By Sandy Blaha

Forces have converged to add new challenges to maintaining a great work environment and retaining employees.  Among these, the shortages of personnel and economic cycles have turned some architectural and engineering offices into what some employees call “sweat shops.”

What distinguishes a great work place from a sweat shop?  Many things, such as stopping the grind occasionally to have fun, effective systems, great supervisors and trainers.  The question to ask is why come to work in the first place?  It’s not solely for the money.  It’s because we want to do great work, AND we want to be supported in an environment that allows us to do great work.

Today, we pass increasing amounts of responsibility on to our younger, less experienced staff.  Inexperienced staff is beginning project management, project engineering and project architecture work sooner than the previous generation.  It’s great for those with initiative, and by all means, encourages that initiative.  But more and more we hear from the non-licensed personnel that what they crave most is on the spot training.

Look at it through the eyes of your employees.  You don’t have seniority, you’re a team player, AND you are constantly pulled on and off of projects, doing small segments of work, frequently without ever seeing the final results of your efforts or understanding client objectives.

Employees suggest that what they need is 10 minute customized training.  Provide a very brief overview of the project, its objectives and how this work fits in (the big picture).  Then set up the work expectation, what you want accomplished.  Finally, and this is the most important part for interns and non licensed staff, give the employee some ways to think about the problem and issues.  As one employee said, “I don’t want to know the answer; I want to know how to think about it.”

Everyone is very busy these days.  But don’t forget that your employees are your first customer.  They are the ones who deliver the product and service to the end user, your client.  Your managers need a few hours of non-billable time each week to develop their employees.  The pay off will be a well trained and satisfied future workforce.

Blaha Associates, May 1999