Janice, I would tend to agree with Michael strogoff's comment to contact your fellow colleagues in your area that are not in direct competition with your firm. As for the specific questions you asked, I'm not excatly sure what you mean by 'cost of a new hire'? If you are referring to starting salary, I believe your best guide is the salaries the firm is currently paying it staff. The new hire needs to 'fit' into the salary range that best defines their relevant, professional past experience compared to existing staff at that level. Obviously, you cannot ask other principals about what they pay their staff and in my opinion, it's irrelevant. Your firm its operations, market niche, design-delivery approach and staff are unique and that is what you need to be marketing to your clients, not how competitive your rates are with the competition.
The AIA has in the past published an annual 'Fact Book' which contained a lot of relatively useful data concerning its members and their operations. You might contact AIA and inquire if that publication is still being developed each year and made available to its members.
The issues of turnover rate and how long an employee stays with any single firm is something that varies with each firm and I do not know of any such survey that captures these statistics. When I had my own firm, or managed others, it was always my polocy to give my employees more reasons to stay than to leave. I never allowed my firm to be economically manipulated to keep an employee with the firm. If they wanted to leave I would ask why they had made that decision and if it was something that was easily overcome, I would do my best to 'fix' the situation they had concerns about. Beyond that, I wished them well in their new career endeavor.
Hope these thoughts are helpful to you.
Respectfully,
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Steve L. Wintner, AIA Emeritus
Founder-Principal
Management Consulting Services
The Woodlands, TX 77380-1414
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