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NEW FROM ZWEIG GROUP ZWEIG GROUP RELEASES 2022
compensation levels, prepare job offers, evaluate pay equity, and compare salaries with competitors. “We’re in a very competitive job market in this industry right now – it’s very important that AEC firms have the data needed to set salaries and compensate their employees effectively. While compensation is just one small piece of effective recruitment and retention, it’s not an area that should be based on guesswork,” said Zweig Group director of research, Christina Zweig Niehues. Data is included for all types and levels
of staff including interns, technical staff, administrative, operations, and management, ranging from entry level through principal status. Technical staff data is broken into five levels – entry-level, project engineer, project manager, department head, and principal. The report also shows salaries for management positions – such as presidents, CEOs, CFOs, branch managers, and others – as well as IT, marketing, and administrative staff. Descriptions and average years of experience are included for all titles in the survey, and 10-year trend data is also given for the majority of roles.
SALARY LEVEL RESEARCH FOR THE AEC INDUSTRY Zweig Group, a leading provider of advisory services, research, and education for the AEC industry, has just released the 2022 Engineering Salary Reports for all regions of the United States. These reports are based on a comprehensive salary survey of hundreds of industry individuals and firms, and is presented in three separate regional editions: North and South Atlantic, Central, and Pacific and Mountain, in both PDF and hardcopy options. This salary research can be used by engineering firms to assess
your author to swallow at times. You are going to have to let other people be in the spotlight. If you are the only one who is, guess what? You will be the only person any clients want to deal with. And there is the trap you just made for yourself. Ditto if you have any partners and the focus is on them. The sooner you can start promoting the accomplishments of the other people in your firm, the better. 5. Building a “brand” for your business that continuously generates leads and allows you to charge higher prices than other firms that do what you do. This will not happen unless you make the consistent investment in brand- building marketing activities. That means lots and lots of direct mail, email, social media, community involvement, signage, vehicles, and a lot of other things. Get out your checkbook. This is a pure “overhead” expense (I prefer to see it as an investment) you must make if you want to have the benefits that result from it. So spend the money it really takes to build your brand. 6. Learning to separate what you do from your identity as an individual. In other words – learning how to think of yourself as more than just the owner of a successful AEC business. You may scoff at this last point and say that isn’t you, but believe me, I get it, and a lot more of the people I knowwho own and operate these firms are in this mode than those who aren’t. It’s all-consuming to build and run one of these businesses. It’s your baby. It’s so important to you. I understand. But there is more to you as a complete person than just someone who runs a successful business. Don’t forget that. And you do have/will have other needs in your life. Needs for good family relationships. The need for a spouse or significant other. The need to work with your hands and do something tangible. The need for travel experiences. And time to do nothing. That’s why your whole identity cannot be wrapped up in what you do for your business or you will never devote any energy to any of these other things. That’s it for now. See you next week! Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 12
recruiting. And as far as retention goes, the key to that lies in NOT giving people reasons to feel they need to leave your business and go somewhere else. What do you make your people do that makes them feel they have to lose their personal dignity to do it? Those things take many forms, from having them fight in a bureaucratic system that wastes their time, to having them participate in something even slightly unethical, to talking down to them, to paying them less than they are really worth – and more. Focus on eliminating these things and your retention rate will improve. 2. Learning how to effectively delegate. Sure – there is information out there on how to be a better delegator. That’s all basically about being clear in what you want people to do and checking in with them every so often. But the real problem related to lack of delegation in our business is that the delegators don’t have faith in their people to do what they want them to do the way they want it done. In some cases it is founded. See my point No. 1 above. In other cases, it’s either ego, or what I call the “craftsman mentality,” (i.e., no one can do it as well as I can, so I might as well do it myself) that keeps design professionals from delegating. Either way, not delegating is a trap that will hold back your people, your business, and yourself needlessly. 3. Training your people in how your business works. You will never have a business that can exist without you – or better yet, thrive without you – if you don’t have a lot of people who really understand what you are trying to do and how your business makes money. This will only come about if you have a business planning process that gets a wide range of engagement from your people and if you share your numbers and talk about what they mean. Open-book management is the single best tool I have used to accomplish that. There are entire books on the subject. One of these may actually be worth reading. Companies such as Zweig Group can also help you implement open-book management. Do it. 4. Being willing to subjugate your ego for the greater good. This is a really hard one and was a difficult pill for
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THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 14, 2022, ISSUE 1428
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