The following questions were circulated in September 2011 to Adelaide's leading Architectural companies. 15 practices responded. All of the respondents were Adelaide privately owned practices with under 45 employees. The summary findings were published in Place. The full results can be found below. We would welcome your comments on this survey at the bottom of this page.

GRADUATE QUESTIONS

Between July 2011 – July 2012 (this financial year) how many Graduates do you envisage recruiting?

Just over 50% of those surveyed intended to employ graduates this financial year.

How does this (answer to question 1) compare to last year?

Reassuringly almost 75% intended to recruit the same or more graduates compared to last year.

How many graduates would you say you would normally take?

Even more encouraging is that over 80% are recruiting the same amount or more graduates compared to before the GFC. It is great to see that Adelaide practices are continuing to invest in training and development despite the “frustration” with regard to a lack of “loyalty.”  Some practices talked about how they used Graduate recruitment to replace more experienced staff who left and some of the smaller practices are taking the option of targeting graduates with 2-3 years of experience looking for their first move; people who are ambitious and have had a grounding in real life Architecture but haven’t yet been moulded into a practice philosophy.  

Do you have a preference for which institution you employ graduates from?

It seems Uni SA has a marginal (73% expressing no preference, 27% preferring Uni SA) preference over Adelaide University but many reported that this was changing in recent years. Uni SA has been favoured by some employers based on training more “practical” graduates better equipped to think “logically through projects.”

What are the top 3 things you would look for in a graduate?

Unsurprisingly 100% of practices surveyed cited attitude and interpersonal skills.

The industry certainly won’t be surprised by this but will undergraduates? 

What do we mean by attitude? “willing to learn,” “work ethics,” “enthusiasm,” “passion,” “motivation” and “commitment.”

If we breakdown all of the responses they can be expressed as follows:

Over 75% of these qualities are non technical and mirror the demand for future leaders in the industry. Undergraduates would be wise to look at ways of improving their interpersonal skills and illustrating these key qualities such as work ethics on their CV. For example work experience, passion for extra curricular interests, leadership & team roles etc...

RECRUITMENT ACROSS ALL LEVELS

Between July 2011 – January 2012 (the first 6 months of this financial year) do you plan to increase, decrease or maintain total staff levels ?

Over 80% plan to maintain or increase total staff levels with only 17% looking to decrease. These figures could be a little distorted as planning to maintain and actually maintaining may be two different things! Some also reported having recently decreased numbers and now being back to core staff levels. Generally however the answers surprisingly reflected a positive optimism across the board. 27% also intend to increase numbers.

Across the board what skill set / experience level or characteristic do you typically find the hardest to attract to your practice

46% of respondents cited future leaders: Architects who understand how to manage a team, work with a client and deliver a project.

Related to this 19% cited “GOOD” Project Architects who can work “independently” and work in an “all round, hands on capacity” in a “simple and efficient manner.”  

There are plenty of Architects and even plenty of Project Architects in the industry but perhaps the industry needs to look at how to progress these people into “Future Leaders.”

Other hard to find qualities included: detailed documentation, Revit, design flair, full time Interior Designers! positive attitude, professionalism, initiative, communication skills, team players.

Overall there was a sense that core interpersonal and leadership skills are in short supply.

Is this something that can be trained and developed?

Would you consider recruiting the above only based on workload or would you “upgrade your team” should the right person be available?

Despite the “stable” market it is interesting to note that over 60% of practices would still take on a very good candidate irrespective of workload. Clearly if people have those leadership and good Project Architect skills then they still have numerous career options.

Only 33% felt that recruitment would be restricted by workload.

There is clearly a shortage of quality Project Architects and even more of a shortage of Leaders. Moving people from one Adelaide company to another doesn’t help the market as a whole so do we need to look more proactively interstate and overseas?

COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICES

Have you ever worked with another architectural firm to secure or deliver work?
What are your thoughts on working in collaboration with another firm?

It is really very positive that over 70% of practices surveyed have worked in collaboration with another firm. All of the companies that hadn’t yet worked in collaboration would be keen to consider opportunities in the future. Whilst due diligence has to be done with regard to ensuring a similar “cultural approach,” “early” and “clear delineation of roles, “equal commitment” and the creation of a team; respondents were generally very enthusiastic about the benefits. Over 85% were positive about the potential benefits and thought collaboration should happen more often. Stated benefits included the “exchange of information and experience,” “spreading workloads,” “positive staff feedback” and improving SA “community culture.”

It is interesting to consider that those same qualities we look for in graduates (analyse strengths and weaknesses and a willingness to learn) can equally be applied with regard to collaboration. “We all do have different skills and expertise and so should celebrate that and support each other rather than pretending every firm can do everything... you still can be part of it... but just link with someone else who IS actually better than you at a certain thing and end up with a better outcome for all.”

Could further collaboration help to ensure SA Practices win more flagship SA work or should we be pairing with interstate practices to improve our local experience?

Could further collaboration help with staff retention and reduce those staff moving just to experience something else?

What ideas do you have for future surveys?