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By John McAdams | If you’re serious about growing your design firm, you need to add outside experts to your board of directors.

New data shows rising transparency, increased health benefits, and shifting workforce priorities. Zweig Group , the leading provider of management consulting, research, and education for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, is proud to announce...

By Morgan Stinson | Attracting and retaining top talent in the AEC industry requires adapting to what employees value today.

By Carlo Lebron | Take the time to define your culture, engage your team, and make this a central part of your operational strategy – the rewards are well worth the effort.

By Sara Parkman | Compensation trends reveal critical strategies to boost employee retention and satisfaction.

By Will Swearingen | The latest data highlights key trends in AEC policies, emphasizing pay, remote work, and transparency for growth.

Zweig Group is proud to announce the release of its  2024 Policies, Procedures & Benefits Report, which provides AEC industry leaders with industry statistics on policies and procedures, so they can support policy decisions with hard data. In Zweig Group's 2024 Policies,...

By Mark Zweig | Are you going to do anything different with HR or just follow the same tired practices of all the other firms you have worked for or compete with?

By Liisa Andreassen | Executive principal and chief strategy officer at AG&E (Dallas, TX), a full service firm that provides sustainable structural engineering design for all types of projects.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO and co-owner of Pape-Dawson Engineers (San Antonio, TX), the largest civil engineering firm headquartered and exclusively located in Texas.

By Rob Hughes | Many design firms that adjusted their workplace to address COVID-19 face heightened exposures to employment-related litigation and related negative consequences.

ByStephanie Warino | Examining the top 10 differences between leading and average Best Firms To Work For.

By Mark Zweig | Not only do you need to monitor and report on the right performance metrics for your firm, but you also have to explain what these numbers mean to your people.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Lynn Engineering, a windstorm, structural, and civil engineering firm specializing in residential, commercial, and infrastructure development projects on the Texas Gulf Coast.

By Sara Parkman | Improved representation improves our ability to problem-solve, to be strategic with our strengths, and to think critically and comprehensively about topics.

By Mark Zweig | There are 10 things practically every firm in this business should do but won’t. If you try these things, your firm will be more successful.

President and senior principal of ICON Architecture (Boston, MA), a women-owned, SOMBDA certified firm that’s staffed over 50 percent by women.

By giving employees the opportunity to own company stock, you can develop a culture in which employees have a greater stake in the company and more opportunities to reap the rewards of capital ownership. 

“[These tactics] can help you keep control of your business while creating a culture that leads to continued growth and success.”

Many firms still cling to old-school attitudes and business practices that chase away top performing employees looking for a more future-friendly place to grow their careers.

By John Bray | The value you will add and the time you will save is worth the cost almost every single time.

“For those of you running A/E firms – if I were you, I’d focus on recruiting in 2020.”

Founders of HILGARTWILSON (Phoenix, AZ), an exemplary multidisciplinary firm that was formed in the middle of the Great Recession.

President and CEO of Parametrix, a 100 percent employee-owned engineering, planning, and environmental sciences firm based in Seattle, Washington.

In any business, there are good risks and bad risks. Find out which ones are right for you.

Taylor Dayton, EIT, is a project engineer at Aspect Consulting’s office in Wenatchee, Washington.

President of Reaveley Engineers, a national structural engineering firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

President and CEO of Eclipse Engineering (Best Firm Structural #12 for 2018), a Montana firm that likes to have a little “phun.”

CEO of ATI (Hot Firm #43 for 2018), a California firm rooted in philanthropy, and with a bright future on the horizon.

Portland office leader for PCS Structural Solutions believes in the legacy of engineering as a community builder.

President and CEO of Kleinschmidt (Best Firm #34 Multi-Discipline for 2018), a 140-person environmental consulting firm.

Help your organization commit to framing diversity and inclusion in a positive light. Examine your own biases and try to be accountable. When I was in middle school, I was relentlessly bullied by a girl...

President, Alta Environmental (Best Firm #4 Environmental for 2018), a 50-person firm based in Long Beach, CA. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “It’s said that people typically don’t leave companies, they leave bosses,” Kay says. “Making...

President and CEO of Ghafari (Hot Firm #54 for 2017), a 550-person multi-discipline firm based in Dearborn, Michigan. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “I would describe myself as a people person and am elated to see...

Firms are super busy, but that doesn’t mean all is well. How are profit margins, recruiting, and employee training holding up? The AEC industry is busier right now than it has been in a long...

What engineers need to know (but often don’t) about this critical financial tool and how it can help a firm succeed. At JBCI, one of our guiding principles is transparency. We embrace sharing relevant financial...

President and CEO of VHB (Best Firm Civil #23 and Hot Firm #46 for 2017), a 1,400-person firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Bottom line, when it’s the right move, and when...

President and CEO of Stonebrooke Engineering (Best Firm Civil #41 for 2017), based in Burnsville, Minnesota. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We have found that ‘growing’ our employees has been much more successful than bringing in...

Senior employees are outperformed by their subordinates all the time. Use metrics to reward the doers and identify the dead weight. The subject of compensation is a challenging and emotionally-charged issue. It affects all of...

President of Passero Associates (Best Firm #5 Multidiscipline for 2016), an 85-person engineering and architecture firm based in Rochester, New York. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “There’s lots of calculated risk,” Caruso says. A conversation with...

So you’re thinking about acquiring an A/E firm? You’ve got a lot of questions to ask yourself, and you need to have honest answers. In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was...

