stuff and make them a little stronger. So they'll become more super users, right? Super engineers or scientists. But we still have a significant challenge.

We're in an industry where a lot of the engineers out there are retiring. They're kind of aging out of the workforce. So we have about 20,000 civil engineers graduating here and then about 20,000 retiring. And yet there's huge infrastructure demand. So there's about 30,000 additional jobs a year. So the status quo just keeps it even.

very challenging from a recruiting and retention standpoint just to get the best and the brightest in this competitive shortage environment. So that's the biggest. That's the biggest.

Emily Fenech (03:17.622)
Yeah, I mean...

And when your people are the product, I can see how that's a massive challenge. So interesting.

Donovan Mattole (03:25.248)
It is it is it is, but it's it's a good. It's a good challenge and you know we have a lot of tactics in place to kind of meet that head on so that we can continue to grow. Yeah.

Emily Fenech (03:37.632)
That was my next question, right? Enter CHRO. How are you addressing the challenge?

Donovan Mattole (03:43.246)
I think two things I would I mean two macro things. One is internal things we can do and then external in the industry. So I'll start internally. These are not. It's not rocket science Emily, but it's also not easy because you can mess it up quickly and the first ones like create a great place to work. Right, so you want to be we want to be.

a magnet for talent. That's one of our mottos. We're a magnet for talent in the National Powerhouse. And so I'm always thinking about how do we create the best place for scientists and engineers to work? And part of that is focusing on their development. That's a really big deal. Doing things like we've really embraced a flexible work schedule where so many of our competitors are everybody has to be back in the office now.

Gen Z are like, no, we don't want that. And so we're like, okay, it's a shortage of talent in the marketplace. So we are going to embrace a flexible hybrid work schedule and then creating policies and rewards that are unique in our industry that capture kind of what they want. So we have a program called Compensatory Time, Comp Time, where our engineers and scientists can put aside

extra hours just to get additional time off. And when and it helps balance out times that are less busy. And so it's it's great. So those kind of policies and then macro externally, I'm working with my peers in industry. So other CHROs and we're really saying how do we create more flow of talent? So starting in high school, elementary school,

You know, get getting more individuals interested in being, you know, the stem fields, but that's a bigger, longer term and looking internationally. So this H1B thing we hire about 10 % of our employees. There's a our F1 students, so they come in, they get their degree in the US and then they're allowed because we're a stem field.

Emily Fenech (05:50.081)
Yeah.

Donovan Mattole (06:05.282)
to work for up to three years. And so we hire a lot of those fabulous students to join us and then convert them to H1Bs and stuff.

Emily Fenech (06:14.848)
Yes, I hope we don't screw that up.

Donovan Mattole (06:17.802)
I hope not. mean, we're definitely lobbying because there is a shortage and you can't just turn the spigot on and create this list of additional graduates that don't exist. It's going to take a long time.

Emily Fenech (06:36.958)
Yes. Yeah, I love that you're playing the long game on that one. When I think about, you know, when it comes to younger talent, you've mentioned what they want a couple of times. They want this, they want that. So my next question is, how do you know what they want? Maybe talk to me a little bit about your listening strategy.

Donovan Mattole (06:42.145)
Yep. Yep.

Donovan Mattole (06:48.494)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, we ask them. That's a big thing. So we do we do annual surveys and pull surveys where we say, you know what is important to you focus groups and then something I love to do and I know we're connected on LinkedIn so you see it is I like to visit those 50 locations around the world and then I just go up to every single person and walk around and say, you know what's important to you.

Emily Fenech (06:58.631)
Yeah, the how, yeah.

Donovan Mattole (07:24.718)
Also, where do you go to school? What do you want to do? What's your career plans? And really kind of connect directly. And so I hear a lot about flexibility and a lot about development. One thing I'm kind of bucking a trend on is we keep hearing that people in this Gen Z generation are going to have multiple companies. They're not going to stay.

And I really think we can create a great value proposition that you can stay at a company like Langan and build your entire career here and you don't have to go anywhere else. And it's actually going to be better from a quality of life because you're building huge lifelong friends and connections. We're going to provide great career opportunities for you and we're going to reward you along the way. So.

Don't go anywhere else. Stay here and build your career.

Emily Fenech (08:23.968)
Yeah, mean, people have learned over the years for whatever reason that the only way to really get a step up in your career is to go somewhere else.

Donovan Mattole (08:33.87)
I we've yeah, we've created it. It's like you want to be rewarded. OK, you're going to get 30 % more over the course of your career if you're a job hopper. And I think there people are starting to realize that that's not always the case with layoffs with a lot of the kind of reshuffling we've had over last few years. People like you know, maybe I don't want to be the new person always. Maybe I want to build kind of a.

Emily Fenech (08:44.064)
Right.

