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By Dave Williams | Policy slack combines structure with flexibility, empowering leaders with the room to move, own decisions, and grow.

By Megan Valencia | Every employee plays a crucial role in recognizing and attracting top talent, shaping company culture, and ensuring long-term business success.

“I think the employee experience—and we've seen over the last five years how important the employee experience has been with how tight the labor market has been and how everybody is competing for the same...

By Sara Grayum | By collaborating closely, marketing and business development can craft stories that will steer your firm toward success.

By Kathy Nanowski | A strong employee experience leads to a stronger client experience, ensuring sustainable success and differentiation in the market.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Neumann Monson Architects (Iowa City, IA), a firm that creates exceptional spaces for living, working, learning, and playing.

By Ezequiel Tovar | These common leadership mistakes hinder the growth and success of your business.

By Leisbel Lam | Harnessing the power of a growth mindset and the S-curve of learning to transform human capital in the AEC industry.

By Daryl Simons Jr. & Jeremy Clarke | Rather than a liability, these candidates could offer an opportunity to uncover exceptional talent.

By Lindsay Young | Networking is important for your business, but your network can work for you – as long as you stay in front of them and share valuable resources and knowledge.

By Kristin Kautz | AI assistants empower personalized and effective support that will save time and money, and enhance creativity and quality.

By Ying Liu | Insight into the unique challenges and opportunities often faced by CSOs in the AEC industry.

By Kraig Kern | If you stay disciplined, empathize with your team, and commit to excellence you can meet your deadlines and ultimately win more projects.

By Mark Zweig | Owning a firm that will be profitable and grow over time requires a longer term view and a willingness to invest in the people who generate the revenue.

By Sara Karstetter | There are several questions a seller needs to be able to answer beyond just the financials.

By Mark Zweig | When you work in a crowded field full of many companies that do essentially the same thing, you can either be one of many or you can choose to stand out.

By Conrey Guy | A standardized onboarding process is critical for the overall success of any organization, but especially in our industry.

By Jennifer Haddad | If you can approach the situation with empathy, compassion, and an open mind, you can create a positive experience and leave the door open for future opportunities.

By Sara Parkman | Human resources director at CORE Consultants, Inc., a professional services firm that empowers its people to thrive at home, at work, and in their community.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of MKSK, a collective of planners, urban designers, and landscape architects who are passionate about the interaction between people and place.

By Joseph Lauk | Firms often have the same “ingredients” for creating great places to work. Your success really boils down to how you choose and blend these elements together.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of GAI Consultants, an employee-owned planning, engineering, and environmental consulting firm that provides local expertise to worldwide clients.

By Liisa Andreassen | President at ELEMENT (Tampa, FL), an award-winning, certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and Minority Business Enterprise, consulting firm.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Galloway (Denver, CO), a firm with a streamlined process that addresses all its clients’ design needs – from architecture to civil engineering and survey.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of PRIME AE Group (Baltimore, MD), a firm that creates vibrant communities by connecting people and conserving culture and the environment.

President and CEO of Blueline (Kirkland, WA), a firm that’s committed to building relationships, enhancing communities, and improving lives.

By Jenny Phan | Get your technical professionals comfortable with sharing their stories and they’ll promote your firm, their good work, and their team.

By Talin Espinoza | Now that we’ve been working from home for a year, let’s unpack the pros and cons of our new lifestyle.

By Sara Parkman | President of Shive-Hattery (Cedar Rapids, IA), a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm that recognizes the power of design in transforming the human experience.

By Mercedez Thompson | Create client-focused cover letters that build trust, provide clear client benefits, and connect to your client’s broader goals or vision.

By Lindsay Young | This is our opportunity to get creative and bring in new ideas for our firms to get work.

There are countless ways to develop business without being a business developer, and you are most likely doing some of these things already.

It comes down to respect and providing for your employees. If you do these two things, your people will quickly become your biggest cheerleaders.

Co-founder and executive vice president of Patel, Greene and Assoc. (Temple Terrace, FL), a firm with a mission to elevate their families, communities, and profession.

