An architecture firm sells design and drawings against long project timelines, and it keeps the best people only if the work stays interesting. Long timelines mean people stay only if the work remains interesting and the next role is visible from the drawing board.
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Share your requirementsAn architecture firm is led by principals who win the commissions and set the design direction. Beneath them are project architects, junior architects, interns, draughtspeople and 3D specialists who turn concepts into drawings, along with site architects who follow the work on the ground. Projects last months or years, move through stages from concept to construction drawings and demand attention to details that are easy to miss. Deadlines tighten before every submission and presentation. Hours are long, pay often lags other sectors that use the same software skills, and ambitious people tend to think about their own practice early. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Late nights gather before every client presentation and approval deadline, and the same people carry them each time.
Fresh graduates on small pay produce much of the drawing output, then leave for further study or other firms.
People with strong software and design skills can earn more in other industries, and the firm has no answer beyond a title.
They coordinate consultants, answer the client, manage the drawing team and visit the site, and something always slips.
Site architects face problems that studio staff never hear about, and revised details reach site late.
The principal's name is on the work, and talented seniors do not see how they will become visible or become partners.
New software and modelling methods arrive, and people pick them up individually and unevenly.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Career and Succession Management; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a architecture firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A forward view of which projects will peak in which weeks and who is needed, so crunches are shared and temporary help is arranged in time.
What this coversHideA forward view of which projects will peak in which weeks and who is needed, so crunches are shared and temporary help is arranged in time. The workforce planning work supports it.
What a project architect owns, what they hand to a coordinator and how many live projects they carry.
What this coversHideWhat a project architect owns, what they hand to a coordinator and how many live projects they carry. The role design work sets it down.
A clear route with skills at each stage and a fair pay range, including how the firm shares credit on built work.
What this coversHideA clear route with skills at each stage and a fair pay range, including how the firm shares credit on built work.
A regular site-to-studio review where issues from the site feed into drawing revisions, with a log of who changed what.
What this coversHideA regular site-to-studio review where issues from the site feed into drawing revisions, with a log of who changed what.
A short internal training on tools and drawing standards for each new joiner.
What this coversHideA short internal training on tools and drawing standards for each new joiner. The learning and development process can structure it.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A plan that spreads workload across submission peaks and shows when more hands are needed.
A clear scope for project architects, coordinators and site staff, and a ladder for juniors.
A view of how your pay compares by stage and skill, so you can decide where to move.
A routine for teaching software and drawing standards so quality does not depend on who sits beside whom.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead article
A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Give them real responsibility early, a visible next step and a fair raise at the right time. Some will still leave to start their own practice, so keep the door open.
Plan the peaks months ahead, set internal deadlines before the client's and agree temporary help early. Surprises create the worst crunches.
It depends on size and stage, so look at your own record of what slips. Use that to set a limit and move work when it is exceeded.
Pay should reflect the work they actually do. If interns carry real drawing output, low pay will bring turnover, so review the arrangement and confirm treatment with a qualified professional.
Name them on projects they led, let them present to clients and show a route to associate or partner. Credit matters as much as pay to ambitious people.
We would look at the last few submission crunches and who stayed latest, how many live projects each project architect carries, and what interns and juniors were told about progression when they joined. A workload plan built around submission dates, or a defined path from intern to associate, could be the first piece of work. We agree scope in writing once we have talked.
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