April 24, 2025 • 45 mins
“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 people… To ensure good retention, you must survey your employees to see what they think of your firm.”
- Kyle Ahern
About our Guests:
Keith Sequeira serves as Senior Director of Analytics and Technology at Zweig Group, where he leads research, analytics, and technological innovation, driving new approaches in data collection and delivery for the AEC sector. Kyle Ahern, Manager of Awards and Analytics, has spent over ten years at Zweig Group, with deep expertise running the Best Firms To Work For (BFTWF) program and integrating employee survey data into actionable insights for the industry. Supporting the conversation is co-host Luke Carothers, a guiding voice in exploring the data-driven evolution of AEC firm management.
Episode Summary:
This episode dives into the evolving landscape of research, data, and industry benchmarking within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) space. Host Randy Wilburn teams up with co-host Luke Carothers to interview Keith Sequeira and Kyle Ahern, uncovering how Zweig Group’s research initiatives—especially the Best Firms To Work For (BFTWF) program—are reshaping the value of employee sentiment and firm benchmarking. Keith and Kyle discuss how design firms’ needs have shifted from simply seeking award recognition to actively using detailed survey data to drive strategy, foster better workplaces, and compete more effectively for talent.
The conversation highlights the innovations in delivering real-time, actionable analytics through platforms like Zweig Insights. The team details the new research calendar and tiered participation incentive program, aimed at driving engagement and ensuring the most up-to-date data for all Zweig Group reports. From the transition away from static reports to the implementation of dynamic benchmarking tools, this episode offers practical wisdom for firm leaders looking to leverage industry data for recruitment, retention, and firm growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Actionable Benchmarking: Firms increasingly participate in BFTWF for the employee data and benchmarking tools, not just for the award, using insights for internal strategy and improvement.
- Technology-Driven Insights: Zweig Insights platform provides interactive, real-time benchmarking and analysis, moving beyond traditional static PDF reports.
- Participation Incentives & Timely Data: A new research calendar and tiered discount structure incentivize timely survey participation, ensuring fresher, more accurate reports for all firms.
- Employee Experience Drives Success: Surveying for employee sentiment is vital for recruitment, retention, and competitive advantage—and firms must communicate the survey's purpose and act on the findings.
- Continuous Recognition and Industry Celebration: Zweig’s award programs, culminating at Elevate AEC, play a critical role in celebrating firm achievements and motivating ongoing improvement within the industry.
All this and more in this episode of the Zweig Letter podcast.
Links referenced in this episode:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Zweig letter podcast. Putting
architectural engineering, planning, and environmental
consulting advice and guidance in your ear. Zweig
group's team of experts have spent more than three decades
elevating the industry by helping AEP and
environmental consulting firms thrive. And these
(00:25):
podcasts deliver invaluable management,
industry, client, marketing, and
HR advice directly to you free of
charge. The Zweig letter podcasts,
elevating the design industry one episode at a
time. Welcome to
(00:47):
the Zweig letter podcast, your go to source for
insights and inspiration from the best minds in the
AEC industry. I'm your host, Randy Wilburn. And
today, we're talking about research and data with
two of the AEC industry's top experts
and friends of mine. Each year, Zweig Group collects and
(01:08):
manages millions of data points from different areas of the AEC
industry, creating reports that help firms navigate an
ever changing landscape. With us today are two of
the team members who helped make it all possible,
Kyle Ahearn and Keith Sequera. We're excited to
hear about their work and how they are elevating the
(01:30):
research game. Joining me in this conversation is my
colleague and new cohost, compadre, my
Robin to the Batman that I am, I guess. I don't know. I don't I
don't know where I'm going. Anyway, Luke Carothers. Go on, Drew.
Yeah. And together, we're going to dive into changing
research needs, employee sentiment data, and
(01:52):
research participation, and so much more. So whether you're a
long time user of Zweig Group Research products
or you're new to their offerings, this is the
episode for you. So let's jump right in. Alright.
Kyle, Keith, how are you guys doing today? Doing well. Thank you,
Randy. Doing well. Doing well. Thanks, Randy. Absolutely,
(02:14):
man. I'm so honored to have you both on this podcast, and it's
just it's really you know, we I've had you both on at
different times by yourselves. And so now this is the first time that
we're all kind of on here together, which I I'm really excited about.
And, you know, this is a conversation that sometimes
doesn't get, I guess, the weight or the exposure
(02:36):
that it deserves. And and speaking of and what I'm speaking of specifically
is just, you know, the data and the information in the
design industry and how it's collected, how it's
assembled, how it's looked at and parsed, and then how
it is presented to the world. Right? But more importantly, how it's
presented to our colleagues in the design industry space
(02:59):
and why the information matters in the first place. And so
I definitely want to, we're gonna have a a good conversation about
this today. Keith, for the audience, for those that don't know you, I would
love for you just to just share a little bit about your background and your
specific role at Zwai Group. Thanks, Randy. And as
much as I I like being in the in the spotlight, this is always
(03:21):
awkward to get started with these You got this, man.
But I am now the senior director of analytics
and technology at Zweig Group. That's my new role since
December of twenty twenty four. It's been quite the ride really
since 2022, which is when I started with Zwagroup. And
Randy, I was just looking up when we last had this conversation was November of
(03:43):
twenty twenty three. I think I was still getting my feet under me trying to
figure out what we're doing. It was on the heels of the Zweig
insights transition, maybe. Yeah. It's It's
been a year. No. My feet are not under me yet.
But my role mixture of roles now. Yeah.
The focus really is to lead the research and analytics
(04:06):
department. Kyle obviously has he's he's new to the group as well. He's
been part of the research group as the awards and employee experience
manager for years. Look, Kyle's been with the Zweig Group for ten years now.
But, he's new to the larger analytics
team and we have Sue Dang and
and, Gerard Wigmer who are also on this team. Our
(04:28):
focus really is to collect, analyze
and report on the data from the
industry. Right? We have about 10 to 15 different
publications. We try to publish one every month. We
have this wide insights platform, which has a couple
products in there. Yeah. It's a broad
(04:51):
range of the type of data, I guess, that we provide back, in
our benchmark reports to the industry. My new
role also includes managing the technology stack at at Zweig
Group. The focus really is to lead innovation
through technology at at Zweig Group. And that's we're trying to think of ways to
use AI. We're trying to think of ways to use automation and, you know,
(05:13):
streamline and improve. That's that's the goal. Yeah. I well, I
appreciate it. I mean, you you did an amazing job helping us move our
tech stack over to the Microsoft universe, if you
will. And, there were little little hiccups here or there, but
every time I looked up, you had an answer for everything. So I
appreciate that as I know the rest of these guys do. So even
(05:36):
though I'm not fully engaged all the time with everything Zweig Group, but,
certainly, I know this this next gentleman gets is coming to the stage and sharing
a little bit about himself is, and I remember him when. But, Kyle,
certainly, I can't believe it's been ten years, but you've been on this podcast a
couple of times, and I wanna welcome you back again. Just for the
audience's edification, just introduce yourself because most
(05:57):
firms that we deal with at Zwai Group know you or have
received an email from you or a phone call. I mean, you are the
eponymous individual at Zwai Group because everybody gets
to interact with you. But for those that don't know you, for those that have
been in a cave for the last couple of years, just introduce yourself again,
Kyle. Yeah. Thanks, Randy. I I appreciate it. And, yeah,
(06:19):
ten years already. Right? No. And and it's
been good. I've been able to work in a lot of different
areas within the the Zweig group environment and all that we
do. You know, Randy, you were a a mentor of mine
really when I first started and how we worked together in executive
search and all that you taught me there. And then I moved over to the
(06:42):
awards area and ran that and still run
that program to this day, and and so been doing that for about the
last nine years. And then, just
through that, there's been a kind of a natural evolution of
bringing the data that we get through the awards program
and integrating it more and more into our
(07:04):
wider research base, our our
our stack of research that we have in trying to you know,
especially the the vast amounts of employee survey data. You know, last year,
we had over 20,000 responses to the best firms to work for
employee survey. So it's it's getting that data integrated to the
rest of the data that we have. And that's just kind of been a
(07:26):
natural progression for me over the last, you know, year or
so of working closer with our research team
and then moving officially into a a manager of
awards and analytics in October of last year
and just getting more and more ingrained in all of the research that we
do beyond just the how we integrate the awards data, but all
(07:48):
the research that we do. So Keith has been a a huge help for me
there, as well as Sue and Gerardo, who are both rock
stars on our team as well. So my role now is
taking a you know, helping with the big picture view of of everything's
white group research related, but still still holding down the fort on
the awards. And, you know, hopefully, everybody who's who's
(08:10):
interacting with me on the through the awards program will be able
to, start to get a little bit of an understanding of what we're doing on
on the research side as a whole here as well. Yeah.
