In the ever-evolving field of architecture, firms need to attract top talent to stay competitive and relevant. Recruiting architecture professionals who can drive innovation can be a challenge, though. Demand for architects across the industry is growing at a rate of around 8,000 new openings per year, a trend that’s expected to continue through 2032. Architecture firms aren’t the only ones who hire innovative architects, either. Design professionals who have an interdisciplinary mindset and the diverse skill sets that allow them to innovate are also in demand in other fields, like real estate, construction, and urban planning, putting more strain on the architecture job market.

To attract the top talent in this kind of competitive landscape requires a strategic approach. This starts by understanding what top architects look for in a role and what will attract them to (and keep them on) your team. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of hiring innovative talent and strategies you can use to do so.

Traits of innovative design professionals

The first step to attracting innovative architects is knowing just what it is you’re looking for. Creativity is often cited as a hallmark of innovation. Yet in a field like architecture, where creativity is part of the job description, the question of what makes someone stand out as innovative can get a bit more complicated.

One key defining trait of an innovator in any field is their ability to see beyond the present. A future-oriented vision allows these professionals to approach the design process with a long-term mindset, not just meeting current trends and standards but going beyond them to set the trends to come.

In order to do this, these professionals also need to be comfortable with change, ambiguity, and taking calculated risks. Innovative architects are willing to experiment, push the boundaries of design, and try unconventional solutions. Of course, not every experiment will be successful. This means that the best disruptive design talent also has the ability to pivot and adjust in response to new information, allowing them to strike a balance between experimentation and the practicalities involved in meeting the needs of the client or project.

As a rule, innovative architects are also eager to use all the tools at their disposal and proactively seek out new sources of knowledge and design ideas. This is one reason that hiring forward-thinking design professionals is easier when you have a culture that encourages and supports experimentation. Visionary architects often prefer to take a collaborative approach and are eager to learn from and exchange ideas with other designers.

They don’t limit themselves to collaborations within their domain, either. One way to achieve groundbreaking designs is to integrate ideas from other fields, and innovative architects often have an interdisciplinary mindset and a deep understanding of how architecture intersects with other fields. This is frequently accompanied by an entrepreneurial spirit, and these inventive professionals are eager to find new opportunities to put their skills to work developing something truly original. 

Adjusting your workplace environment and policies, and embracing strategies to cultivate a culture of innovation, is the first step to positioning your architecture firm for top talent. The goal should be to give architects on your team as much autonomy and creative freedom as client needs and project briefs will allow. It also helps to provide the latest tech tools for them to use, since pioneering designers are often early adopters of these emerging technologies.

The benefits of hiring forward-thinking talent

Recruiting visionary architectural talent can have a transformative impact on a firm, and is the first step to building an innovative architecture team. One of the great things about hiring forward-thinking architects is that they have a natural ability and inclination to disrupt the status quo. Not only do they eagerly try new things, but they also encourage people around them to do the same. Because of this, attracting next-generation architects can have substantial benefits even beyond the work they do for your company. Some of the specific benefits of hiring innovative architects include:

• They give your firm a competitive advantage. Forward-thinking architects bring original concepts and fresh ideas to the table, ones that clients won’t get from your competition. This can help you to stand out and win high-profile projects in a crowded market, especially once you develop a reputation for cutting-edge designs.
• They let you offer more ways to satisfy client needs. Designers who are innovative often excel at finding new ways to approach familiar challenges. Because of this, they’re more adept at developing tailored designs that address clients’ specific needs, creating customized spaces that are both functional and engaging—which, in turn, leads to higher client satisfaction.
• They make your firm more sustainable and future-proof. Eco-friendly design and innovation often go hand-in-hand. These designers are open to utilizing non-traditional and sustainable materials, energy-efficient designs, and sustainable practices that reduce the carbon footprint of structures. Disruptive architects also add long-term value to your team because they create designs that aren’t just relevant today, but will remain so well into the future.
• They can increase your profitability. A firm with a reputation for innovation can often command a higher fee because clients know working with them will result in unique, high-quality designs. A reputation for pushing boundaries can also help to attract more clients, including those with ambitious plans for high-profile developments who are willing to invest a bit more for a design that is truly eye-catching and memorable.
• They grow your reputation and name recognition. Innovative designs are more likely to be recognized by industry publications and awards, which can give your firm a boost to both its credibility and visibility in the market.
• They can improve your architecture firm talent recruitment. Top talent in the architecture industry wants to work in a creative, collaborative, and forward-thinking environment. When you have groundbreaking talent on your team, this sends a message to other top-tier job seekers that your firm’s culture is one where they can thrive, too.
• They turn your firm into an industry leader. If you’re always chasing trends, this makes your firm reactive rather than proactive. Hiring disruptive talent helps you to flip that script, keeping you at the front edge of emerging trends and positioning you to be an early adopter of new technologies or techniques, keeping you relevant even in a quickly evolving market.

Best practices for hiring disruptive architects

1. Integrate innovation into your employer brand.

When you define your mission and values for job postings, do so in a way that shows you’re looking toward the future. Along with this, emphasize the ways that your culture is built to support innovation. Make it clear you’re a firm where designers get creative freedom and the autonomy to explore disruptive ideas. Ultimately, you want job seekers who look at your postings to see you provide a supportive and safe environment for experimentation. 

