Designing for people: building and business

Last week Building Design reported on a new survey that revealed that architects feel less appreciated now than prior to the pandemic. Only 45% responded that they felt appreciated and, worryingly, that 47% of British architects plan to leave their jobs this year.

Those are not happy numbers.

Driving factors were pay, progression, work/life balance and long hours culture. All long-standing issues in many workplaces, but particularly in the architectural sector.

The pandemic has opened up the industry to the possibilities of working from home and many organisations are looking to retain an element of this, which should be a positive move; so why is positivity declining?

Undoubtedly much of the negativity people are feeling is part of the Covid hangover. We’ve all been stuck in too long, often working longer hours, communicating via chat and video conference. No holidays. Sure, the economy now seems to be recovering somewhat and the industry picking up as part of this, which feels vital and exciting, but this may not yet be percolating through to employees who are feeling the effects of the last, horribly grinding year. Perhaps for them Covid has simply intensified issues that had existed before.

Communication is critical here. If home working is to stay, this needs to be put into a positive context and supported by both trust and empathy. Support the need to undertake the school run or attend a child’s assembly. Let your employees know that you understand their situation and trust them to continue to deliver excellent work. Understand both the demands placed on a mother of young children, but also her value as an experienced architect. It’s all about flexibility, trust and long term investment in people.

Arup have announced they are providing their staff with full flexibility to manage their time across a seven-day week, with an obligation to spend two days in the office per week. This feels very progressive and one assumes that the staff are trusted to ensure they are available at the appropriate times for collaboration and to deliver as usual.

Clearly a business needs to deliver. If employees can ensure this, within a more flexible working model, surely that will lead to a better overall balance and an increase in positivity and staff retention?

When we began developing Inevidesk a couple of years ago, one of the major benefits that we could see was the ability to provide a better work/life balance by enabling effective home working. Having worked within the industry for decades, we were all too aware of the difficulties in this area, especially for those architects with young families.

Of course, this will require support for home working environments and sensitive management, and won’t necessarily apply to all (young architects for example who need more consistent mentorship, likely crave the social interactions of the office and probably only have a bedroom to work in).

But it seems there is an opportunity here to make some positive changes and ensure architects feel both more appreciated and that they see a future with their current employer and/ or the industry. Architects are often wonderful at designing buildings to support human needs; perhaps we need to ensure our businesses do the same?