And then I wanna add to that, Randy. We say everybody
has heard or seen an email from Kyle. But for the folks that
haven't, especially the ones that are at Elevate AEC, Kyle runs a
(08:32):
lot behind the scenes at at Elevate. Let's not forget. So
if you have not interacted with him, you have seen
his products for sure. Yeah. He he he is
both behind the scenes and on the stage. He does
everything for Elevate AEC. Well, I tell him, you know,
it's why he's got a really nice tuxedo, and and it gets a lot of
(08:54):
use. So and and I love I just love hearing that and just seeing
the evolution specifically for Kyle, but we can fanboy over
him later. I want to I wanna ask you both, and I'll
start with you, Keith, because I think this is the reason why we wanted to
have this conversation in the first place. The needs and wants of
design firms have surely changed when it comes to
(09:16):
research. I'm just curious to know what are you hearing
from firms? What are they asking for in terms of
research? And even in your three years here at Zweig Group, I'm sure
you've seen a change in those requests. Just through the awards,
I mean, this is from a best firms to work for perspective. I think,
really, when I first started with the awards program, it was
(09:38):
that. It was an award, and, you know, that was great
week one. We're best firms to work for. We're a hot firm. We're we're marketing
excellence award winner. Whereas now and this shift
has really taken place over about the last five years or so because
we are presenting this data back to them. It's it's more than just
an award for especially for best firms to work for anymore. They
(10:00):
get the the employee sentiment data presented back to them
alongside the industry averages and benchmarking
data through Zwag Insights. They have that presented back to them,
and and they can start to formulate, you know, internal team
strategy off that data. And now I hear more from people
saying, we are in this for the data. The
(10:22):
award is kind of the carry on top, and that's an evolution in
what firms are looking for in that area, you know, that
specific area. You know? And and as it pertains to data
in a wider sense, you know, I think the almost the
instant feedback, we've built these benchmarking tools, Keith, and and I'd love for
you to touch on those a little bit more because these benchmarking tools that allow
(10:45):
firms to input their data and then see it, you know,
right up next against those benchmarking data rather than,
you know, the traditional PDF where you're looking at the data. And
maybe maybe you've got some of your own data pulled up on another screen. Having
it all right there together is an evolution I've seen.
Yeah. And I I would that's where I was going. That that's where I was
(11:06):
thinking about, you know, the PDFs are tradition of how we delivered all of
our reports and PDFs. Obviously, you can search, but
there's much efficient ways to view that data. There's much efficient ways to slice and
dice through it. There are tools out there specifically that, you know, that help you
do that if you had access to the raw data. What we're trying to do
is trying to make that easier, and that's through tools like Zuag Insights. Right? We
(11:27):
have all these Excel tools that we have always delivered as an add on or
as part of your package when you purchase a report from us, but
those Excel tools are static. What Zwag Insight gives you is direct
access. It's connected to our database, connected to our our data warehouse.
You you will progressively get fresher data.
Right? And we currently only have best ones to work for and and comp data
(11:49):
platform in that within Zwag Insights, and comp data platform is moving to
a a regular cadence to provide you with more real time
compensation data. But that's where I see that's the transition that I see. And I
think as an industry, we are a little late to this game. A lot of
like most other industries have already done this. You know, we moved away from physical
PDFs and paper printed reports,
(12:11):
but we still do some of that at Zweig Group too. There's still a few
people that want those printed reports. Yeah. This industry has always
been slow on the uptick when it comes to, new technology,
but they're getting there slowly but surely. So You know, I don't think that's the
industry's fault, though. I think as we develop
tools, we need to develop tools that have the answers. Right? Not tools where
(12:33):
people have to dig for the answers. And I think that's the key differentiator here.
Where we're going to or trying to provide that within, like, actionable
insight from our data. Let's not beat around the bush. Why you
have to go through 50 different chapters to find what you need? AI is making
it much easier for us to search for results. So why don't our tools support
that as well? And I think Zawag Insights is where we can do that. Yeah.
(12:55):
Absolutely. I mean and, you know, again, I think of the evolution
of best firms to work for the whole platform. Right? And, you know,
it functions as both an award and, like you said,
Kyle, earlier, one of the largest collections of employee sentiment
data in the AEC industry space. And I think also one
of the things that reasons why the best firms to work
(13:18):
for platform is so important is because when you think
of the information that it provides to a firm
to create the best environment possible for
recruitment, retention, for growth, I mean,
all of those things play a factor, and I'm and I'm sure I'm missing some
categories, but there's so much that goes into
(13:40):
making a best firm in terms of what these firms do themselves.
That's why the data is so valuable, and that's why, you know, we're
constantly encouraging firms to participate in this program.
And whether they are at the top of the heap or somewhere in the middle
or even at the bottom, you only get what you inspect. If
you don't take the time to benchmark your your performance
(14:03):
and your your organization to other peer firms out
there, you're gonna miss out on opportunities for you
to shore up areas of shortcomings, to figure
out how you can put yourselves out there in a better light
and really be able to compete with the rest of the firms out there that
are using Zweig's data on a regular basis to just make
(14:26):
themselves better. Yeah. I think when we talk about just the evolution
of Zweig Group research and data, in general, it makes
sense that we this innovation would come through best firms to work
for. Right? All this data, all the the millions and millions of points,
they all add up to a snapshot of how we operate as an industry.
And if people are using that as a way to navigate forward, then
(14:49):
it makes sense that we take that snapshot from the best firms to work
for. Yeah. I mean and certainly and I appreciate you adding
to that because, really, I did I did have a question there. I promise you
guys. How has best firms to work for
developed over the years? I mean, we talk about the technology that's now
there, but what else in your own words have made
(15:11):
best firms to work for so important and something that people should pay
attention to? Yeah. 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 people. You know? You you're competing for people
(15:33):
straight out of college and universities, but then you're also
competing with firms who are trying to poach your
employees. And so a way to help
ensure, you know, good retention is to assess
what your employees are thinking about your firm, and you've gotta do
that through surveys. And and people, you know, they worry about, well, survey
(15:54):
fatigue. Are we over surveying our our employees? Well, I mean,
the nice thing about best firms to work for, it's it's once a year. And
it's an extensive survey, but it's also very important. I think
firm leaders need to relay why
they're doing it, not to win the award, but to get an
understanding from their employees on how you're feeling about what we're doing at
(16:16):
this firm. Are are we doing things that are working and that you like? Or
where are we falling short in your eyes? And and the best runners to workforce
survey covers culture and compensation benefits,
recruitment retention, performance management, and professional
development, wide range of topics. And so it
gives this high level view, and then Zwiegen
(16:38):
sites brings that high level view. The more you click
through Zwiegen sites, the the further you can focus that high level
view. You can get an understanding of how employees feel about the
firm's management and what the firm's managers are doing and
about the compensation and and where they may be falling short or what
people like. But then that data needs to be turned
(17:00):
into actionable insights. You you don't wanna be survey you know,
asking people to take this survey year after year and not provide
any plan of action for the data that comes back. So Or
improvements. Yeah. Right. Right. So it's really important that
firms then, you know, take the data, assess where they
are, and come up with action items or, you know, an
(17:22):
updated strategic plan or refresh to address
some of the areas that need to be addressed within the data that
comes out of the best firms to work for employees survey. I've
one thing that I would thought about adding to that, Kyle, was the text responses.
I mean, that's huge because Right. It's not just data points
that you're viewing your ad. You're actually viewing what somebody typed about how
(17:45):
they felt in that moment, about how they're feeling at their firm. They're writing out
what exactly this could be this actionable insight. Right? That's just it. It
gives you exactly and you can pinpoint it. You can aggregate it. I know
firms do that already to get that data from us and then have somebody aggregate,
kind of figure out what the general sentiment is. And Kyle, I know I'm
leading into what we're getting ready to talk about, but, That's right. I won't throw
(18:07):
it out yet. No. I I was just yeah. That's
something that, our team has been working diligently on
for really the last several months is, coming up with a
way to bring some of that commentary sentiment
analysis into Zwag Insights and and be able to provide those
summaries. So I'll just say stay tuned for some special
(18:30):
announcements coming out. Hopefully, once best firms to work for
results are are ready to be published. I love that. You know, as I
was listening to both of you talk about this and just, you know,
the the way that firms have to go about getting these
surveys filled out and, you know, there is a certain amount of
survey fatigue that I think anybody could have. What are some of the
(18:52):
most unique ways that you have seen firms encourage
participation in these? Because this might be a place where firm
leaders who are probably thinking in the back of their minds, like, alright. You
know, Keith, Kyle, this is all great, but my people already
stretched to the gills in terms of work and everything else, and now you want
me to give them a fill in the blank number of questions and a
(19:15):
survey. What are some of the unique ways that you have seen firms
overcome those obstacles to get these filled out? Because we
know the greater participation, the greater the feedback,
and the greater the feedback, the greater the reporting
results. Yeah. I think first and foremost, it it just comes
down to the messaging, and it has to be clear
(19:36):
that we're doing this, hopefully, for your
benefit. You know? We're doing this to
make our firm a better place to work. You know? We would love to be
considered a best firm to work for, but we wanna do this to better
ourselves. We wanna understand what you like, what you don't like,
where we can improve. And this is your opportunity to
(19:59):
have your say in that. You know? This isn't just, you know, the
top 10 managers getting together and coming up with a plan. This is your
words with there's plenty of open commentary sections, but then, you
know, being able to to show how much you you agree or how
satisfied you are through quantitative data as well. And
so getting that messaging that, hey. This is your opportunity to
(20:21):
have your say in potentially the future of our
internal strategy. So that's one way. Another way you know?
