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Celebrating 60 years in 2026, DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering sustainable, human-centered solutions for communities locally and globally. The firm’s architects, engineers, interior designers, and planners collaborate with public and private sector clients to create projects with long-lasting social, economic, and environmental value. Fast Company named DLR Group among the World’s Most Innovative Companies for its industry-leading adaptive reuse strategies: innovative design that serves clients and communities while significantly reducing carbon emissions.
DLR Group’s promise is to elevate the human experience through design. As a 100% employee-owned firm, DLR Group fosters a culture of ownership and accountability that shapes its daily practice and drives its commitment to sustainability initiatives, including the 2030 Challenge, the China Accord, and the AIA 2030 Commitment.
As a fully employee-owned company of over 1,800 employees, DLR Group is highly responsive to job satisfaction scores and internal requests. When employees began to ask for more training, including advanced, job-specific content, DLR Group recognized a need to expand their materials.
To ensure they were fully meeting the demand for training, DLR Group set about creating a structured program to inventory skills and track progress. Using the KnowledgeSmart assessment tool in Pinnacle Series, they tested employees’ initial skills, and then tested them again a year later to measure improvement. They used the robust AEC-focused content in Pinnacle Series combined with user assessments to deliver targeted, skill-based training.
One of DLR Group’s primary measures of internal health is their culture index. Since implementing their training initiative, they have seen a 25% increase in this key metric, with the employee groups using the training program reporting higher satisfaction than the company average. Use of Pinnacle Series training software, measured by both the projects using the software as well as the number of users, has tripled year-over for two years, and more than quadrupled in 2025.
DLR Group’s training initiative began by employee demand, particularly when it came to software training; users were eager for advanced training, often on specific topics. Because training was tied to DLR Group’s culture index, developing a quality program became a high priority, and as an employee-owned company, the leadership team was ready to give it their full support.
Despite the pressure to get a training program up and running, DLR Group took a holistic approach to the learning and development (L&D) process so that they could be sure of high-quality metrics from the beginning. They wanted to be sure that their training tools could give them training data across several fronts:
The demand for training, along with the added data tracking and ROI requirements, meant that DLR Group had an immediate need for ready-to-go assessments that wouldn’t require a significant up-front investment in setup. At the same time, they needed training content to be industry-specific so as to meet the specialized needs of their employees. DLR Group decided Pinnacle Series applied learning solution could meet both requirements.
DLR Group’s skills initiative was spearheaded by their Design Practice Learning Lead, Tammy Rico, who came to the project with a background in both CAD technology and L&D. Her mission was twofold: Implement high-quality AEC training, and do it in a way that would facilitate the training metrics she needed to demonstrate success. To do this, she used Pinnacle Series to create a three-phase approach.
Using KnowledgeSmart assessments, Tammy collected data from a pilot group about their fundamental skills. Having content ready-to-go with Pinnacle Series was essential for being able to jumpstart the initiative, without the delay of developing everything from scratch.
Following a training period, the pilot group was retested to compare apples-to-apples data sets and measure training retention. Upon re-testing, users completed the assessments faster and with higher scores. Results from Phase II testing were then used to guide the next steps.
The first two phases of training provided crucial baseline data, but they also bought time to develop the custom content necessary for Phase III. This is the stage where DLR Group focuses on the internal processes that make them unique.
With all three stages in place, DLR Group is able to enter into a training maintenance phase, where internal training can be updated on a regular schedule and new hires can follow a consistent onboarding process.
DLR Group was able to feed the testing data gained from their assessments into Power BI to create an inventory of employees and skill sets. Using this data, they were able to better identify their experts and pair them with employees in need of coaching. This initiative encouraged junior staff to feel more comfortable in asking questions, which in turn provided more opportunities for mentorship.
While mentorship strengthens company culture and improves employee retention, the skills inventory also provides the basis for DLR Group’s long-term training program. With a more complete knowledge of internal skill sets, leadership is able to make business decisions based on the skills they have vs. the skills that need to be taught. They are also able to make more informed hiring decisions and track the effectiveness of their onboarding programs.
These long-term goals are in development as more departments begin the rollout of their training initiatives at Phase I. However, Pinnacle Series has been pivotal in providing the assessments, training content, and personal support to make these initiatives a success.
A: The biggest things that we’ve used have been, of course, the assessments, which we’ve been directly feeding into our custom content. Tying assessments to our custom content in Pinnacle Series allows us to create very specific learning paths so that our team is only assigned training that they need. We’re being mindful about only assigning learning related to skills gaps and/or projects, so we’re not wasting anyone’s time.
— Tammy Rico, CBT, CIT, Design Practice Learning Lead at DLR Group
To measure the effectiveness of their training project, DLR Group turned to their culture index, an internal metric of employee satisfaction. For their interiors department, they saw a 17% increase in their culture index after asking employees about the training they were receiving from the firm. In their engineering department, which has been using KnowledgeSmart since 2021, they are up 19% in their culture index.
Overall, in 2024, DLR Group saw a 25% higher satisfaction rate in groups that received the training program compared to groups that did not follow the training processes.
DLR Group has also seen a drastic increase in software usage. In their first year, they saw tool usage triple. In their second year, with the previous year’s usage number as the new baseline, they saw it triple again. In 2025, they are on track to see usage quadruple. This includes both the number of projects that are using the tools, and the number of testing tool users.
A: Hands down, it was my Customer Success Manager, Kyle. If I didn’t have my CSM, a lot of this wouldn’t get done. I’ve been able to use our meetings as my second brain. Without that strategic partner, it’s not going to work. You have to really sit down and be very purposeful in building that relationship because they are your strategic partner to help with this and take it off your plate. We’ve taken things from eighteen months down to a six-week implementation. If you don’t have a Kyle, you have a problem.
The advanced, industry-specific content of Pinnacle Series rose to the occasion, allowing DLR Group to rapidly expand the training materials available to their employees. With the immediate need met, DLR Group was then able to begin using the custom content features of Pinnacle Series to tailor training according to the company standards.
Meanwhile, by plugging KnowledgeSmart data into their Power BI templates, DLR Group gained insight into the success of their training initiatives. The skills inventory they compiled through this data allowed them to better match experienced mentors with junior employees, fostering a culture of collaboration.
The training program continues to grow organically within DLR Group. While leadership has fully bought in and promoted the training, other teams are coming forward on their own to ask for a training rollout in their department. Success speaks for itself.
To learn more about how Eagle Point Software applied learning solutions, Pinnacle Series and KnowledgeSmart, can drive technology adoption at your organization or to schedule a demo of our software, contact one of our representatives today.
