The current and future success of your architectural firm depends on your ability to attract new talent. AIA California Council surveyed 500 architectural and design professionals and found that the overall portfolio and reputation of a firm matter more to job candidates than their history or published designs. With this in mind, here are five strategies to attract talent to your firm.
Give Employees Practical Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is as important to prospective employees as compensation and benefits. As a leader, model work-life balance in your own habits and schedule. You have to practice what you preach. If you talk about work-life balance but don’t show that the firm truly value work-life balance in its daily practices, your reputation will take a hit and talent will look for greener grass.
Emphasize Leadership Development
Prospective employees want to work for a firm whose leadership they admire. Weak leaders negatively affect your image. Leadership development training should be an essential part of your hiring strategy. Training is especially important for professionals who have just entered a leadership position, but training is important at all levels. Even your senior leadership will always have room to improve. The Architecture industry is founded on mentorship. Ensuring your leaders are good mentors and examples will keep staff engaged and growing.
Trust Employees with More Responsibility
Architecture and design professionals are looking for independence. They tend to have creative personalities and want to have the autonomy to explore their creativity and test themselves. It is a good idea to establish clear opportunities that will allow employees to gradually assume increased responsibilities and learn new things. This will let prospective employees know they will have career development opportunities with your firm for the long run.
Create a Mentoring Program
As mentioned above, mentorship is a corner stone of Architecture and Interior Design. Candidates want to know that if they accept a job offer, they will have the support they need to succeed, grow, and learn. The best mentoring programs focus on building relationships between emerging designers and established mentors. A successful mentorship program will also improve employee engagement. When creating a mentorship program, it is important to remember that employees are also looking for autonomy. The program should provide the necessary support while still allowing employees to maintain a sense of independence.
Have a Clear Path for Career Advancement
Finally, you want to offer a clear path for advancement. To do this, you need to have an organizational structure in place that allows for the creation of regular promotions. These promotions can’t just be in name only. They need to have enough appeal that emerging design professionals will find them worthwhile. It’s not a promotion if it doesn’t come with increased responsibilities and more money. Make sure that promotion allow for success but also push employees into the new and challenging.
For your design firm to succeed in this market, you need to be able to attract and retain high-quality design professionals. To accomplish this, you need offer work-life balance, effective mentorship, autonomy, strong leadership, and opportunities for advancement.
Are you looking for top talent in architecture or interior design?
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