And we we definitely do not encourage people
to say, hey. You know, we want you to give us positive responses. We
encourage to say, you know, hey. If we get to 90%
participation, we're gonna do x y you know, we're gonna have a a
(20:43):
happy hour, a company sponsored happy hour. But that's
you know, we we wanna base that on participation,
not necessarily results. And so that's creative
ways firms have have encouraged participation as well in the
past. Yeah. I mean, I think, obviously, there's a million different carrots that you
can dangle out there in front of people, but you want people to
(21:05):
actually want to do the survey. Right. And and to see the value,
not just kinda be performative or just be, you know,
filling out you know, just you utilizing time to do it because then you're
not getting the quality data that you you really want. And
that's that's where the follow-up really comes into play too, Randy,
is is if employees feel like they're just doing this
(21:27):
survey every year, but they don't see anything come out of it,
then they really are gonna be you know, if if someone's done it for four
years and they've never really seen
any results come out of it, then they're not gonna be very encouraged to,
one, give quality responses or even respond at all. So
Mhmm. You know, having a plan to follow-up, like, okay. This
(21:50):
we appreciate your input through this employee
survey. You know, we've got a team that's gonna take this data,
assess it, and put together a plan, and then we will present that back
to you. And we have firms that will go on, you know, what
they call talent hall tours. If they've got multiple offices, they'll go
visit each office. You know, Maybe the HR managers are gonna go
(22:13):
around to each office and and go over the results and the corresponding
plan to those results. So Mhmm. The follow-up really is
very important as well, especially for firms that
participate year after year. Yeah. And and, Randy, to to your
question, I think incentivizing might
just be the wrong method or thought process there. I think
(22:34):
it's culture. Right? Leadership has to have this culture of where
they truly care about their folks at their firm. And if they do
that, then asking your firm to take another survey or take
a survey every year about, hey. We're doing well. Let's figure
out how we can do better. Right? That should be easy. That's
my take on it, and I think I mean, Zwai Group is a perfect example.
(22:56):
When we get a survey to take for internal sentiment, I think
everybody's game or at least everybody's open to give that feedback.
Right? And I think that comes from the top down. Our leadership makes it to
where we can. And I think that's the key part there. Yeah. Yeah. That
that's a I'm glad you made that clarification too because, I mean, yeah, when you
think of incentivize, you're thinking, oh, well, you know, you gotta give
(23:18):
something to get something. And you're right. I mean, culture
is an important aspect of it. And if I really care about the
place that I work in the environment that I'm in, I wanna promote it, and
I wanna tell the world about it. And one way that you tell the world
about it is by participating in these surveys.
Yeah. And I think that's where the we talk about incentive.
(23:41):
I think that's the the uniqueness of best firms to work for is
there's that incentive of being on the list and then
remaining on the list. So if you're on it one year and you're
on it the next year, that means you responded to your employees, essentially. They still
think they're you're doing a good job. So I think it's a very good
incentive because if you make the list, you won't remain on the list if you're
(24:03):
not making the changes. Yeah. That's a fair point. I think I I hadn't thought
about it that way, Luke, because that is the incentive. Right? It's the
incentive for the firm to do better. Yeah. Do better by your employees, and your
employees will return that favor in your sir in your survey responses.
Yeah. No. I love that. So listen. I do wanna talk about this because one
of the coolest new features to the Zwai Group website
(24:25):
is the research calendar. Can you guys talk a little bit about
how you develop this calendar and really what it means for firms
who want to participate in Zweig group research
moving forward. Right? And then also, I know that you have kinda
in mixed into that whole new calendar approach an updated
discount program for participation. This is always
(24:47):
nice to have something to grease the wheels, right, to get folks to get We
were talking about incentives. We were talking about it? Yeah. This is a different kind
of incentive, though. So yes. Yeah. It's not for not for your employees.
So in the past, and I say in the past, up until December,
Zweig Group would offer 50% off discounts for
participation in our surveys. Right? The surveys were open for participation
(25:10):
all year round. Data collection was a it was
less timely. Reports could have been delayed. I feel like the data
wasn't as accurate as what I'm about to say with the new process.
And really, it didn't create this sense of urgency for
participation in our surveys. Right? So we brainstormed this idea
for a couple years now. And finally, in January,
(25:32):
we have released our new discounted tiered
discount strategy. What the new process is,
we have a participation window for every survey. And
within that participation window, if you participate within that participation
window, you are eligible for 75% off on
that report that we published from that survey. There's also a
(25:54):
25% off window at the end if you don't participate within the first
three weeks. But typically, this participation window is
two months to one and a half months before the
publication date of the the report. I know that's all over
the place. We we have images on our website that make it very clear. This
is why we didn't release it. We keep speaking about it. We released it with
(26:16):
with the with the calendar. The calendar makes
it very clear. It's month by month. It tells you what the participation
time frame is, when the report will be released, when the
75% discount eligibility ends, when the
25% discount eligibility ends. And really the
benefit here is, aside from the 75% discount,
(26:39):
the reports are going to be more up to date. Their participation
early allows us to have more bandwidth
and time to work through, you know, all the details I
go into publishing these reports. Accuracy is gonna be better, and
it's it's just gonna be more timely. Kyle, did I miss anything on that?
No. No. I think I just I added you like you said,
(27:01):
accuracy in that, you know, the results of
of a survey that took place a month ago are gonna be
more accurate to when we're publishing it rather than, you know, someone took
the survey ten months ago. You know, that in that time, you
know, things could potentially shift quite a bit. So having that
participation window open a lot closer to
(27:24):
the release of the report is a way to for for us to
ensure that we're giving the industry the best data that we can.
And, you know, having that that 75% off is is just an
extra driver in that that we want to give back to
those who do participate because, you know, we we we wanna
acknowledge that taking the time to participate in an industry
(27:46):
survey is is a big ask. And so we wanna appreciate
the people that do that for us. And so I'm just I've got it actually
pulled up right here in front of me and also wanna give a special shout
out to Caitlin Dover Sherrick on our team. Sorry.
Caitlin Sherrick. She recently got married, so I wanna get that right,
who created this flipping book for us, and it's a great
(28:08):
resource. It it lays out, you know, those participation windows
when we anticipate releasing reports, and it
gives a good idea of what that research calendar looks
like. So definitely would encourage people to go check that out on our
website. Yeah. And add to that. It also adds, you
know, number of questions, level of effort, how long will it take to complete the
(28:30):
survey so you can all be prepared to go do it. You can preview the
survey there. When when the report's ready, you can even download it from that. Just
go find find it, search for it on our website. If we don't add it
to this, podcast, search for it, save it. You're going to need
it. It's very useful. Yeah. Well and I love that
point that, you know, that it's sometimes it's a little things that matter. Right, Keith?
(28:51):
Because I don't know about you, but ever since, like, even in news articles when
they put, like, this article takes three minutes to read, this article takes seven
minutes to read, I can then be like, oh, do I have the time to
read this? Can I do that? Those those little things make a big difference,
but I do wanna let I list out for those that are listening or if
you're watching this video, if you're not familiar with all of the
(29:13):
Zweig reports, we've got salary and compensation, valuation,
principals, partners, and owners, fee and billing, financial
performance, recruitment and retention, which has always been my baby, the
one that I've I think one year actually was the author of recruitment and retention
or maybe two I don't know. I've lost track, but that to me,
given the very nature of this industry and the
(29:36):
challenges that this industry faces finding and keeping
great talent, I would imagine that every firm
would want to participate in the recruitment and retention
survey because that report provides so much
updated information, and it changes every year.
So, you know, I I would encourage anybody listening to this. If you
(29:58):
have never participated, if you're looking to say, well, where should I
start? Obviously, best firms to work for is is the first place that I would
start. But the neck the next one right after that would be recruitment and retention.
And then other things that are important to you as a principal
owner, if you're thinking about ownership transition and what that looks like,
you know, there's information for everybody there. And I'd
(30:20):
so going down the list after recruitment and retention is policies, procedures, and
benefits, business operations, a guide for success.
There are a number of amazing reports that the insights
group puts out that I think you really want to
participate in and take advantage of. And, again, you know, like they say,
knowledge equals power. Right? So just having that knowledge and
(30:42):
information and sharing it with other people can be really
valuable and can come back and give you an a tremendous
return on your investment of time to participate in those
reports. Yeah. And just to give a little insight on those
reports and and what happens with our team and corresponds with
this research calendar. So we just
(31:04):
released the principal partners and owners survey
on Friday. That was about the exact
time that we closed participation in the
fee and billing survey, which will be released hopefully
later this month or early May and
then opened up our 75% off participation
(31:25):
window in policies, procedures, and benefits. So a
constant stream of releasing a product, closing the
survey for the next product, and opening the survey for the
following product. So and there's never a dull moment. That's for
sure. And though Randy said, first, you focus on best friends you work for and
second on recruitment and retention, if you're new to us, first you focus
(31:47):
on policies, procedures, and benefits because that opened up today. No. No.