President and CEO of CORE Consultants, Inc. (Littleton, CO), a professional services firm with a unique culture that empowers its people to thrive at home, at work, and in their community.

Co-founder and managing partner of Shear Structural (Chamblee, GA), a 100 percent women-owned and women-managed structural engineering firm.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Lessons learned from conversations with industry leaders about separation anxiety, empowerment, and calm confidence.

By combining traditional marketing tactics with unique approaches for our industry, AEC firms can get ahead of the competition, stay relevant, and win more and better contracts.

President and CEO of Ramey Kemp & Assoc. (Raleigh, NC), a transportation engineering, planning, and design firm founded in 1992.

It can lay the foundation for a positive relationship with bosses, subordinates, and co-workers when the time comes to go the extra mile.

President and CEO of Falcon Engineering, a woman-owned engineering firm in Cary, North Carolina.

CEO of Caldwell Associates, a firm that’s not afraid to fail, and that’s strong enough to pick up and keep going.

President and principal-in-charge at Taylor Design, an architecture and interior design firm headquartered in Irvine, California.

Being cautious and reasonable about your growth plans is a smarter move than filling seats just for the sake of beefing up the org chart.

There are plenty of tell-tale signs your AEC firm needs a set of third-party experts to help you achieve your goals.

If your firm has a weekly or monthly newsletter, great. But if not, you need to get cracking on that important piece of internal communication. Does your firm have an internal newsletter or some kind...

Honoring your clients’ business success above all else will enhance your firm’s reputation and bottom line – without compromising design. This is the third installment of a three-part discussion on the topic of job success,...

By Scott Johnston | Time is a luxury AEC teams do not have. And time spent on a losing effort drains resources, morale, and bandwidth on existing projects.

Do you have a job interview on the near horizon? If so, do your research, stay on topic, and don’t forget to wear a nice pair of shoes. A close architect friend of mine recently...

If you want entrepreneurship in the DNA of your firm’s culture, a top-down commitment to innovation and risk is essential. How important is culture? Since it’s the amorphous, intangible, and mysterious thing that drives your...

All of us have a story to tell, so don’t shy away from it in your professional life. It could be the key ingredient for your firm’s success. Everyone loves a good story. That’s why...

Ditch the lecture-and-listen style of training and replace it with something much more effective – the do-it-to-learn-it style. In the ultra-competitive AEC job market, professional growth is becoming the new perk. Employees and candidates –...

Here is the full transcript of a great conversation that we had with Mark Zweig. He gave us a history lesson on AECWorkforce and the importance of an effective job board for the Design and...

Here is the full transcript of a great conversation that we had with Mark Zweig. He gave us a history lesson on AECWorkforce and the importance of an effective job board for the Design and...

Employees can help attract, recruit, and retain great talent in a tight labor market, so look to them as an augment for HR. A steady stream of job postings for engineers, architects, and construction workers...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn and Sanjay Jenkins discuss the rise of AI in the job application process, referencing the Wall Street Journal article “In Unilever’s Radical Hiring Experiment, Resumes Are Out,...

When a client selects another firm, learn why and stay in touch. Who knows, you just might win the next round. Think back to your childhood. Did you play on a sports team that had...

Learning from external sources can be highly beneficial, but you must also master the art of blocking out the noise and staying the course. I have to admit it: I often feel like a fraud...

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...

By Phil Keil | Strategic planning is the roadmap to your firm’s success. Without it, you might get knocked down and never get back up.

Strategic planning is the roadmap to your firm’s success. Without it, you might get knocked down and never get back up. I have a lot on my mind this week, so get ready, buckle up,...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn talked to Richard Massey, Zweig Group’s director of newsletters. They talked about Massey’s role with TZL and how the newsletter has evolved over the years (you can...

While many of them might have flopped, you still have a chance to make the most important one a reality – ownership transition. Welcome to March! And congratulations on making it through all those resolutions!...

Building a relocation program to recruit and retain talent in the design industry should be a primary focus of any sound HR program. You’ve been there before. You’ve spent time sourcing, researching, and recruiting the...