If your firm does not have a well-crafted system for handing out employee bonuses, you run the risk of creating the haves and the have nots. 2016 was a good year in the domestic A/E...

Hiring good people isn’t easy, and hanging onto them is just as difficult. When you find the right person, offer an excellent benefits package. By Gale Associates Inc. Best Firm #4 Multidiscipline for 2016 Recruitment...

If you think there’s too much recruiting, then you probably don’t realize there is no ‘season,’ but an unending grind. There is no preseason or final game for recruiting. A/E firms that don’t understand the...

Boards of directors, or BODs, in the typical A/E firm are pretty much a mess. They tend to suffer from the same maladies in so many companies. Some of these include: They have too many...

When recruiting big talent, don’t let little details in the benefits package get in the way of making a winning offer. I’m amazed at the need that exists out there for great talent. Firms in...

“John,” the president, CEO, and co-founder of a 250-person midwestern E/A firm, was frustrated. After so many years of success, it seemed to him that all he was doing now was de-fusing irate clients, talking...

In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was to prepare your firm for sale even if you are not thinking about an external ownership transition. You can read that article here. This...

End-of-year bonuses and evaluations are obsolete. Try monthly or quarterly perks for your staff. It's clear to me that A/E firms are all in a huge rut when it comes to how they pay their...

Understanding the nuances of a Happily Employed Job Candidate can boost your ability to hire the best people. I recently received an email from a client who was in the middle of arranging an interview...

If you are thinking about selling your firm, a front-end valuation is essential before heading to market. When we begin working with an M&A client on the selling side, one of the very first questions...

Technical professionals should appreciate the importance of timely and accurate time-sheets for determining appropriate project billing and more. For most A/E/P firms, it is the talent, technical expertise, and experience that are sold to clients...

Some common policies display no common-sense. Mark Zweig exposes four problems and offers solutions. It’s interesting to me how so many A/E firms seem to just follow the same unwritten rules about how to pay...

By Jeremy Clarke Getting top talent is still a critical priority… even in this economic environment. How so? Well, because business needs are still evolving, and employee turnover is still an unavoidable reality. All of...

Press Release: June 3, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (June 3, 2011) – When comparing 2011 with 2010, salaries for full-time practicing structural engineers have remained relatively stable. Last year, the median annual salary increased slightly from...

By Mark C. Zweig We have come a long way in the A/E/P business over the last 30 years. Not only is it OK to market to clients, we even have computers on every desk...

This year, All4 Inc., an environmental engineering firm in Kimberton, Pennsylvania, had clients go bankrupt and others stop work already in progress. Multidiscipline firm Smith, Seckman & Reid, Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee, had layoffs but...

There are many experts on time management that I see used periodically by A/E and environmental firms. These people are brought in from the outside to help train our principals, PMs, and technical and design...

I should be reading now, sitting here in my tight blue “pleather” Northwest Airlines seat on my umpteenth flight this month. But I’m not. Instead, I just wasted a half hour on “Brick Breaker,” a...

After a brief stop in Las Vegas for a quick family wedding, I just returned from The Zweig Letter Hot Firm 2003 Conference and Celebration in San Francisco. And let me tell you that while...

Just got back from the Spring Meeting of ASFE: Professional Firms Practicing in the Geosciences (Silver Spring, MD) in Atlanta. I think the management and volunteers do a wonderful job. They had about 140 top...

Say “strategy” to an architect, engineer, planner, or scientist and you are bound to get a negative reaction. These folks have been through all of the strategic planning meetings conducted by the management consultant of...

With the tight market labor, Gen-X employee turnover, inefficiency from internal competition, and record backlogs of project work to be completed, it may be time to take a hard look at your compensation policies and...

You want to know something that drives me crazy— right up the wall? It’s all of the darn committees that A/E/P and environmental firms keep creating for one reason after another. Most of the time...

As A/E/P or environmental consulting firms, we love to tell our clients that we can meet the schedule, stay within the budget, and provide high quality. Then under our breath, we mutter: “Pick any two,...

Believe it or not, some people don’t like the term “human resources management.” They think it diminishes individuals in some way, and by referring to “human resources” we might as well be talking about “natural...

Here’s a collection of practical advice I think anyone in the A/E/P or environmental consulting business can use in response to questions that seem come up over and over again: Where can I find someone...

I just got back from the annual business planning meeting with the board of directors of a client of ours that underwent a significant turnaround in the last couple of years. They went through everything...

We often run into firms that need help turning things around. The scenario usually includes some combination of the following: Principals/top managers who aren’t billable. Excess debt caused by poor collection of accounts receivable. Owners...

Every A/E/P and environmental firm I’ve encountered that has survived over the long haul has periodically made a push to improve its profitability. All the growth in the world won’t do you any good if...

Let me tell you a little story about two managers. Both head divisions for the same large, international engineering and environmental company. By most any standard, one of the two, who we’ll call “Jed,” is...

On Monday, December 20, 1993, William Edwards Deming, the 93-year-old management guru of Total Quality Management (TQM) died in his sleep. A statistician with a doctorate in Physics from Yale, Deming was credited with engineering...

Many of our readers are already reflecting back on a year that was not so great, financially speaking. But in 1993, some firms will find this cloud really does have a silver lining. Many firms...

Last week, I spoke to an engineer laid off from the consulting firm where he had been employed for the past 18 years. Unfortunately, his layoff was the direct result of a recommendation contained in...