Donovan Mattole (09:01.118)
a long-term legacy in a company where I can make a difference. And I think I'm seeing trends of this Gen Z, which are different than our last two generations, Gen Z for sure, where I am, and this Millennials Gen Y, which are kind of a bridge generation. And this Gen Z is going back to some of the things that previous generations found very meaningful, such as purpose.

and creating kind of connection and you can do that longer term in a company versus jumping around. We just have to sell it to them. Because they want it, but it's it's part of changing the mind and the thoughts of current trends, which is, don't be loyal to the company, jump around. So.

Emily Fenech (09:35.522)
Right, purpose and impact. Yes.

Emily Fenech (09:52.589)
Right. Talk to me a little bit about your specific people team, right? So we've talked about the organization more broadly speaking, but as you think about the HR function and the people on the people team, what's their biggest challenge? I know that you mentioned, you know, talent, but specifically in their day-to-day.

Donovan Mattole (09:57.452)
Hmm.

Donovan Mattole (10:02.861)
Yes.

Donovan Mattole (10:09.262)
I think technology is changing so fast Emily that just keeping up on it is is a challenge and very, very important. mean for HR we have to transform and so you know I'm here at this conference right now in Vegas hearing about things that three years from now are going to be completely transforming HR and the function. So I really want my team to be ahead of the game.

One of the things that we're doing, which is really cool in HR, because in HR I can experiment and try things, right? So we are working on our 2026 development plans, and I want every single person in HR to have a really strong development plan on what they need to work on for next year. And that's going to be both leadership and functional competencies, things around HR and technology.

And then I'm bringing in an AI platform where we will put our development plans into that and it's going to create learning pathways for them. So. I'm excited to see what it comes up with. Because we've never used AI or technology like this for our development plan, so they're going to basically put the topics in and working with the AI create the platform for next year for their development.

Emily Fenech (11:34.23)
Yeah, is that a specific tool you're using or are you just using it leveraging an LLM, Enterprise LLM for that?

Donovan Mattole (11:38.304)
No, I partnered with a company out of London called Atlas Copilot. And which has developed this and so yeah, I I think we have to learn like I'm getting old. I've been around a lot and I have to learn the technology and how to create agents and have AI work for me.

Emily Fenech (11:45.003)
Okay.

Donovan Mattole (12:02.478)
But I also don't want us to just reinvent the wheel where there's these cool innovative companies like Atlas Copilot that's like, hey, we've created this thing for HR and we're all HR professionals. So everyone in Atlas Copilot is HR professionals, former chief learning officers and CHROs. And so I'm like, let's try it on HR and let's pilot it and see how it goes.

Emily Fenech (12:26.486)
Yes, there's that MIT study that everyone was talking about a couple of months ago where they studied AI implementation at enterprise. A lot of people poked holes in some of their methodology, but one thing that I thought was interesting is that when people buy an AI, know, for buy AI for a specific purpose, it's successful like 70 % of the time. When they build it themselves, it's like a third. So.

Donovan Mattole (12:34.05)
Mm-hmm.

Donovan Mattole (12:51.352)
What the?

Emily Fenech (12:52.346)
and we actually had a funny moment. were on a, we were on a webinar yesterday, our founder, Claire, talking to, the head of HR at a company called Chart Hop. And she was talking about how AI was really terrible at planning our offsite. She's like, I was trying to get a central, I was trying to get a central location for all, from where all of our, our distributed. And she's like, it just couldn't do it. And so, so AI doesn't work for that. And and, Pilar, who's the head of HR was like, that's.

Donovan Mattole (13:02.796)
Okay.

Donovan Mattole (13:19.799)
Mm-hmm.

Emily Fenech (13:20.716)
something that our product does really well.

Donovan Mattole (13:23.158)
Right, right. Why recreate? It's interesting, because we did. We had just launched an HR chat bot for our handbook, right? So you can go in and you can put in like what is our bereavement policy? You know, and employees are already jumping in. What is our comp time policy? And it gives them answers. That one we were partnering with the third party.

Emily Fenech (13:25.633)
Right?

Emily Fenech (13:31.458)
Mm-hmm.

Donovan Mattole (13:47.37)
And we and they were going to do policies, procedures, all of our practices, handbook, and we decided to just build it in house. And so far it's a little clunky, but I don't know. We'll see because there's some things you can build right the technology because you're leveraging technology that you didn't build right? So we're using, you know, Microsoft's co pilot right so.

Emily Fenech (13:57.954)
Mm-hmm.

Donovan Mattole (14:15.798)
We can do those things and then there's other things like this development and learning platform kind of tool where I'm relying on experts, so I think it'll probably be a combo will. We'll see.

Emily Fenech (14:28.066)
yeah, and I think the bigger point here is that everyone is figuring it out.

Donovan Mattole (14:32.802)
Yeah, we're all again. No one is way ahead. I mean, there's a there's definitely people ahead of us, but we're also right in the heart of kind of figuring it all out. And it's cool. It's exciting. It's an exciting time. So leverage these tools.