Working with millennials was a hot topic at the recent Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference. Most researchers define the millennial generation as those born anywhere between 1982 and 2004 (although some sources end...

Recruiting top talent to small markets is an adventure, but with persistence, you can ride the horse all the way to the summit. As I was discussing the need for a lead architect with a...

Architect Mike Reynolds, founder and owner of an unconventional design-build company, uses recycled materials to construct a sustainable enterprise. By Richard Massey Managing Editor Mike Reynolds, the founder of Earthship Biotecture, rose from obscurity outside...

Independent environmental firms are increasingly rare, but out on the East Coast, CEO Eileen Pannetier has succeeded by sticking to her small-firm roots. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Prior to founding Comprehensive Environmental Inc. (Best Firm...

Registration for the Best Firms To Work For Awards, Zweig Group’s ranking of the best workplaces in the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry, has come to a close, but entries to Zweig Group’s other awards...

Successful Project Management for A/E/P and Environmental Firms, 2nd edition covers projects from inception to completion and beyond. By Andrea Bennett Managing Editor On April 30, Zweig Group will release the second edition of its...

Recruiting may not be immediately seen as a great branding tool, but it is. I’ll bet you never imagined your recruiting process could be an important brand-building tool for your firm. How can that be?...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 998 Originally published 3/11/2013 Three lessons the design industry can learn from a successful auto dealership. I feel fortunate to be a consultant...

Press Release: June 23, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (June 23, 2011) –Social media is quite the hot topic, but are architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms achieving their intended goals with the use of these outlets?...

Press Release: February 22, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, AR (February 23, 2011) – ZweigWhite’s new eLearning courses offer easy, convenient project management (PM) training ideally suited for today’s time-pressed, on-the-go professionals in the architecture, engineering, planning and...

Press Release: January 7, 2011 If the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry has learned one thing in 2010, it’s that recov­ery doesn’t happen overnight. Last year there was an expectation that 2010 might provide the...

I was recently interviewed for a magazine article about the residential redevelopment projects we do here in Fayetteville. In addition to figuring out why my houses sell either before we start working on them or...

With so much negative information coming in— project cancellations, Warren Buffet stating in an interview that “the economy has fallen off a cliff,” and amazing stock market declines— along with layoffs and, for those who...

There are no easy businesses in this economy. And if you think there are— still— watch out. You’ll probably learn soon that I am right about this one. Everyone— no matter what they do— has...

Lawrence Tunican was really starting to wonder what was wrong. Was the company he started nearly 30 years ago— Tunican Engineering— that uncool of a place to work? He could not hire young people any...

When it comes to keeping clients truly satisfied and coming back year after year for every service your firm provides, most A/E/P and environmental firms have a long way to go. Creating a genuine experience...

It is a sad day as I write this. I am at Boston’s Logan International Airport waiting for a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth so I can attend the funeral of my long-time friend and mentor,...

I said something to my 78 year-old father the other day about going someplace or another to conduct a “management retreat.” His response was, “Why not a management charge?” He went on to say that...

This week, you get three topics for the price of one. What makes for value? An article in the February 21 edition of The Boston Globe under the headline “Internet ad company stock gains 57%...

At our new “Managing a Growing Firm” seminar series, which kicked off last week in Boston, a hard-driving CEO from a local area firm took exception to one of our recommendations on how to improve...

Let’s face it, readers— the A/E/P and environmental business just isn’t what it used to be. The old assumptions just don’t hold true. The old ways of doing things aren’t working. The people who can’t...

I’ve received several calls asking me if I had seen a recent article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal (November 21, 1996) on performance appraisals. Evidently, it is causing quite an uproar in the...

The long anticipated, talked about, and dreaded shortage of qualified people is here. Ask principals in most firms, and they will tell you that it’s very difficult right now to find staff— particularly engineers, geologists,...

I hear from a lot of disgruntled people working in support roles in A/E and environmental consulting firms— (“support” meaning anyone whose primary job function does not create revenue for the firm). I know how...

The ability of an A/E or environmental consulting firm to quickly hire qualified people for any opening affects virtually every aspect of its management. I call it “supply-side human resources management.” If you think about...