No. This is gonna be, where this podcast is gonna be shared, but
just go look at the can calendar. The calendar hasn't been listed out. Yeah. And
I wanna iterate for reiterate for everybody listening to this, you know, we try
to make these podcasts as evergreen as possible.
This calendar comes around every year. Right? So, you know, every year there's Christmas, every
(32:09):
year there's a policy, procedures, and benefits survey. So
there's an opportunity to participate. If you don't get it this go around, you can
do it next year. So and that's why I think is the calendar
itself is so valuable because then you can dial in and pick and
choose the things that you wanna participate in. And then that way, you
know when it's coming up, when it opens, when it closes,
(32:31):
and just to make sure that you get the folks in in your
organization involved and so that they're aware and they can do what
needs to be done. That's right. Yeah. That's great. So so listen. I
know if you're watching this video, some of our viewers probably
recognize these two guys from the Elevate AEC gala, which we
talked about earlier. But both of you guys have had a major hand in
(32:53):
getting firms recognized on stage through the Zuai Group
Awards. And then, like, for both of you, I'm just curious. Preparing for that moment
on stage kinda starts right now. Right? And so what is
the process like going from tons and tons of
award entries to recognizing the
best of the best on the stage? And and for those that aren't aware, we're
(33:15):
actually recording this in the month of April, but we've still got
several months to go before the actual Elevate event, which is gonna be an
amazing event. And this year, it happens to be in San Antonio, Texas.
I can't wait. But, the bottom line is what for you guys, as
you are slowly transitioning to that award season,
what is that like for you both? I'll let I'll let Kyle speak to this,
(33:37):
but I will say it already started in December. Quite literally, it
probably started in September when we when we ended last elevate
AEC. Right? But, yeah, Kyle, this is this is you. I saw the look
in his eyes. I I wish it was slowly transitioning.
I really do. No. Like like Keith said, I mean, we
we celebrate the firms and give them the amazing
(34:00):
recognition they deserve at the conference and at the
awards gala. It's something that we need to do a better
job of in the industry of of celebrating ourselves and all that we
accomplished, and we definitely celebrate our
award winners at at the gala. So would would love to you know, if your
firm is a is a Zuai group award winner or or you received a Zuai
(34:22):
group award, definitely get to the gala and celebrate with us. But but
then, you know, typically, by that point, we've already got
registrations open for the next year. While
people have, you know, words on their mind, we we've got them open for the
next year. We're fine tuning, you know, our different
surveys during that time, different processes. And then it, you know,
(34:43):
opens up, and and a lot of participation starts going on after the
first of the year. And then about this time so we just
closed our rising stars in the AEC
industry award this past Friday as well. So a lot of
deadlines on Friday. It was a busy day. So we just
closed that award, and and we're getting our panel of team
(35:05):
our panelists ready to go to read what might
end up being a record number of rising star nominations. I have to go
back and get the exact numbers of previous years because they're gonna have their
work cut out for them this year. So, you know, we we go
from collection you know, rising stars collection, it
it'll be reading every single one of those nominations and and
(35:28):
picking as as hard as it's gonna be, but picking our our list of
rising stars for the year. You know, best firms to work for will
close that in a little over a month from today. Today is
April 1. The registration closes May 2. And
then it just gets to collecting all of the data,
organizing it all together, building out our
(35:50):
rating functionality, and then getting the results plugged
in and getting our winners established, getting
the data published back to Zweig insights.
Keith and Sue and Garda are a big part of that. And then, you know,
informing all of our winners and and then this, you know, same process, we we've
got about a two week difference between best firms to work for
(36:14):
deadline, hot firm deadline, and and marketing excellence deadline
to allow our team a little bit of a buffer to get all those results
tabulated, announce the winner. So we we try to make
sure every single one of our winners receives a a phone call
congratulation as well as a big email. They get
all this marketing material, press release, the logos
(36:36):
they can use to do their own marketing. You know? And then we're
sending all of our winners packets in the mail for
extra collateral and, you know, inviting them to the
Elevate AEC conference, and then we jump into prep to
celebrate everybody down there at the conference. So, yeah, right
now, we are we're getting towards the end, I
(36:58):
would say, of the registration period. Still a
month ago, still plenty of time, but getting closer to the,
transition of alright. It's time to start figuring out who these winners are and
and letting them know. Yeah. Well and I think, you know, I think it
goes without saying, and I've heard Mark, and I've heard Chad, and so many others
talk about the importance of celebrating our industry. And that's
(37:20):
another reason why the work that you guys do is so important because
too often, we kinda get into our our little caves and
just put our heads down and do our work. And then, you know, we need
to sometimes look up from the desk, look up from the computer screen or
from our phone and acknowledge what's going on around us. And I think
that, you know, participating in these awards is one way to do
(37:43):
that, and I certainly am excited. We just recently Luke and I just
recently interviewed several of the rising star previous awardees,
and they just talked about how much of a difference that award made for
them just in terms of how they feel about themselves, not just
as human beings, but as design professionals. And I think it
shouldn't be lost on you guys that what you're doing, the work that that
(38:06):
Zweig is doing in this space is really important, and it does
have some profound implications and impacts to
the next generation of design professionals that are coming up through the ranks.
So my only encouragement is to continue to do what you're
doing. I know it's a lot of work. Rest when you can,
but, you know, the rest of the time, just, you know, get in there and
(38:28):
grind it out, man, because, you know, the industry is really counting on you
guys. And, again, I want to encourage everybody listening to this,
whether you're watching the video or listening to this, is to, you know, at some
point in time, just go visit zweiggroup.com and go
bookmark, you know, some of the different opportunities and options that you have. And even
if you go to the main website and you click on the menu
(38:50):
section on the in the right hand corner, it'll take you down to all the
different options. The second option is insights, and that's where you can go to get
a lot of different information and participate in a lot of these programs. The
fourth option is awards, and that's where you can go to learn more about the
best firm to work for and all the other awards that we've talked about on
this particular podcast. And there's so much that we could elaborate on,
(39:12):
and this isn't an infomercial for Zweig Group because we do the podcast. Right?
Because that's just it. So we have to talk about the things that we're doing
on a regular basis. But as I've said many times and and just as
what you guys alluded to, this knowledge and information is very
important. You have to share it. You have to put it out there, and it
bears repeating because sometimes we need reminders. We need
(39:34):
to hear things multiple times before it actually takes hold. Right? You
know, back in the day, they said, you know, you you have to repeat something
seven times in a sales process for it to cement itself in the minds
of the potential person that you are trying to sell to. Now they're saying from
a marketing perspective, it's like 13 plus times. You have to make that
many more impressions on people just because of technology, because of
(39:56):
what these phones are doing to us. And I'm holding up for those who are
listening to the podcast, I'm just holding up my iPhone, but, you know, it's a
blessing and a curse. Right? Because it sometimes takes us out of the element of
focus. And I think what you guys are doing is
simply incredible. You've got an amazing team, and, Keith,
we're gonna get some of those young people that I got to hang out with
(40:18):
down in Tampa at the last Elevate conference on this podcast because
they are super bright, super intelligent. I mean, you guys
have an amazing team. And, I mean, just a collection of you two alone, just
Keith and Kyle, the k and the k, I think that makes it even
more special. So, Luke, do you have anything you wanna add before we close out?
No. I was just gonna also, just encourage people to reach
(40:40):
out to Keith and Kyle with questions. These are two
of the most responsive people that I've had the pleasure with of working
with, and I've referred Kyle at
least a thousand emails, in the six years that
we've worked together. No exaggeration. Not no. Not even
close because we're kind of the midpoint between awards together. Yeah.
(41:02):
Yeah. And Kyle and Keith are both incredibly responsive.
And most importantly, they want to talk to you. Keith and I have
had the conversation many times where we want people to ask us questions
about what we do, and we put ourselves forward in that position.
So I would encourage people to just reach out to these two. I mean,
they're incredibly responsive and incredibly insightful. Yeah.
(41:25):
Absolutely. Well, with that said, Keith, what's your email address? We'll
give it to people. All the information that we mentioned that every one of
us has mentioned on this episode will also be in the show notes. But for
anybody that just wants to get it down quickly, Keith, what's your email address for
people to reach out to you? K sequueira. So
ksequeira@zweigroup.com.
(41:46):
And if you hit research@zweigroup.com, Kyle and I have to see that. That goes
directly to our mailboxes. That's right. And and Kyle, yours
is? K a hern. So
kahern@zweigroup.com.
Perfect. Well, that that works out great. Gentlemen, we appreciate you
guys letting us steal you away from a busy day and
(42:06):
just chatting with us a little bit about the work that you're doing. Again, it
it is important work, and both Luke and I and the rest of the zwei
team applaud and continue to encourage you to do this great
work because the industry is depending on you guys.
And so no pressure, but No pressure. Get out there and
make it happen. We appreciate you guys both so very much. Thank you. Thank you,
(42:28):
Randy. Well, thank you for the opportunity. Randy. Absolutely. Well, there you have
it, folks. Another episode of the Zweig Letter
podcast. We hope you enjoyed it here with my compatriot,
Luke Carruthers and Kyle Ahearn and Keith Sequera.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Zweig letter podcast
and that you've been encouraged to get out there and, either
(42:50):
apply and for one of the upcoming awards for the Elevate
conference or you wanna participate in a survey. It's all there for
the taking. So I really wanna encourage you to get involved and get
that calendar on your calendar so you know what's coming next,
and that way you can participate in it. So but that's all I have for
you. Remember, this Y Glitter podcast can be found on every major
(43:11):
podcasting platform, including YouTube. We've always got something
for you there. And as always, you can find us on the Zweig
group website, which is just zweiggroup.com.
