Recruiting & Onboarding: What's Critical Now
Onboarding is a critical part of recruiting and to creating an outstanding environment for new hires to thrive and for firms of any size to succeed. Leaders from across the country in all types and scales of practice share their thoughts on what’s critical in recruiting and onboarding now.
Letter from the editor
By Rebecca W.E. Edmunds, AIA, MFA
Our PMKC leadership group has regular discussions about what is critical for architecture firms. Many of our recent discussions have centered on the importance of a solid, systematic and reliable onboarding process as part of recruiting.
Every scale and type of practice recognizes architecture has a looming talent shortage. Like other professions and businesses, we have a large, aging workforce headed for retirement. Technology advances so rapidly that we’re suffering whiplash, and those who graduate from school tomorrow might not have gained the skills needed to keep pace in the studio and office.
A shift in job seeker priorities have turned many firms on their heads, requiring better and more attentive mentorship, an ability to understand and adapt to/adopt new technologies, and clear paths to gain on-the-job training. Thus, recruiting is about more than attracting talent, it’s about creating the best environment for new hires to achieve their ambitions as part of the firm achieving its goals and answering the call of its mission.
Developing and adopting solid strategies to bring a new hire into your culture and working rhythms is fundamental to success. Onboarding is much more than just introducing a new hire and setting up their work station. The panoply of options for HR, benefits, time-tracking, AI and other operational systems can be mind-bending.
In this issue, members of the PMKC’s advisory group join industry professionals and AIA expertise to present inspiration for ways you can formalize an onboarding process that works for your new hire and your organization.
Features
Recruiting and retaining the talent to take your firm further
Brian Vitale, AIA, Managing Director & Design Principal, Gensler, Chicago
Building a design culture involves attracting the best talent long before a position is open. Vitale shares strategies on the “recruiting mindset” for firms of all sizes interested in building a premiere design office.
Personality assessment tests: infusing objectivity & insight into AEC firm team building
By Richard Friedman, Founder & President at Friedman & Partners
Friedman asks leaders of AEC firms to share their thoughts on the use of personality tests for hiring and retaining talent in your organization.
Virtual onboarding for a distributed practice: Building connection and competency from day one
Leah Alissa Bayer, AIA, NOMA, President, Architects FORA, AIA Strategic Councilor
Bayer provides a useful timeline of virtual onboarding to build connection, advance firm culture, and bring humanity to a virtual or remote work practice model.
Small firm onboarding
By Eva Read-Warden, AIA, Principal-In-Charge, Arkitex Studio
Read-Warden shares strategies to overcome the time constraints that may make small firm leaders struggle with onboarding new hires, especially those recently out of college. Her contribution provides beautifully brief details on 1 to 90 days out from a new hire’s arrival.
Virtual onboarding: Best practices for virtual work environments & remote staff
by Jennifer Kretschmer, AIA, NCARB, LEED Green Associate; Principal Architect, JK/A
The PMKC has relied on our 2024 chair for many things, including keeping us up-to-date on virtual onboarding, even from a very remote location, Sydney, Australia. In this issue, her six-part guide to virtual onboarding best practices provides step-by-step tips on bringing new remote workers into your culture.
Trends, pros & cons in AI for recruiting
By Rebecca W.E. Edmunds, AIA, MFA, President, r4 llc
I used AI to assess the conversation swirling around AI’s new role in recruiting and retaining talent. The information gathered (and the process I used to gather and summarize it all) demonstrates the pros and cons that make for challenging choices in adopting AI for recruiting and retaining talent.
Employee onboarding: Best practices
By Ann P. Casso, Hon. AIA, Executive Director, AIA Trust
Who doesn’t love a short, downloadable PDF on onboarding best practices? Casso presents a “best practices” handbook starting with a look back at old attitudes around onboarding and tips for how firms can redefine all that onboarding entails.
Employment practices and social media
By the AIA Trust
Writers at the AIA Trust take a look at the role of social media in the recruiting process for firms and job seekers. The article provides best practices on sharing firm culture and shaping firm policies around social media.
Further reading and resources
Contribute to the Digest
In the next issue of the Practice Management Digest, we’ll delve into key lessons of the AIA’s 2024 Firm Survey. If you have other topics related to practice management that you’d like explored or any articles you would like us to consider for inclusion, please contact pmkc@aia.org.