EBI: Recruitment and Retention are Biggest Challenges for Firm Leaders

Industry News / Market Forecast

July 25, 2019

EBI: Recruitment and Retention are Biggest Challenges for Firm Leaders

More than half of firm leaders (52 percent) participating in the 2nd Quarter ACEC Engineering Business Index survey reported that recruiting and retaining quality employees is their biggest challenge.

“A healthy economy and a talented, high achieving, self-focused young workforce put employee retention at the top of the worry list,” said one firm leader.

The second most frequent response (13 percent) was onerous owner/client contract demands. “More and more clients are viewing engineering services as a commodity,” said one respondent. “We are constantly having to prove our value to clients.”

Other responses included distinguishing their firm from the competition (12 percent), generating a suitable backlog (9 percent), slow-paying clients (8 percent), burdensome government regulations (5 percent) and keeping pace with evolving management best practices (1 percent).

To read the full 2nd Quarter EBI report, click here.

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