In February, Black Spectacles surveyed over 400 architects, both licensed and unlicensed, to determine what dictates happiness in their jobs. What we found is that 91% of the top three answers from millennials contained “workplace culture” as the most important factor in their career satisfaction.
Given the global climate, we spoke to architects in our network, who we’ve elected to keep anonymous, to see how these answers ring true months later. One architect says, “setting a tone, having an outlet to express fears and frustrations (and also celebrate accomplishments and be reminded of the good things) makes all the difference.”
Ways to do this with your team are to hold a regular cadence of meetings to emphasize company values and team member successes, or to wind down with virtual happy hours and stay active with goal-oriented challenges. At Black Spectacles, we have become speed walking fiends and started a fitness challenge to encourage "self care," that popular buzzword which crops up even more than “unprecedented.” Encouraging individual health by tying it to a collective goal motivates the team and creates bonds while we are working separately from our homes.
More evidence that positive company culture has a lasting impact on a business comes from Great Places to Work, where they state companies with consistently inclusive workplaces thrived before, during and after the Great Recession (here defined as 2006-2014), earning a 4x annualized return. Implementing policies that garner a positive environment are a work in progress, says another architect in our network, “I don’t think it has to predetermine a company’s fate. I also think that you can try every day, just like in any relationship, to commit to a better culture by making positive changes. And if you have a great culture, you can also make mistakes, but rebound. Just keep trying to make progress and be open about struggles.”
Cheers to all being a work in progress.
To read the full report on our Black Spectacles Architecture Career Satisfaction Survey for 2020, go here.
