Central Arizona Project (CAP) was honored by Reliabilityweb.com and Uptime Magazine as the inaugural recipient of the 2025 “People and Culture at Work” Uptime Award.

This award was created because, according to the Uptime Elements Passport, “If people are a company’s greatest assts, then leadership must treat them as such.”

The award required a holistic approach, focusing on six distinct elements: protect from harm, opportunities for growth, community and connection, work-life harmony, matter at work, worker voice and equity.

“When we reviewed the criteria for the award, it became obvious that CAP already had a strong framework to support our employees,” said Chris Hall, assistant general manager for Finance and Administration. “It was just a matter of mapping what we already do into the Uptime Element categories.”

In other words, CAP didn’t need to create a new process or start a new initiative to compete for this honor — our existing practices already put us amongst the strongest employers in the world.

At the Dec. 10 awards ceremony, Hall accepted the award with Centralized Learning and Development Manager Leah Minthorn and together they presented why CAP won the award. He shared the importance of a top-notch workforce to ensure reliable water deliveries for six million Arizonans.

“The level of skill necessary to work on this engineering marvel is so specialized that it necessitates recruitment and retention results that greatly exceed industry norms,” said Hall. “Whether it’s through encouraging work-life balance, practicing transparent leadership, or emphasizing safety both at work and at home, CAP puts it people first, maintaining its competitive advantage as an employer of choice.”