You can find show notes. You can find all of our back catalog of
podcast. We've been podcasting since 2016, so we're kinda like the
OGs in the design industry when it comes to podcasting, more than
(43:34):
250 plus episodes. So there's something there
for everyone, and I would encourage you to check it out when you get a
chance. I'm your host, Randy Wilburn, and we'll see you back here
very soon for another new episode of the
Zweig Letter podcast. Peace. Thanks
for tuning in to the Zweig Letter Podcast. We
(43:56):
hope that you can be part of elevating the industry and that you can
apply our advice and information to your daily
professional life. For a free digital subscription to the
Zweig letter, please visit the zweigletter.com
slash subscribe to gain more wisdom and inspiration in
addition to information about leadership, finance,
(44:18):
HR, and marketing your firm. Subscribe
today.
Welcome to the Zweig letter podcast. Putting
architectural engineering, planning, and environmental
consulting advice and guidance in your ear. Zweig
group's team of experts have spent more than three decades
elevating the industry by helping AEP and
environmental consulting firms thrive. And these
(00:25):
podcasts deliver invaluable management,
industry, client, marketing, and
HR advice directly to you free of
charge. The Zweig letter podcasts,
elevating the design industry one episode at a
time. Welcome to
(00:47):
the Zweig letter podcast, your go to source for
insights and inspiration from the best minds in the
AEC industry. I'm your host, Randy Wilburn. And
today, we're talking about research and data with
two of the AEC industry's top experts
and friends of mine. Each year, Zweig Group collects and
(01:08):
manages millions of data points from different areas of the AEC
industry, creating reports that help firms navigate an
ever changing landscape. With us today are two of
the team members who helped make it all possible,
Kyle Ahearn and Keith Sequera. We're excited to
hear about their work and how they are elevating the
(01:30):
research game. Joining me in this conversation is my
colleague and new cohost, compadre, my
Robin to the Batman that I am, I guess. I don't know. I don't I
don't know where I'm going. Anyway, Luke Carothers. Go on, Drew.
Yeah. And together, we're going to dive into changing
research needs, employee sentiment data, and
(01:52):
research participation, and so much more. So whether you're a
long time user of Zweig Group Research products
or you're new to their offerings, this is the
episode for you. So let's jump right in. Alright.
Kyle, Keith, how are you guys doing today? Doing well. Thank you,
Randy. Doing well. Doing well. Thanks, Randy. Absolutely,
(02:14):
man. I'm so honored to have you both on this podcast, and it's
just it's really you know, we I've had you both on at
different times by yourselves. And so now this is the first time that
we're all kind of on here together, which I I'm really excited about.
And, you know, this is a conversation that sometimes
doesn't get, I guess, the weight or the exposure
(02:36):
that it deserves. And and speaking of and what I'm speaking of specifically
is just, you know, the data and the information in the
design industry and how it's collected, how it's
assembled, how it's looked at and parsed, and then how
it is presented to the world. Right? But more importantly, how it's
presented to our colleagues in the design industry space
(02:59):
and why the information matters in the first place. And so
I definitely want to, we're gonna have a a good conversation about
this today. Keith, for the audience, for those that don't know you, I would
love for you just to just share a little bit about your background and your
specific role at Zwai Group. Thanks, Randy. And as
much as I I like being in the in the spotlight, this is always
(03:21):
awkward to get started with these You got this, man.
But I am now the senior director of analytics
and technology at Zweig Group. That's my new role since
December of twenty twenty four. It's been quite the ride really
since 2022, which is when I started with Zwagroup. And
Randy, I was just looking up when we last had this conversation was November of
(03:43):
twenty twenty three. I think I was still getting my feet under me trying to
figure out what we're doing. It was on the heels of the Zweig
insights transition, maybe. Yeah. It's It's
been a year. No. My feet are not under me yet.
But my role mixture of roles now. Yeah.
The focus really is to lead the research and analytics
(04:06):
department. Kyle obviously has he's he's new to the group as well. He's
been part of the research group as the awards and employee experience
manager for years. Look, Kyle's been with the Zweig Group for ten years now.
But, he's new to the larger analytics
team and we have Sue Dang and
and, Gerard Wigmer who are also on this team. Our
(04:28):
focus really is to collect, analyze
and report on the data from the
industry. Right? We have about 10 to 15 different
publications. We try to publish one every month. We
have this wide insights platform, which has a couple
products in there. Yeah. It's a broad
(04:51):
range of the type of data, I guess, that we provide back, in
our benchmark reports to the industry. My new
role also includes managing the technology stack at at Zweig
Group. The focus really is to lead innovation
through technology at at Zweig Group. And that's we're trying to think of ways to
use AI. We're trying to think of ways to use automation and, you know,
(05:13):
streamline and improve. That's that's the goal. Yeah. I well, I
appreciate it. I mean, you you did an amazing job helping us move our
tech stack over to the Microsoft universe, if you
will. And, there were little little hiccups here or there, but
every time I looked up, you had an answer for everything. So I
appreciate that as I know the rest of these guys do. So even
(05:36):
though I'm not fully engaged all the time with everything Zweig Group, but,
certainly, I know this this next gentleman gets is coming to the stage and sharing
a little bit about himself is, and I remember him when. But, Kyle,
certainly, I can't believe it's been ten years, but you've been on this podcast a
couple of times, and I wanna welcome you back again. Just for the
audience's edification, just introduce yourself because most
(05:57):
firms that we deal with at Zwai Group know you or have
received an email from you or a phone call. I mean, you are the
eponymous individual at Zwai Group because everybody gets
to interact with you. But for those that don't know you, for those that have
been in a cave for the last couple of years, just introduce yourself again,
Kyle. Yeah. Thanks, Randy. I I appreciate it. And, yeah,
(06:19):
ten years already. Right? No. And and it's
been good. I've been able to work in a lot of different
areas within the the Zweig group environment and all that we
do. You know, Randy, you were a a mentor of mine
really when I first started and how we worked together in executive
search and all that you taught me there. And then I moved over to the
(06:42):
awards area and ran that and still run
that program to this day, and and so been doing that for about the
last nine years. And then, just
through that, there's been a kind of a natural evolution of
bringing the data that we get through the awards program
and integrating it more and more into our
(07:04):
wider research base, our our
our stack of research that we have in trying to you know,
especially the the vast amounts of employee survey data. You know, last year,
we had over 20,000 responses to the best firms to work for
employee survey. So it's it's getting that data integrated to the
rest of the data that we have. And that's just kind of been a
(07:26):
natural progression for me over the last, you know, year or
so of working closer with our research team
and then moving officially into a a manager of
awards and analytics in October of last year
and just getting more and more ingrained in all of the research that we
do beyond just the how we integrate the awards data, but all
(07:48):
the research that we do. So Keith has been a a huge help for me
there, as well as Sue and Gerardo, who are both rock
stars on our team as well. So my role now is
taking a you know, helping with the big picture view of of everything's
white group research related, but still still holding down the fort on
the awards. And, you know, hopefully, everybody who's who's
(08:10):
interacting with me on the through the awards program will be able
to, start to get a little bit of an understanding of what we're doing on
on the research side as a whole here as well. Yeah.
And then I wanna add to that, Randy. We say everybody
has heard or seen an email from Kyle. But for the folks that
haven't, especially the ones that are at Elevate AEC, Kyle runs a
(08:32):
lot behind the scenes at at Elevate. Let's not forget. So
if you have not interacted with him, you have seen
his products for sure. Yeah. He he he is
both behind the scenes and on the stage. He does
everything for Elevate AEC. Well, I tell him, you know,
it's why he's got a really nice tuxedo, and and it gets a lot of
(08:54):
use. So and and I love I just love hearing that and just seeing
the evolution specifically for Kyle, but we can fanboy over
him later. I want to I wanna ask you both, and I'll
start with you, Keith, because I think this is the reason why we wanted to
have this conversation in the first place. The needs and wants of
design firms have surely changed when it comes to
(09:16):
research. I'm just curious to know what are you hearing
from firms? What are they asking for in terms of
research? And even in your three years here at Zweig Group, I'm sure
you've seen a change in those requests. Just through the awards,
I mean, this is from a best firms to work for perspective. I think,
really, when I first started with the awards program, it was
(09:38):
that. It was an award, and, you know, that was great
week one. We're best firms to work for. We're a hot firm. We're we're marketing
excellence award winner. Whereas now and this shift
has really taken place over about the last five years or so because
we are presenting this data back to them. It's it's more than just
an award for especially for best firms to work for anymore. They
(10:00):
get the the employee sentiment data presented back to them
alongside the industry averages and benchmarking
data through Zwag Insights. They have that presented back to them,
and and they can start to formulate, you know, internal team
strategy off that data. And now I hear more from people
saying, we are in this for the data. The
(10:22):
award is kind of the carry on top, and that's an evolution in
what firms are looking for in that area, you know, that
specific area. You know? And and as it pertains to data
in a wider sense, you know, I think the almost the
instant feedback, we've built these benchmarking tools, Keith, and and I'd love for
you to touch on those a little bit more because these benchmarking tools that allow
(10:45):
firms to input their data and then see it, you know,
right up next against those benchmarking data rather than,
you know, the traditional PDF where you're looking at the data. And
maybe maybe you've got some of your own data pulled up on another screen. Having
it all right there together is an evolution I've seen.