Emily Fenech (14:49.792)
I agree I'm actually having so much fun because I love problem solving and I love that process. Trying, tweaking, adjusting.

Donovan Mattole (14:52.515)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Yeah. And we're doing a team build an offsite as well. And so we did find that it was easier to use kind of old school, set up the logistics, all of that. But then I was I was doing a scavenger hunt for the team. And I was like coming up with clues, ravaging my brain. And I'm like, I'm not that creative. But you know, I've got to have clues that get them to the next scavenger hunt and stuff.

And so I was like, let me ask one of our innovative, you know, Gen Z or is on the team tricks, right? So she came in and I was like, I need you to help me come up with these clues. And she's like, well, we just use AI. just put in what the clue and the clues were amazing. Like, so there's things like that, where you're like, I wasn't even thinking about it. And it created the best scavenger hunt ever. So AI

Emily Fenech (15:50.765)
This is the new like, me Google that for you. Let me chat you if can that for you. I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions. So you've already mentioned some cool experiments that you've tried. Is anything else come to mind? think right now, I think the best thing we can do is share these experiences with each other because you never know what it's going to inspire or spark in somebody else. Is there any other sort of experimentation or something that got you excited recently?

Donovan Mattole (15:54.22)
Yeah, exactly. Let me Google that for you. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Donovan Mattole (16:10.542)
Mmm.

Donovan Mattole (16:20.93)
Hmm, well that I mentioned the AI one that's really been fun. Experimentation.

Donovan Mattole (16:31.904)
Not real, like not really. A lot of the things we're doing is just reiterating the same, the things that it's easy to forget. There's so many cool new tools out there, but creating a great place of trust for your employees, creating a great place to work, focusing on values, those type of things, I think we don't wanna lose with all the shiny tools out there. So I think it's kind of that balance between

Okay, yes, we're trying these new tools, but also we can't forget we have to communicate right with our employees and we've got to create a great place to work and we've got to make sure that they feel comfortable. It's kind of like the the old saying people don't leave companies they leave my line managers and you could have the best tools out there in the world. But if you don't have this great place of trust.

Emily Fenech (17:21.058)
Yeah.

Donovan Mattole (17:27.914)
or you don't have managers that are still developing their people, you're going to lose it, lose it all. So yeah, don't get too distracted. Focus on those things, be innovative, but don't lose sight of what you're really trying to do, which is create a great place to work so we don't lose our talent.

Emily Fenech (17:34.668)
Don't get distracted, right?

Emily Fenech (17:49.325)
Sound advice. Do you have any, I heard a great question today and I'm just gonna throw it on you and see how you go. What is something that you have changed your mind about in the last year?

Donovan Mattole (18:02.722)
Ooh,

I don't think change my mind, but I would say evolved, right? Okay, because we're constantly kind of evolving and the last few years I've really focused on like leadership and really what do we need our line managers to do, right? Development and communicate and all of these things about the line managers. And one of the things I've been the last year really focused in is, you know what?

to take it to the next level. It's not just about them as the leader, it's about creating a team. And this concept of team ship Emily, where it's, if we can create teams where the accountability and the performance and the communication is not bottlenecked in the leader, we're not putting it on the leader, but we're upping the game for the entire team to hold each other accountable, to communicate, to solve things, to be innovative.

That's what that's really going to be an unlocker in our organizations. So that's something I've really started leaning into. I love it because it fits my personality and my leadership style. But I also like it because it's going to be transformative for organizations.

Emily Fenech (19:17.186)
you

Emily Fenech (19:24.65)
I love that. Well, I know you're at a conference. You've got more tech to go, panels to go listen to and tech to learn about. So I'm let you get back to it. Any final words of advice for our audience?

Donovan Mattole (19:31.2)
Yes, yes.

Donovan Mattole (19:40.608)
I love, this is back to the basics, back to the future. I love organizations that really live their values. And I would say we all at this point have values on our conference walls and displayed on our websites, but it's really important to use them for decision-making, really lean into them. And if you haven't kind of focused on your values recently,

Maybe dust them out, make sure you're doing a campaign with employees and really getting back to what is our core values. And I think that's the one thing with all the change that organizations are facing across the world right now with AI, et cetera, we can't lose sight of what's the value that make the company who they are and reemphasize those.

Emily Fenech (20:35.062)
Yes, with any change, right? You have to have that steering you.

Donovan Mattole (20:36.716)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Emily Fenech (20:41.452)
Well, great advice and great conversation. Thank you so much, Donovan.

Donovan Mattole (20:45.513)
I enjoyed speaking with you. Enjoy Nashville and we'll talk again.

Emily Fenech (20:51.138)
right, Viva Las Vegas.

Donovan Mattole (20:53.1)
Viva Las Vegas! Yes!