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BY FRANK A. STASIOWSKI, FAIA
Hiring the Next Generation of Designers — And Getting Them to Stay!
 Many design firms are struggling with the issue of motivating the young designers on their teams. The talent pool of qualified architects and engineers is thinning. The sea change in how the current generation (known in some circles as Millennials) entering the workforce views the workplace and the work-life balance has left Generation X managers — and their Baby Boomer bosses — at a loss for ideas on how to attract and retain long-term employees. Here I will offer some strategies on how to get the most out of your young designers and keep them happy and motivated along the way.
My colleague J. Tim Griffin, a principal at RMF Engineering, Inc. in Durham, North Carolina, travels around North America leading business-training sessions for hundreds of design-firm professionals. He says that nothing puts a fire in the eyes of a 50-plus principal quite like a discussion about the latest generation of designers entering today's workforce. He also points out that for every group of "angry Baby Boomer principals" there is a design firm leader who recognizes the value of bringing along young designers and harnessing their energy. Firms that do this successfully are growing faster than the industry as a whole, while also experiencing stellar financial returns on their investment.
Leaders who are successful integrating Millennials into their firms have been able to develop a clear picture of how this generation thinks, acts and lives by gaining some insight into the environmental issues that have shaped their thinking. Right now, these firms have a growing competitive advantage over the firms that fail in this arena. Failing firms will eventually run out of talent and go out of business.
Use the Environment to Your Advantage
In Connecting Generations: The Sourcebook for a New Workplace (Crisp Learning, 2003), author Claire Raines defined several messages from Millennials' parents and teachers that subconsciously helped shape and mold their thinking. These are listed below, along with examples of how successful firms have used these preferences to create a challenging environment for a motivated group of young designers.
- Be smart — you are special. Millennials have been catered to since they were tiny. Think Nickelodeon, Baby Gap and Sports Illustrated for Kids. Jack Johnson company, a 130-person architecture, engineering and planning firm based in Park City, Utah (and a PSMJ Circle of Excellence firm), has been successful in attracting recent graduates of design schools because they see a chance to enter immediately into an exciting, dynamic design environment. It also does not hurt that the firm subscribes to a "live-work-play" mantra that permeates everything they do. The firm provides a large workout area in the basement of their building and gives employees ski passes and other activity- and sports-oriented perks. CEO Andy Cusimano explains, "It's important to us that our people have the opportunity to participate in the sports for which we are designing facilities."
- Connect 24/7. Millennials learned to be interdependent — on family, friends and teachers. More Millennials say they can live without the television than without the computer. Many prefer chatting online to talking on the phone. Further, when Millennials are shopping for prospective employers, they are looking at your Web site and wondering if its technological brilliance (or lack thereof) is a proxy for what kind of IT tools your firm offers. This generation's ease with constant connectivity also means that in order to attract great young designers — and get the most work out of them — you may need to rethink your ideas about where and when work gets done. Most firms that are successfully attracting young talent offer flexible schedules, BlackBerry devices and remote access to files as "standard equipment."
- Achieve now! Some Millennials' parents hired private agents to line up the right college; others got started choosing the right preschool while the child was still in the womb. Carl Davis, president of Array Healthcare Facilities Solutions, a 125-person (25-person firm five years ago) and two-time PSMJ Circle of Excellence architecture, planning and interior design firm based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, reports that in his firm young designers work alongside medical planners and talk to the architects in real time about why rooms are laid out the way they are and why adjacencies are so important. One of the reasons array has very low turnover is the impression that this mentoring process has on young designers. Junior staff members want to be mentored. They want to participate in the process, not just observe.
- Serve your community. Fifty percent of high school students reported volunteering in their communities, with many of their high schools requiring community service hours for graduation. In one Roper Survey, when Millennials were asked for the major cause of problems in the United States, they answered "selfishness." Jenifer Navard, CFO of New Orleans–based Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, a two-time PSMJ Circle of Excellence design firm, reports that her firm's commitment to social justice has made it a very attractive choice for young designers who are interested in using their knowledge to make a difference in their community.
Creating the Right Culture and Living It
Our research reveals that culture is the key driver in any high-performance design organization. So what does that mean? Millennials want a culture that rewards results, not hours. This is a powerful message! Historically, most design firms have rewarded sacrifice over results, and I've never understood why. Perhaps it is simply because that's the way it has always been done. For years, design-firm managers have been focusing on metrics such as utilization, the percentage of billable hours to non-billable hours and the amount of overtime as the main measures of employee performance. However, year after year PSMJ's surveys have shown there to be little correlation between profitability and utilization.
As a firm leader, it's important to make a real commitment to the results-based culture in which most Millennials thrive. My colleague Dan McCauley, president of Helena, Montana–based Great West Engineering, a three-time PSMJ Circle of Excellence firm, explains it best. After many years of leading Great West's evolution from growth through superhuman personal effort to growth through working harder and smarter, he determined that "results matter more than how much time you spend achieving them. Our growth has created more opportunities for us to delegate effectively and help our staff work more efficiently. We have more options now, and that has helped us turn the corner as a firm and achieve a more sensible work-life balance. We work hard, but we also get away and enjoy life outside of work."
Frank A. Stasiowski, FAIA, is president of PSMJ Resources, Inc. in Newton, MA. To learn more about PSMJ, visit www.psmj.com.
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