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8 are seeing the data change from year to year faster than ever in nearly 30 years of studying this industry. Having a great place to work has more importance than ever. Being competitive and having a strong brand built around great client service and quality is also more important than ever. Makes sure you keep the big picture in focus at all times and do not let achieving excellence in one area cost you excellence in another. Employee flexibility and excellent client service can coexist. And if you currently have or are considering a flextime program, here are a couple of things you can do to ensure that impeccable client service is maintained: ❚ ❚ Have your phones answered during all business hours. Unfortunately, you may have to designate a few positions in your firm that are exempt from the modified work-hours ben- efit. An alternative is that people could trade off so that they can at least participate part time. Phones not being answered is the number one complaint from your clients regarding modified hours policies. ❚ ❚ Project managers and client managers must be on-call. Related to the point above, your clients are complaining about not being able to reach their project contacts in your organization. Anyone in your firm with client contact must have the responsibility of being “on-call” during certain hours. At a minimum that is during regular business hours Monday CHAD CLINEHENS, from page 5

through Friday. One benefit you can offer that will conve- niently reinforce this is a 100 percent paid cell phone. That means completely paid for, including the data plan. It is a great benefit and enforces an accountability for being respon- sive to clients during and after regular business hours. “Things are changing fast out there and we are seeing the data change from year to year faster than ever in nearly 30 years of studying this industry. Having a great place to work has more importance than ever.” There are ways to accomplish all of your firm’s strategic initiatives while avoiding the conflicts outlined above. To do that, you have to look at every decision through every lens possible to identify the costs and tradeoffs. You may need some industry data or trends or surveys of your clients to effectively analyze your options and make the best decisions possible. The strategy, or lack thereof, is what separates the award winning firms from the average performing firms. Employee flexibility and excellent client service can coexist. CHAD CLINEHENS is Zweig Group’s executive vice president. Contact him at cclinehens@zweiggroup.com.

BOSTON, from page 7

neighborhoods. We think the name change reflects substan- tive improvement.”

❚ ❚ The current stakeholder engagement model is sub-optimal for residents, developers, and employees. ❚ ❚ The outward focus of the BPDA has created a siege mentality at the expense of internal dynamics – i.e., team-building and communication. ❚ ❚ Our structure (how we’re organized and funded) results in confusion, distrust, and perceived conflicts of interest. “They’re going through the motions, but they’re not providing the residents anything. It’s like no one is listening.” One of the greatest sins committed in the history of Bos- ton, according to some, was the BRA’s levelling of the West End, an area jammed with immigrants and the poor. Liter- ally wiped off the face of the map, the neighborhood, char- acterized by dense rows of tenements, fell victim to the kind of brass-knuckled redevelopment taking place in the 1950s and 1960s – urban renewal. Little remains of the West End, and most of what does is housed in the West End Museum. Its president, Susan Han- son, says she is hopeful that the BRA’s rebranding is truly the dawn of a new day. “The Boston Redevelopment Authority has historically been criticized for emphasizing development over planning,” Hanson says. “The administration of Mayor Walsh has ac- knowledged the City’s past mistakes, such as what hap- pened to the West End neighborhood in the 1960s, and has taken remedial steps like planning initiatives in several

But back in the South End, residents are leery.

Lauren Prescott, the executive director of the South End Historical Society, says she and plenty of others just aren’t convinced the BPDA is suddenly going to shed its big bu- reaucratic ways and cozy up to neighborhood groups and preservationists. Just last year, the South End sent a strong letter to the BPDA asking it not to extend its urban renewal authority into the neighborhood, saying it was both “unnecessary and potentially harmful to the South End Neighborhood.” To no avail. The authority was extended for another six years. For the foreseeable future, it looks like the South End is going to have to live with the BPDA. With that in mind, Prescott says plenty of people will be looking to see if the re- branding is real, or if it only exists on paper. “I’m skeptical. I think it’s a smokescreen, but I’d like to be proved wrong. Are they engaging with neighborhoods? Are they engaging with residents? We’ll be watching.” “I’m skeptical,” Prescott says. “I think it’s a smokescreen, but I’d like to be proved wrong. Are they engaging with neighborhoods? Are they engaging with residents? We’ll be watching.”

THE ZWEIG LETTER November 7, 2016, ISSUE 1175

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