Engineering Influence from ACEC

Strategic Planning In Uncertain Times

A frequent refrain across all businesses right now is that strategic planning is a challenge because of all the uncertainty in the market, and business owners are waiting until the economy normalizes before they start looking too deeply into the future.
Our guest on the podcast today says that is a strategic mistake.
John Geddie is president of Geddie & Associates, a management consulting and training firm serving clients nationwide with leadership development and project management training, strategic planning, succession planning, and market research services.
John recently presented an ACEC online class How Do You Create Strategies in a World Like This? Click here to download the On-Demand class.

Diving Into the 42nd Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering Industry Study

Megan Miller, Product Marketing Director at Deltek, came on the program to discuss the 42nd Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering Industry Study, which was just released last week.
It’s a voluminous report—107 pages long—delving into every aspect of how design firms got through the difficult past year and what they are looking forward to in the coming year. Deltek surveyed 480 firms of all sizes spread all across the country as well as a handful in Canada.
You will find a wealth of financial information and statistics in the study against which you can benchmark.
Click here to download the free study.
 

Dodge Data Chief Economist Richard Branch Shares His Latest Market Forecast

Richard Branch, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, joins the program to share his updated economic forecast. We delve into the areas of his forecast of particular interest to engineering firms
Over the past two weeks, Branch and the Dodge team have presented their national forecast along with a regional forecast. Click on the links below to watch the complete presentations.
 
South: https://success.construction.com/SouthMYO
Midwest: https://success.construction.com/MidwestMYO
Northeast: https://success.construction.com/WestMYO
West: https://success.construction.com/NortheastMYO

Why Your Bonus Incentive Program Doesn't Work and How to Fix It!

Today we’re talking about incentive programs. They are a facet of the salary structure in almost every—or maybe even every—engineering firm, yet they are notoriously difficult to design and maintain. A survey by PSMJ found that 76 percent of employees at engineering firms said that their bonus program needed to be improved.
To get into this issue, we’re talking today with Ryan Jolley, who is an owner and Chief Strategy Officer of Jones & DeMille Engineering in Richfield, Utah. In 2017, he helped to develop a bonus program at the firm that led to a huge jump in profitability. Based on that success, the firm spun out the concept into a new software company, ourlinQ, of which Ryan serves as co-founder and CEO.
A couple of weeks ago, Ryan presented an ACEC online class, Everyone Hates Your Bonus Program – Here’s How to Fix It! and we’re going to delve into some of the issues that he raised.
Click here to download the On-Demand ACEC online class.
Click here to learn more about ourlinQ.

The Government Affairs Update for May 28, 2021

Matt Reiffer joins the podcast to discuss the unanimous approval of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works earlier in the week.

The Weekly Digest from ACEC

Welcome to the Weekly Digest, a round-up of what's happening this week at ACEC National.  This week, we cover:
The Engineering Excellence Awards, taking place on June 17th.  Register here.
ACEC's collaboration with Careers Building Communities.
Spotlight webinar: Guidelines for Handling a Cyber Security Breach on May 27th.
ACEC's Project Management 101 course, kicking off on July 13th is now open for registration. 
The ACEC Research Institute is now holding its first-ever Annual Prize Drawing.
ACEC's letter of support for the Senate Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021

Government Affairs Update for May 21 - Infrastructure Update

Matt Reiffer joined the program to update us on the current status of negotiations on an infrastructure package.

ACEC Missouri's Mundell Shares the Member Organization's Campaign to Win Passage of a State Gas Tax Increase

Infrastructure funding is the central issue on Capitol Hill right now, with the President and Congress negotiating to determine federal investment levels for the next several years.
In the transportation sector, however, states and local governments actually invest more in infrastructure annually than does the federal government—about $170 billion to $146 billion, according to the latest figures.
In recent years, many states have responded to the need for repair and expand their transportation infrastructure by raising user fees, usually the state gas tax. Since 2010, 37 states have raised their gas tax, with the latest coming last week, when Missouri passed legislation to raise its 17-cent-per-gallon gas tax by 12.5 cents over the next five years.
Morgan Mundell, executive director of ACEC Missouri, came onto the program to talk about the campaign to win the gas tax increase.