Keep in mind that your employer branding doesn’t stop with your career pages or posts on social media. Prospective candidates are also likely to review your firm’s portfolio of past projects. If they’re all typical, traditional designs, that doesn’t instill confidence that their out-of-the-box ideas will be welcome. Instead, include a diverse range of designs that highlight the innovative projects you’ve worked on in the past.

2. Use innovative architectural hiring techniques.

Talent acquisition for architecture firms doesn’t need to stop with posting on job boards or scouring LinkedIn for talent. If you want to attract innovative people, it can help to conduct your search in a way that breaks the mold, too.

One strategy that’s often productive is to host events like design sprints or open design competitions. These kinds of challenges will naturally attract architects who are ambitious and creative. Along with this, they give you a chance to see candidates’ creativity and problem-solving skills in action before you even see their resume, allowing you to better target the specific type of architects you want to hire in your firm.

Even if you stick with a more traditional hiring process, you don’t need to go about it in a straightforward way. Consider using live portfolio reviews in place of traditional interviews to gain more insights into candidates’ design process and how they approach projects. There are also tools you can use to make the hiring process more interactive, like VR-based design simulations or gamified skill tests that will be more appealing for candidates with an innovative mindset.

3. Encourage referrals from forward-thinking team members.

Retaining transformative talent in architecture can be as big of a challenge as attracting it in the first place. Referrals are an effective approach to solve both of these challenges. If you already have designers on your team who have a forward-thinking mindset, it’s likely they have other professionals in their network who share their passion for experimentation.

There are several advantages to implementing a referral program. For one, these employees are often able to integrate into your team and culture faster because they already have an “in” through the person who referred them. They also come to you already vetted. Employees know the performance of people they refer reflects back on them, and that they’ll need to work with the person they refer if they’re hired, so they’re not going to suggest someone who’s unskilled, unreliable, or difficult to work with.

As far as retention goes, a study by iCIMS also showed that the median tenure of referred employees is 38 months, compared to the 22 month average of non-referred hires. Put another way, that means referred employees stay with the company 70% longer on average.

4. Proactively reach out to passive candidates with a track record of innovation.

Given the often competitive hiring in the architecture industry, it’s not always feasible to just put up a job advertisement and hope the right talent finds you. This is particularly true if you’re hoping to hire highly skilled candidates who have the capability to be innovators on your team. It’s likely your firm isn’t the only one who wants to hire these professionals, so even if you connect with the right kind of talent, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to hire them before someone else does.

This is why it can be a smart move to take the initiative and directly contact architects who demonstrate a passion for innovation. Of course, the first step to this process is identifying forward-thinking professionals you’d want to have on your team. You can do this by staying up-to-date with your industry, keeping an eye on the designers who win awards and competitions, or who design unique structures and groundbreaking projects.

Granted, just like with job seekers on the open market, there is no guarantee that you’ll be able to entice these professionals away from their current role. You won’t know until you ask them, though, and even if they aren’t ready to take the leap and join your team today they may change their mind in the future, or know of other innovative professionals who would be an ideal fit.

5. Use internships and apprenticeships to build a pipeline of young talent.

Hiring young architecture talent is an excellent way for firms to boost their potential for innovation. These professionals bring a fresh perspective, creative approaches, and new ideas to their designs. They’re also usually more willing to question established norms and traditional practices, which can help you to discover innovative solutions.

Programs like internships and apprenticeships allow firms to connect with this young talent at the very start of their career, often before they’ve even graduated from their degree program. Since these arrangements tend to have defined start and end dates, it’s a way to explore the ideas and capabilities of this emerging talent without the commitment of a permanent hire. If the intern or apprentice does well, you can then offer them a full-time role to add them to your team for the long term.

One great way to start an internship program is to partner with nearby universities that offer architecture programs. Internships are often required for architecture students to earn their degree, so many colleges are eager to work with architecture firms that want to offer these kinds of roles to students. Even if the individuals who join your team as interns don’t end up staying with your firm, offering internships still increases your visibility among this young talent, which can mean more of it ends up in your pipeline down the line.

6. Write inclusive, forward-looking job descriptions.

Diversity often fuels innovation. When you have a diverse team, that means you have a wide variety of different perspectives involved in your design and decision-making process. Not only does this give diverse teams more ideas to draw from when they’re solving design challenges, but it also encourages the team to consider projects and problems from multiple angles. This can often unlock new levels of innovation from your designers that they may not have achieved otherwise.

The first step to building this kind of diverse team is attracting diverse talent, and how you write your job descriptions is the first piece in that puzzle. An inclusive job description should make qualified candidates from all backgrounds feel welcome to apply. You can do this by:

• Avoiding gendered language in job titles and using gender-neutral pronouns
• Reviewing job postings for unconscious bias
• Using clear, straightforward language in place of jargon and buzzwords
• Writing out acronyms that may not be universally known across the industry
• Focusing on the essential skills and knowledge of the job over past job titles or specific education when writing the qualifications
• Offering inclusive benefits that will appeal to a wide range of candidates, such as wellness programs and scheduling flexibility
• Highlighting the opportunities for mentorship, career development, and professional growth that your firm offers
• Emphasizing your inclusive culture and commitment to diversity in the job posting

Elevating innovation through strategic hiring

Effective talent management for architecture businesses can be challenging in any firm, and particularly for those who are focused on innovation. Following the advice in this article can help you to build the forward-thinking team that will drive your firm’s creativity and success to new heights.