Yeah. And I I would that's where I was going. That that's where I was
(11:06):
thinking about, you know, the PDFs are tradition of how we delivered all of
our reports and PDFs. Obviously, you can search, but
there's much efficient ways to view that data. There's much efficient ways to slice and
dice through it. There are tools out there specifically that, you know, that help you
do that if you had access to the raw data. What we're trying to do
is trying to make that easier, and that's through tools like Zuag Insights. Right? We
(11:27):
have all these Excel tools that we have always delivered as an add on or
as part of your package when you purchase a report from us, but
those Excel tools are static. What Zwag Insight gives you is direct
access. It's connected to our database, connected to our our data warehouse.
You you will progressively get fresher data.
Right? And we currently only have best ones to work for and and comp data
(11:49):
platform in that within Zwag Insights, and comp data platform is moving to
a a regular cadence to provide you with more real time
compensation data. But that's where I see that's the transition that I see. And I
think as an industry, we are a little late to this game. A lot of
like most other industries have already done this. You know, we moved away from physical
PDFs and paper printed reports,
(12:11):
but we still do some of that at Zweig Group too. There's still a few
people that want those printed reports. Yeah. This industry has always
been slow on the uptick when it comes to, new technology,
but they're getting there slowly but surely. So You know, I don't think that's the
industry's fault, though. I think as we develop
tools, we need to develop tools that have the answers. Right? Not tools where
(12:33):
people have to dig for the answers. And I think that's the key differentiator here.
Where we're going to or trying to provide that within, like, actionable
insight from our data. Let's not beat around the bush. Why you
have to go through 50 different chapters to find what you need? AI is making
it much easier for us to search for results. So why don't our tools support
that as well? And I think Zawag Insights is where we can do that. Yeah.
(12:55):
Absolutely. I mean and, you know, again, I think of the evolution
of best firms to work for the whole platform. Right? And, you know,
it functions as both an award and, like you said,
Kyle, earlier, one of the largest collections of employee sentiment
data in the AEC industry space. And I think also one
of the things that reasons why the best firms to work
(13:18):
for platform is so important is because when you think
of the information that it provides to a firm
to create the best environment possible for
recruitment, retention, for growth, I mean,
all of those things play a factor, and I'm and I'm sure I'm missing some
categories, but there's so much that goes into
(13:40):
making a best firm in terms of what these firms do themselves.
That's why the data is so valuable, and that's why, you know, we're
constantly encouraging firms to participate in this program.
And whether they are at the top of the heap or somewhere in the middle
or even at the bottom, you only get what you inspect. If
you don't take the time to benchmark your your performance
(14:03):
and your your organization to other peer firms out
there, you're gonna miss out on opportunities for you
to shore up areas of shortcomings, to figure
out how you can put yourselves out there in a better light
and really be able to compete with the rest of the firms out there that
are using Zweig's data on a regular basis to just make
(14:26):
themselves better. Yeah. I think when we talk about just the evolution
of Zweig Group research and data, in general, it makes
sense that we this innovation would come through best firms to work
for. Right? All this data, all the the millions and millions of points,
they all add up to a snapshot of how we operate as an industry.
And if people are using that as a way to navigate forward, then
(14:49):
it makes sense that we take that snapshot from the best firms to work
for. Yeah. I mean and certainly and I appreciate you adding
to that because, really, I did I did have a question there. I promise you
guys. How has best firms to work for
developed over the years? I mean, we talk about the technology that's now
there, but what else in your own words have made
(15:11):
best firms to work for so important and something that people should pay
attention to? Yeah. 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 people. You know? You you're competing for people
(15:33):
straight out of college and universities, but then you're also
competing with firms who are trying to poach your
employees. And so a way to help
ensure, you know, good retention is to assess
what your employees are thinking about your firm, and you've gotta do
that through surveys. And and people, you know, they worry about, well, survey
(15:54):
fatigue. Are we over surveying our our employees? Well, I mean,
the nice thing about best firms to work for, it's it's once a year. And
it's an extensive survey, but it's also very important. I think
firm leaders need to relay why
they're doing it, not to win the award, but to get an
understanding from their employees on how you're feeling about what we're doing at
(16:16):
this firm. Are are we doing things that are working and that you like? Or
where are we falling short in your eyes? And and the best runners to workforce
survey covers culture and compensation benefits,
recruitment retention, performance management, and professional
development, wide range of topics. And so it
gives this high level view, and then Zwiegen
(16:38):
sites brings that high level view. The more you click
through Zwiegen sites, the the further you can focus that high level
view. You can get an understanding of how employees feel about the
firm's management and what the firm's managers are doing and
about the compensation and and where they may be falling short or what
people like. But then that data needs to be turned
(17:00):
into actionable insights. You you don't wanna be survey you know,
asking people to take this survey year after year and not provide
any plan of action for the data that comes back. So Or
improvements. Yeah. Right. Right. So it's really important that
firms then, you know, take the data, assess where they
are, and come up with action items or, you know, an
(17:22):
updated strategic plan or refresh to address
some of the areas that need to be addressed within the data that
comes out of the best firms to work for employees survey. I've
one thing that I would thought about adding to that, Kyle, was the text responses.
I mean, that's huge because Right. It's not just data points
that you're viewing your ad. You're actually viewing what somebody typed about how
(17:45):
they felt in that moment, about how they're feeling at their firm. They're writing out
what exactly this could be this actionable insight. Right? That's just it. It
gives you exactly and you can pinpoint it. You can aggregate it. I know
firms do that already to get that data from us and then have somebody aggregate,
kind of figure out what the general sentiment is. And Kyle, I know I'm
leading into what we're getting ready to talk about, but, That's right. I won't throw
(18:07):
it out yet. No. I I was just yeah. That's
something that, our team has been working diligently on
for really the last several months is, coming up with a
way to bring some of that commentary sentiment
analysis into Zwag Insights and and be able to provide those
summaries. So I'll just say stay tuned for some special
(18:30):
announcements coming out. Hopefully, once best firms to work for
results are are ready to be published. I love that. You know, as I
was listening to both of you talk about this and just, you know,
the the way that firms have to go about getting these
surveys filled out and, you know, there is a certain amount of
survey fatigue that I think anybody could have. What are some of the
(18:52):
most unique ways that you have seen firms encourage
participation in these? Because this might be a place where firm
leaders who are probably thinking in the back of their minds, like, alright. You
know, Keith, Kyle, this is all great, but my people already
stretched to the gills in terms of work and everything else, and now you want
me to give them a fill in the blank number of questions and a
(19:15):
survey. What are some of the unique ways that you have seen firms
overcome those obstacles to get these filled out? Because we
know the greater participation, the greater the feedback,
and the greater the feedback, the greater the reporting
results. Yeah. I think first and foremost, it it just comes
down to the messaging, and it has to be clear
(19:36):
that we're doing this, hopefully, for your
benefit. You know? We're doing this to
make our firm a better place to work. You know? We would love to be
considered a best firm to work for, but we wanna do this to better
ourselves. We wanna understand what you like, what you don't like,
where we can improve. And this is your opportunity to
(19:59):
have your say in that. You know? This isn't just, you know, the
top 10 managers getting together and coming up with a plan. This is your
words with there's plenty of open commentary sections, but then, you
know, being able to to show how much you you agree or how
satisfied you are through quantitative data as well. And
so getting that messaging that, hey. This is your opportunity to
(20:21):
have your say in potentially the future of our
internal strategy. So that's one way. Another way you know?
And we we definitely do not encourage people
to say, hey. You know, we want you to give us positive responses. We
encourage to say, you know, hey. If we get to 90%
participation, we're gonna do x y you know, we're gonna have a a
(20:43):
happy hour, a company sponsored happy hour. But that's
you know, we we wanna base that on participation,
not necessarily results. And so that's creative
ways firms have have encouraged participation as well in the
past. Yeah. I mean, I think, obviously, there's a million different carrots that you
can dangle out there in front of people, but you want people to
(21:05):
actually want to do the survey. Right. And and to see the value,
not just kinda be performative or just be, you know,
filling out you know, just you utilizing time to do it because then you're
not getting the quality data that you you really want. And
that's that's where the follow-up really comes into play too, Randy,
is is if employees feel like they're just doing this
(21:27):
survey every year, but they don't see anything come out of it,
then they really are gonna be you know, if if someone's done it for four
years and they've never really seen
any results come out of it, then they're not gonna be very encouraged to,
one, give quality responses or even respond at all. So
Mhmm. You know, having a plan to follow-up, like, okay. This
(21:50):
we appreciate your input through this employee
survey. You know, we've got a team that's gonna take this data,
assess it, and put together a plan, and then we will present that back
to you. And we have firms that will go on, you know, what
they call talent hall tours. If they've got multiple offices, they'll go
visit each office. You know, Maybe the HR managers are gonna go
(22:13):
around to each office and and go over the results and the corresponding
plan to those results. So Mhmm. The follow-up really is
very important as well, especially for firms that
participate year after year. Yeah. And and, Randy, to to your
question, I think incentivizing might
just be the wrong method or thought process there. I think
(22:34):
it's culture. Right? Leadership has to have this culture of where
they truly care about their folks at their firm. And if they do
that, then asking your firm to take another survey or take
a survey every year about, hey. We're doing well. Let's figure
out how we can do better. Right? That should be easy. That's
my take on it, and I think I mean, Zwai Group is a perfect example.
