Why architects sorely need a new approach to resourcing projects – Architect’s Journal

The UKs skills gap is a long-standing problem affecting a broad range of critical sectors not least infrastructure. Having featured on the governments Shortage Occupation List since 2019, architects are in high demand and short supply a situation not helped by the end of free movement from the EU which took effect in the same year.

These post-Brexit resourcing challenges have come back into focus over the past few weeks, thanks to the new minimum salary requirements introduced by the government to curb immigration and the awarding of foreign work visas. The 48 per cent rise in the minimum salary threshold, setting the bar at 38,000, came into effect over Easter and has been condemned by the RIBA.

Looking to the future, its clear that our industry will need to place a greater emphasis on developing our own models for resourcing resilience. But we also need to find medium-term solutions and move away from traditional resourcing models where locally contracted teams apply a narrow, local focus to recruiting to meet need. In an industry characterised by an ebb and flow of work, and of large projects that can be stop-start by nature, this approach regularly leads to imbalances in the workforce a situation that becomes all the more complex during periods of economic volatility.

Agile staffing strategies that take a sustainable and collaborative approach can be more efficient and profitable

As an alternative, I would argue that we need to better embrace long-term collaborative partnerships between practices large, small, self-employed or sole practitioners, international and local to move away from hire and fire. Through flexible but robust partnerships, we can smooth out the peaks and troughs in workflow and create stability within individual practices.

A new mindset is needed to support this approach, and it starts with the decision to bid, not when a project has been secured. However, its not simply about how we approach individual bids or projects but about long-term resourcing; and it applies as much to large firms pooling resources with one another to cope with major projects or long-term frameworks as working with SMEs to outsource work.

Working for a global organisation, I am fortunate that I can draw support from other geographies for example, using the expertise of colleagues across Europe and India. Likewise, our UK-based architects can support other teams on projects overseas. In essence, we are able to base decisions on skillsets and availability rather than location.

Committing to building long-term mutually beneficial partnerships not only helps to develop sustainable pipelines for those businesses involved, it also delivers social value and a platform for local firms to access opportunities they might otherwise miss.

These partnerships only work, though, when the smaller entity is properly integrated into blended project teams rather than being seen as a remote resource tasked with an isolated scope. For example, our delivery of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast was the product of a 10-year partnership with local firm, Isherwood + Ellis, which was responsible for almost half of the architectural scope.

In practice, genuine collaboration may mean co-locating teams in the same office or on site alongside client reps and the supply chain on larger projects. But technology and cloud-based platforms are making this easier.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic made the provision of flexible and hybrid working an imperative, advances in communications technology had made more agile approaches to resourcing projects possible. Thanks to technology, UK architects have a better opportunity than ever to access a greater volume and variation of projects at home and internationally which, in turn, will aid our ability to more effectively manage peaks and troughs. The physical world is disappearing, and we need to be prepared to follow by breaking away from the limiting mindset of geography and hiring those you can touch.

Delivering major infrastructure projects on time and on budget is a significant challenge in an unpredictable and volatile operating environment. Its a challenge that affects clients as well as their design and construction teams, so deploying the right people in a timely manner is critical.

By developing agile staffing strategies that take a sustainable and collaborative approach to resourcing, organisations can be more efficient and profitable and help to free the contracted workforce from uncertain demand. Ive seen the benefits of it first-hand in recent years and I hope to see it take root throughout our industry as a core part of an industry-wide approach to the skills gap.

Trevor Leaker leads AECOMs architecture and design group in the UK and Ireland

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Why architects sorely need a new approach to resourcing projects - Architect's Journal