Background
A regional MEP consulting firm engaged Advastar after losing both of its plumbing designers within a single month. The firm served healthcare, laboratory and higher education clients, work in which plumbing and specialty gas systems carry more complexity than in commercial buildings.
The Challenge
Plumbing is consistently the hardest of the three MEP disciplines to hire and the one most often left understaffed, which is precisely why it surfaces as a late-stage coordination problem. Losing both designers left the firm unable to deliver committed work and reliant on an outside consultant for fire protection design as well, which was eroding margin on every project. The firm also needed the replacement to be chargeable at a defensible rate quickly, since a consulting practice cannot carry an unbillable senior hire for long. Healthcare and laboratory experience narrowed an already small pool.
The Solution
Advastar was explicit that this search would take longer than a mechanical or electrical search and set expectations accordingly at kickoff. We prioritized candidates with genuine healthcare and laboratory systems experience, including medical gas and specialty piping, and confirmed that experience through discussion of specific systems designed rather than project lists. Billing rates were validated for the candidate before an offer was made so that utilization targets held from the start. Recognizing that outside fire protection consulting was a recurring margin leak, we also recruited fire protection design capability into the same group.
The Outcome
A senior plumbing designer with healthcare and laboratory depth joined and reached full utilization within the first quarter. Fire protection design was brought in-house, ending the outside consultant arrangement on all but specialist work. Coordination problems arising late from plumbing scope, which had been a recurring complaint from the firm’s contractor clients, have not recurred.