(22:56):
When we get a survey to take for internal sentiment, I think
everybody's game or at least everybody's open to give that feedback.
Right? And I think that comes from the top down. Our leadership makes it to
where we can. And I think that's the key part there. Yeah. Yeah. That
that's a I'm glad you made that clarification too because, I mean, yeah, when you
think of incentivize, you're thinking, oh, well, you know, you gotta give
(23:18):
something to get something. And you're right. I mean, culture
is an important aspect of it. And if I really care about the
place that I work in the environment that I'm in, I wanna promote it, and
I wanna tell the world about it. And one way that you tell the world
about it is by participating in these surveys.
Yeah. And I think that's where the we talk about incentive.
(23:41):
I think that's the the uniqueness of best firms to work for is
there's that incentive of being on the list and then
remaining on the list. So if you're on it one year and you're
on it the next year, that means you responded to your employees, essentially. They still
think they're you're doing a good job. So I think it's a very good
incentive because if you make the list, you won't remain on the list if you're
(24:03):
not making the changes. Yeah. That's a fair point. I think I I hadn't thought
about it that way, Luke, because that is the incentive. Right? It's the
incentive for the firm to do better. Yeah. Do better by your employees, and your
employees will return that favor in your sir in your survey responses.
Yeah. No. I love that. So listen. I do wanna talk about this because one
of the coolest new features to the Zwai Group website
(24:25):
is the research calendar. Can you guys talk a little bit about
how you develop this calendar and really what it means for firms
who want to participate in Zweig group research
moving forward. Right? And then also, I know that you have kinda
in mixed into that whole new calendar approach an updated
discount program for participation. This is always
(24:47):
nice to have something to grease the wheels, right, to get folks to get We
were talking about incentives. We were talking about it? Yeah. This is a different kind
of incentive, though. So yes. Yeah. It's not for not for your employees.
So in the past, and I say in the past, up until December,
Zweig Group would offer 50% off discounts for
participation in our surveys. Right? The surveys were open for participation
(25:10):
all year round. Data collection was a it was
less timely. Reports could have been delayed. I feel like the data
wasn't as accurate as what I'm about to say with the new process.
And really, it didn't create this sense of urgency for
participation in our surveys. Right? So we brainstormed this idea
for a couple years now. And finally, in January,
(25:32):
we have released our new discounted tiered
discount strategy. What the new process is,
we have a participation window for every survey. And
within that participation window, if you participate within that participation
window, you are eligible for 75% off on
that report that we published from that survey. There's also a
(25:54):
25% off window at the end if you don't participate within the first
three weeks. But typically, this participation window is
two months to one and a half months before the
publication date of the the report. I know that's all over
the place. We we have images on our website that make it very clear. This
is why we didn't release it. We keep speaking about it. We released it with
(26:16):
with the with the calendar. The calendar makes
it very clear. It's month by month. It tells you what the participation
time frame is, when the report will be released, when the
75% discount eligibility ends, when the
25% discount eligibility ends. And really the
benefit here is, aside from the 75% discount,
(26:39):
the reports are going to be more up to date. Their participation
early allows us to have more bandwidth
and time to work through, you know, all the details I
go into publishing these reports. Accuracy is gonna be better, and
it's it's just gonna be more timely. Kyle, did I miss anything on that?
No. No. I think I just I added you like you said,
(27:01):
accuracy in that, you know, the results of
of a survey that took place a month ago are gonna be
more accurate to when we're publishing it rather than, you know, someone took
the survey ten months ago. You know, that in that time, you
know, things could potentially shift quite a bit. So having that
participation window open a lot closer to
(27:24):
the release of the report is a way to for for us to
ensure that we're giving the industry the best data that we can.
And, you know, having that that 75% off is is just an
extra driver in that that we want to give back to
those who do participate because, you know, we we we wanna
acknowledge that taking the time to participate in an industry
(27:46):
survey is is a big ask. And so we wanna appreciate
the people that do that for us. And so I'm just I've got it actually
pulled up right here in front of me and also wanna give a special shout
out to Caitlin Dover Sherrick on our team. Sorry.
Caitlin Sherrick. She recently got married, so I wanna get that right,
who created this flipping book for us, and it's a great
(28:08):
resource. It it lays out, you know, those participation windows
when we anticipate releasing reports, and it
gives a good idea of what that research calendar looks
like. So definitely would encourage people to go check that out on our
website. Yeah. And add to that. It also adds, you
know, number of questions, level of effort, how long will it take to complete the
(28:30):
survey so you can all be prepared to go do it. You can preview the
survey there. When when the report's ready, you can even download it from that. Just
go find find it, search for it on our website. If we don't add it
to this, podcast, search for it, save it. You're going to need
it. It's very useful. Yeah. Well and I love that
point that, you know, that it's sometimes it's a little things that matter. Right, Keith?
(28:51):
Because I don't know about you, but ever since, like, even in news articles when
they put, like, this article takes three minutes to read, this article takes seven
minutes to read, I can then be like, oh, do I have the time to
read this? Can I do that? Those those little things make a big difference,
but I do wanna let I list out for those that are listening or if
you're watching this video, if you're not familiar with all of the
(29:13):
Zweig reports, we've got salary and compensation, valuation,
principals, partners, and owners, fee and billing, financial
performance, recruitment and retention, which has always been my baby, the
one that I've I think one year actually was the author of recruitment and retention
or maybe two I don't know. I've lost track, but that to me,
given the very nature of this industry and the
(29:36):
challenges that this industry faces finding and keeping
great talent, I would imagine that every firm
would want to participate in the recruitment and retention
survey because that report provides so much
updated information, and it changes every year.
So, you know, I I would encourage anybody listening to this. If you
(29:58):
have never participated, if you're looking to say, well, where should I
start? Obviously, best firms to work for is is the first place that I would
start. But the neck the next one right after that would be recruitment and retention.
And then other things that are important to you as a principal
owner, if you're thinking about ownership transition and what that looks like,
you know, there's information for everybody there. And I'd
(30:20):
so going down the list after recruitment and retention is policies, procedures, and
benefits, business operations, a guide for success.
There are a number of amazing reports that the insights
group puts out that I think you really want to
participate in and take advantage of. And, again, you know, like they say,
knowledge equals power. Right? So just having that knowledge and
(30:42):
information and sharing it with other people can be really
valuable and can come back and give you an a tremendous
return on your investment of time to participate in those
reports. Yeah. And just to give a little insight on those
reports and and what happens with our team and corresponds with
this research calendar. So we just
(31:04):
released the principal partners and owners survey
on Friday. That was about the exact
time that we closed participation in the
fee and billing survey, which will be released hopefully
later this month or early May and
then opened up our 75% off participation
(31:25):
window in policies, procedures, and benefits. So a
constant stream of releasing a product, closing the
survey for the next product, and opening the survey for the
following product. So and there's never a dull moment. That's for
sure. And though Randy said, first, you focus on best friends you work for and
second on recruitment and retention, if you're new to us, first you focus
(31:47):
on policies, procedures, and benefits because that opened up today. No. No.
No. This is gonna be, where this podcast is gonna be shared, but
just go look at the can calendar. The calendar hasn't been listed out. Yeah. And
I wanna iterate for reiterate for everybody listening to this, you know, we try
to make these podcasts as evergreen as possible.
This calendar comes around every year. Right? So, you know, every year there's Christmas, every
(32:09):
year there's a policy, procedures, and benefits survey. So
there's an opportunity to participate. If you don't get it this go around, you can
do it next year. So and that's why I think is the calendar
itself is so valuable because then you can dial in and pick and
choose the things that you wanna participate in. And then that way, you
know when it's coming up, when it opens, when it closes,
(32:31):
and just to make sure that you get the folks in in your
organization involved and so that they're aware and they can do what
needs to be done. That's right. Yeah. That's great. So so listen. I
know if you're watching this video, some of our viewers probably
recognize these two guys from the Elevate AEC gala, which we
talked about earlier. But both of you guys have had a major hand in
(32:53):
getting firms recognized on stage through the Zuai Group
Awards. And then, like, for both of you, I'm just curious. Preparing for that moment
on stage kinda starts right now. Right? And so what is
the process like going from tons and tons of
award entries to recognizing the
best of the best on the stage? And and for those that aren't aware, we're
(33:15):
actually recording this in the month of April, but we've still got
several months to go before the actual Elevate event, which is gonna be an
amazing event. And this year, it happens to be in San Antonio, Texas.
