Is your firm hiring? Three things to consider

In 2018, I reported a story for ARCHITECT magazine (AIA’s then-media partner) on how firms think about culture fit when hiring for new roles. At the time, what I heard from the firms I spoke with was that culture fit and a willingness to share ideas were more important qualities in a new hire than technical skills alone. Technical skills can be taught—soft skills, such as good communication and strong leadership, are more innate. 

With the onslaught of societal and cultural changes that have happened in the time since, including the rise of remote work, it seemed like a good time to revisit the topic. As I dove in, however, I started questioning the premise. If good talent is hard to come by, is culture fit now more of a luxury than it was seven years ago? Amid the current economic uncertainty being felt across industries, as reported in this month’s ABI, are firms even thinking about hiring at all? 

To clarify what firms are thinking about in relation to staffing today, I chatted with Hugh Hochner, a principal at architecture and engineering management consulting firm the Coxe Group. Hochner, a nearly fifty-year veteran of the industry, has helped firms weather multiple eras of ups and downs. 

Of the firms his company works with, Hochner says, “About a third are in a hiring mode, a third are in a downsizing mode, and a third are stable.” 

Read on for more of his insights. 

There’s still a shortage in the “middle.” 

“During the pandemic—not necessarily because of the pandemic, but during that era—quite a few firms were elevating project leaders to partner status, and they were critical as project leaders to justify becoming partners,” says Hochner. However, the shortage of experienced project managers in “the middle”—due to a variety of factors, with anecdotal evidence supporting the long-term impacts of the 2008 recession—means that a growing number of architects have the title of “partner,” but are still actively working in project management roles. While partners may still be involved in the nitty-gritty details of daily project work, it's important not to sideline long-term goals and the bigger picture. 

Optimize “project process training” whenever possible. 

“[It’s like] hiring people for a baseball team—amongst the people you’d hire would be the utility infielders, people who do a lot of different things and do them well,” Hochner says.

Because of the shortage in the middle, he explains, Coxe Group is helping more firms look at project process—how they do what they do day-to-day.

With the prevalence of BIM, which encourages holistic thinking rather than linear thinking, “it makes every bit of sense to have a philosophy of practice that doesn’t isolate design from production and construction administration,” he says. “It makes more sense to integrate them.”

He also emphasizes that no matter how much education and training a prospective hire has received, there’s no substitute for hands-on experience. “The most effective learning doesn’t happen in workshops; it doesn’t happen in classrooms. It happens on the job,” he says. “When I say we’re doing ‘project process training,’ we’re setting firms up to make sure that they can do most of their training on the job.”  

Have a strategic plan, and hire with transition planning in mind. 

According to Hochner, many firms that he works with are prioritizing longer-term strategic thinking, which particularly ties into soft skills like leadership. A few of the questions that firms should be considering: who is going to be able to best connect with future clients? Who is going to lead the firm in important aspects of practice, like design?

“It’s impossible to do really good transition planning without tying into strategic planning,” he says. “Whether you’re calling it ‘strategic planning’ or not, you need to tie it into where the firm is going. You need to make sure the firm is in a position to create that strategy.”

Katherine Flynn is Director, Digital Content at AIA.