AECWorkforce.com Coming Soon - Finally, a Job Board for the Design and Construction Industry

Aug 30, 2017

AECWorkforce.com, a digital ecosystem where great firms can find great people. Transformative job site launches in November. For the past several months I’ve been working with a fantastic team. We’re figuring out just how many people work in the AEC industry and the most efficient way to reach them. According to our research and information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 8 million people are serving the design and construction industries. I don’t have a complete breakdown of how many people serve each industry, but I do have an educated guess. The design industry has about 1.1 million licensed engineers, surveyors, and architects. I believe there are another 1.4 million designers and other support personnel. That’s a total of 2.5 million on the design side of things and another 5.5 million people on the construction side. The AEC industry in the U.S. alone is made up of more than a million companies. That’s a lot of firms, and they’re all competing for the same resources. While I don’t want to wade into the minutiae of every discipline represented here, I think you know that the market for great talent is concentrated in a tiny pool of candidates. It’s one of the main reasons firms must be “on their game” when it comes to talent acquisition and retention. You cannot afford to lose good people to the competition, and you have to “always be closing” when it comes to selling the benefits of working at your firm and attracting that next great team member. The stakes are always high. Zweig Group has worked behind the scenes to find a reliable talent acquisition solution for the niche industry we serve. After a lot of back and forth, I believe we’ve figured out a way to help our industry post jobs geared toward the right audience and also look at potential candidates who may want to make a move to another firm. Although the latter is harder than the former, we are still going to try. It’s almost a Field of Dreams mentality that you have to have. “If we build an amazing job board and post great employment opportunities, they will come!” At least that’s the hope. I’ve spent time in the past three decades working in the design and construction industry. Even with the changes in technology, it doesn’t get any easier to find great talent. I believe that firms have to brand themselves properly, have a “be everywhere” mentality, and must figure out a way to give more than they take from the available talent pool. No small feat, for sure, but one worthy of an attempt. The talent acquisition challenges faced by the AEC industry are why we are rolling out the mother of all job boards – AECWorkforce.com, a digital ecosystem where great firms can find great people, and vice versa. Sure, we have LinkedIn, Zip Recruiter, Monster, Indeed, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, just to name a few. These are all-encompassing sites that attempt to cover every industry and every vertical within them. But the model has never worked well in the AEC space, something all of us know. AECWorkforce.com is planning to change all of that with a true niche site exclusively serving the design and construction industry. Our goal is to provide a high-level digital job board experience with a very curated feel. You will be able to post jobs for any position that you would hire for and expect to get as many qualified eyes on your posting as possible. Gone are the days of listing a job for a project architect only to receive a ton of resumes from candidates qualified as system architects (AEC versus IT field). Or, advertising a job for a civil design engineer but receiving a ton of resumes from industrial design or manufacturing design engineer candidates. Candidates will also have more control over their profiles. They will be able to stay anonymous or inactive if they choose or they can show themselves as being open for new opportunities. Sound familiar? I thought so. AECWorforce.com plans to stamp out the need to advertise your job posting anywhere else and allow you to maximize your talent acquisition budget in the process. You will be able to post a single job on a monthly basis for less than $2.75 per day. That’s cheaper than a Starbucks latte. If you have more than one job to post, no problem. We will have affordable five- and 10-job monthly posting packages with associated discounts for volume purchases. Finally, for those firms that have a ton of jobs to post and want to leverage their spending, even more, we have custom rates available if you want to post ALL of your job listings on a monthly basis. AECWorkforce.com will not be like every other job board. Our strength is in our understanding of the AEC industry we’ve inhabited for nearly three decades. Backed by Zweig Group’s experience, knowledge, research, and service, we have a solid foundation to build on. We are developing AECWorkforce.com as a mobile responsive website that will allow you to use it on your smartphone as easily as you would on your desktop. And, if it’s that easy for you to post and manage jobs, think of how easy it will be for candidates to find you and respond to your ads. This is just the beginning of what AECWorkforce.com will be for the design and construction industry. In addition to a great blog and podcast, we have plans in the future to roll out a temp to permanent staffing solution and a learning management system for continuing education and professional and personal development. Next year is going to be a great one for the design and construction industry, especially in the talent acquisition space. AECWorkforce.com is going to be a big part of that. To sign up today for more information and to join our email list, visit AECWorkforce.com. You may also text the words HIREFASTER to 66866 to join today! AECWorkforce.com will go live in November of this year. Don't miss the talent train!

About Zweig Group

Zweig Group, a four-time Inc. 500/5000 honoree, is the premiere authority in AEC management consulting, the go-to source for industry research, and the leading provider of customized learning and training. Zweig Group specializes in four core consulting areas: Talent, Performance, Growth, and Transition, including innovative solutions in mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, financial management, ownership transition, executive search, business development, valuation, and more. Zweig Group exists to help AEC firms succeed in a competitive marketplace. The firm has offices in Dallas and Fayetteville, Arkansas.