I can't wait. But, the bottom line is what for you guys, as
you are slowly transitioning to that award season,
what is that like for you both? I'll let I'll let Kyle speak to this,
(33:37):
but I will say it already started in December. Quite literally, it
probably started in September when we when we ended last elevate
AEC. Right? But, yeah, Kyle, this is this is you. I saw the look
in his eyes. I I wish it was slowly transitioning.
I really do. No. Like like Keith said, I mean, we
we celebrate the firms and give them the amazing
(34:00):
recognition they deserve at the conference and at the
awards gala. It's something that we need to do a better
job of in the industry of of celebrating ourselves and all that we
accomplished, and we definitely celebrate our
award winners at at the gala. So would would love to you know, if your
firm is a is a Zuai group award winner or or you received a Zuai
(34:22):
group award, definitely get to the gala and celebrate with us. But but
then, you know, typically, by that point, we've already got
registrations open for the next year. While
people have, you know, words on their mind, we we've got them open for the
next year. We're fine tuning, you know, our different
surveys during that time, different processes. And then it, you know,
(34:43):
opens up, and and a lot of participation starts going on after the
first of the year. And then about this time so we just
closed our rising stars in the AEC
industry award this past Friday as well. So a lot of
deadlines on Friday. It was a busy day. So we just
closed that award, and and we're getting our panel of team
(35:05):
our panelists ready to go to read what might
end up being a record number of rising star nominations. I have to go
back and get the exact numbers of previous years because they're gonna have their
work cut out for them this year. So, you know, we we go
from collection you know, rising stars collection, it
it'll be reading every single one of those nominations and and
(35:28):
picking as as hard as it's gonna be, but picking our our list of
rising stars for the year. You know, best firms to work for will
close that in a little over a month from today. Today is
April 1. The registration closes May 2. And
then it just gets to collecting all of the data,
organizing it all together, building out our
(35:50):
rating functionality, and then getting the results plugged
in and getting our winners established, getting
the data published back to Zweig insights.
Keith and Sue and Garda are a big part of that. And then, you know,
informing all of our winners and and then this, you know, same process, we we've
got about a two week difference between best firms to work for
(36:14):
deadline, hot firm deadline, and and marketing excellence deadline
to allow our team a little bit of a buffer to get all those results
tabulated, announce the winner. So we we try to make
sure every single one of our winners receives a a phone call
congratulation as well as a big email. They get
all this marketing material, press release, the logos
(36:36):
they can use to do their own marketing. You know? And then we're
sending all of our winners packets in the mail for
extra collateral and, you know, inviting them to the
Elevate AEC conference, and then we jump into prep to
celebrate everybody down there at the conference. So, yeah, right
now, we are we're getting towards the end, I
(36:58):
would say, of the registration period. Still a
month ago, still plenty of time, but getting closer to the,
transition of alright. It's time to start figuring out who these winners are and
and letting them know. Yeah. Well and I think, you know, I think it
goes without saying, and I've heard Mark, and I've heard Chad, and so many others
talk about the importance of celebrating our industry. And that's
(37:20):
another reason why the work that you guys do is so important because
too often, we kinda get into our our little caves and
just put our heads down and do our work. And then, you know, we need
to sometimes look up from the desk, look up from the computer screen or
from our phone and acknowledge what's going on around us. And I think
that, you know, participating in these awards is one way to do
(37:43):
that, and I certainly am excited. We just recently Luke and I just
recently interviewed several of the rising star previous awardees,
and they just talked about how much of a difference that award made for
them just in terms of how they feel about themselves, not just
as human beings, but as design professionals. And I think it
shouldn't be lost on you guys that what you're doing, the work that that
(38:06):
Zweig is doing in this space is really important, and it does
have some profound implications and impacts to
the next generation of design professionals that are coming up through the ranks.
So my only encouragement is to continue to do what you're
doing. I know it's a lot of work. Rest when you can,
but, you know, the rest of the time, just, you know, get in there and
(38:28):
grind it out, man, because, you know, the industry is really counting on you
guys. And, again, I want to encourage everybody listening to this,
whether you're watching the video or listening to this, is to, you know, at some
point in time, just go visit zweiggroup.com and go
bookmark, you know, some of the different opportunities and options that you have. And even
if you go to the main website and you click on the menu
(38:50):
section on the in the right hand corner, it'll take you down to all the
different options. The second option is insights, and that's where you can go to get
a lot of different information and participate in a lot of these programs. The
fourth option is awards, and that's where you can go to learn more about the
best firm to work for and all the other awards that we've talked about on
this particular podcast. And there's so much that we could elaborate on,
(39:12):
and this isn't an infomercial for Zweig Group because we do the podcast. Right?
Because that's just it. So we have to talk about the things that we're doing
on a regular basis. But as I've said many times and and just as
what you guys alluded to, this knowledge and information is very
important. You have to share it. You have to put it out there, and it
bears repeating because sometimes we need reminders. We need
(39:34):
to hear things multiple times before it actually takes hold. Right? You
know, back in the day, they said, you know, you you have to repeat something
seven times in a sales process for it to cement itself in the minds
of the potential person that you are trying to sell to. Now they're saying from
a marketing perspective, it's like 13 plus times. You have to make that
many more impressions on people just because of technology, because of
(39:56):
what these phones are doing to us. And I'm holding up for those who are
listening to the podcast, I'm just holding up my iPhone, but, you know, it's a
blessing and a curse. Right? Because it sometimes takes us out of the element of
focus. And I think what you guys are doing is
simply incredible. You've got an amazing team, and, Keith,
we're gonna get some of those young people that I got to hang out with
(40:18):
down in Tampa at the last Elevate conference on this podcast because
they are super bright, super intelligent. I mean, you guys
have an amazing team. And, I mean, just a collection of you two alone, just
Keith and Kyle, the k and the k, I think that makes it even
more special. So, Luke, do you have anything you wanna add before we close out?
No. I was just gonna also, just encourage people to reach
(40:40):
out to Keith and Kyle with questions. These are two
of the most responsive people that I've had the pleasure with of working
with, and I've referred Kyle at
least a thousand emails, in the six years that
we've worked together. No exaggeration. Not no. Not even
close because we're kind of the midpoint between awards together. Yeah.
(41:02):
Yeah. And Kyle and Keith are both incredibly responsive.
And most importantly, they want to talk to you. Keith and I have
had the conversation many times where we want people to ask us questions
about what we do, and we put ourselves forward in that position.
So I would encourage people to just reach out to these two. I mean,
they're incredibly responsive and incredibly insightful. Yeah.
(41:25):
Absolutely. Well, with that said, Keith, what's your email address? We'll
give it to people. All the information that we mentioned that every one of
us has mentioned on this episode will also be in the show notes. But for
anybody that just wants to get it down quickly, Keith, what's your email address for
people to reach out to you? K sequueira. So
ksequeira@zweigroup.com.
(41:46):
And if you hit research@zweigroup.com, Kyle and I have to see that. That goes
directly to our mailboxes. That's right. And and Kyle, yours
is? K a hern. So
kahern@zweigroup.com.
Perfect. Well, that that works out great. Gentlemen, we appreciate you
guys letting us steal you away from a busy day and
(42:06):
just chatting with us a little bit about the work that you're doing. Again, it
it is important work, and both Luke and I and the rest of the zwei
team applaud and continue to encourage you to do this great
work because the industry is depending on you guys.
And so no pressure, but No pressure. Get out there and
make it happen. We appreciate you guys both so very much. Thank you. Thank you,
(42:28):
Randy. Well, thank you for the opportunity. Randy. Absolutely. Well, there you have
it, folks. Another episode of the Zweig Letter
podcast. We hope you enjoyed it here with my compatriot,
Luke Carruthers and Kyle Ahearn and Keith Sequera.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Zweig letter podcast
and that you've been encouraged to get out there and, either
(42:50):
apply and for one of the upcoming awards for the Elevate
conference or you wanna participate in a survey. It's all there for
the taking. So I really wanna encourage you to get involved and get
that calendar on your calendar so you know what's coming next,
and that way you can participate in it. So but that's all I have for
you. Remember, this Y Glitter podcast can be found on every major
(43:11):
podcasting platform, including YouTube. We've always got something
for you there. And as always, you can find us on the Zweig
group website, which is just zweiggroup.com.
You can find show notes. You can find all of our back catalog of
podcast. We've been podcasting since 2016, so we're kinda like the
OGs in the design industry when it comes to podcasting, more than
(43:34):
250 plus episodes. So there's something there
for everyone, and I would encourage you to check it out when you get a
chance. I'm your host, Randy Wilburn, and we'll see you back here
very soon for another new episode of the
Zweig Letter podcast. Peace. Thanks
for tuning in to the Zweig Letter Podcast. We
(43:56):
hope that you can be part of elevating the industry and that you can
apply our advice and information to your daily
professional life. For a free digital subscription to the
Zweig letter, please visit the zweigletter.com
slash subscribe to gain more wisdom and inspiration in
addition to information about leadership, finance,
(44:18):
HR, and marketing your firm. Subscribe
today.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.