get DEEP

Encouraging Diverse, Equitable Employment and Practice in Architecture in the ACT getDEEP is produced by the Diverse Equitable Employment and Practice (DEEP) task-force, Australian Institute of Architects, ACT Chapter. getDEEP was forged in collaboration;

Sarah Lebner [co-chair] Duncan Hall [co-chair] Sander de Vries [Former National Gender Equity Committee ACT Representative] Rob Henry [Immediate Past ACT Chapter President]

With generous contributions; Jesus Garcia Quintero Sander de Vries Cassandra Keller Jenny Edwards Alanna King Rob Henry Hannah Jean Cadan Bronwen Jones Shannon Battisson

Graphic design; Rachel Clements Chloe Yin

Published; Australian Institute of Architects, ACT Chapter getDEEP Launch sponsor:

Disclaimer getDEEP is offered as an introduction and overview only. Individuals and practices should seek advice regarding employment and human resources policy and particular situations from their legal, HR or other business adviser as appropriate.

Copyright © 2018, getDEEP, Australian Institute of Architects.

You are permitted to download, display, print and reproduce this material in an unaltered form only for your personal, non-commercial use or for use within your organisation. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Working to make the architectural profession more equitable.

DEEP task-force

getDEEP is intended as an introduction to some of the resources, research and expertise available on issues of equitable practice.

Foremost: Parlour and The Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice

Also: AIA HR+ AIA Gender Equity Committee The Fair Work Ombudsman The Human Rights Commission getDEEP would like to thank and acknowledge the work of these bodies and encourage readers to engage further with their excellent resources. Hello, and welcome to DEEP.

DEEP stands for Diverse Equitable Employment and Practice. We’re a task-force, based in the ACT, and part of the local Institute of Architects chapter.

We call ourselves a task-force because, unlike a committee, we exist purely as an umbrella for individuals to run projects that align with our cause. This is our first project.

The getDEEP booklet aims to take the extensive work already done by groups such as Parlour and the Institute’s National Gender Equity Committee, and present it to local practices and employees in a useful format to encourage engagement with the material.

Why? This booklet is full of Parlour Our industry has a reputation for being inequitable: references -

++ Our profession is failing to retain its female members; their Guides Parlour’s research shows that while nearly 45% of us toGill Equitable are women in the 20-24 year old category, this falls Practice steadily to around 10% in the 50-54 year old group provide ++ Architects are too frequently paid low, even illegal, strategies wages; The Association of Consulting Architect’s last to help you year reported that 17% of surveyed firms reported identify and salaries below the Fair Work Commission’s Federal address Industrial Awards inequity and ++ At the same time, we work record levels of overtime; bias across the 2011 census reports that 39% of us work more than 11 areas 41 hours a week within your ++ We have a significant industry gender pay gap; Parlour workplace. reports that even straight out of University, a 6% pay gap between genders is evident (this quickly climbs to 8%-17% through later years)

For an industry that prides itself on problem solving, progressive thinking, and considers itself expert in improving quality of life, we have a lot to answer for if we look in the mirror.

We can do better. BE ACCOUNTABLE

Thank you for choosing to engage with this booklet.

The following pages include local stories, simple templates and activities that we hope will help local firms to engage with this important issue and seek ways to improve their own practice.

Starting is simple - signing into this booklet is your first step to committing to improving equity in our profession.

PRACTICE NAME

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE (the person who takes responsibility for recruitment, workplace conditions, performance reviews and office culture)

ASSISTING STAFF MEMBER/S If applicable, nominate a staff member with time to assist in maintaining this review

TODAY’S DATE

GOALS 1. After working through this booklet we encourage you to set three goals for your practice to work towards over the next six months 2.

3. Yes, there’s an issue.

Inequality in employment within architecture is persistent, complex and takes many forms. Gill Mathewson’s report The numbers in a nutshell: Women in Architecture in Australia is the result of extensive research into gender inequity in Australian architectural practice and education. The report provides some stark reminders that we have a long way to go in achieving equitable employment in our industry:

++ Women leave the profession at a far higher rate than men ++ While the number of women graduating has rapidly increased since the 1990s, women remain clustered in the lower ranks of the profession ++ A pay gap emerges immediately on graduation, and increases as the years progress ++ 49% of women within the profession remain unregistered compared to 28% of men¹ ¹ Gill Matthewson, The Numbers in a Nutshell, 2017 Inequality in architecture is not limited to gender; discrimination on the basis of race, religion, country of origin, You may be able sexual orientation and gender identity are also possible. The think of more ways AACA’s Industry Profile notes that as of the 2011 census, to reflect on potential only seven registered architects in Australia identified as imbalance or indigenous. That’s 0.002%, compared with population parity discrimination in your of nearly 3%. team.

The Parlour Guides provide advice on avoiding discriminatory This exercise will practices. But first, take a look at the make-up of your current help you to identify workforce to see where any biases and inequalities may be areas where there is occurring. inequity or disparity.

Bias is very often not deliberate or conscious, but the result of Once identified, the systemic and cultural habits and norms. The Parlour Guides Parlour Guides can note that bias and inequity may manifest in: help you to address them, by providing advice on policies, ++ Recruitment processes procedures and other ++ Pay inequity, including inequity between full time and part strategies to help time staff and access to bonuses or performance pay make your workplace ++ Opportunities for career progression and professional more equitable development

Parlour ++ Opportunities for flexible work, including balancing Guide No. 4 family and personal and work commitments Flexibility Let’s reflect upon staff composition within your workplace.

Does this composition reflect the practice’s aspirations and the diversity in our community more broadly? Bias is often not immediately obvious and it may take a numerical approach to see it where it exists; it may be worth jotting down some notes to see how your practice’s numbers stack up.

What’s the overall gender balance within your practice?

Which sections of our community are represented in the senior staff of your practice?

Who has been promoted recently? Who hasn’t received a promotion or pay rise in some time?

What proportion of your staff has caring responsibilities? What is the gender balance in this group?

Do any of your staff work flexibly, from home or part time? Male or female?

How many of your staff are registered? What proportion are male/female/Non-English speaking background etc.?

RECRUITMENTp1

PAY INEQUITYp7 FLEXIBILITY + BALANCEp15 CAREER PROGRESSIONp23 RECRUITMENT

Recruitment is a great place to start in establishing an equitable workplace.

Research has shown that gender exerts a clear bias on how applications are assessed¹.

It has also been shown that male and female applicants represent themselves differently, with men tending to overstate their experience and women more likely to under-sell themselves².

It is crucial to establish effective processes for equitable recruitment - not only to improve equity in the profession, but also to ensure you hire the best person for the job.

HR+ provides detailed guides on planning the recruitment process, effective advertising and candidate selection, as well as job description templates.

The Human Rights Commission has compiled the excellent A Step by Step Guide to Preventing Discrimination in Recruitment.

Parlour Guide No. 5 provides guidelines to ensuring that your recruitment process casts the broadest net possible and makes the most accurate and bias- free assessment possible of candidates.

The Fair Work Ombudsman provides a useful Guide to Hiring New Employees, which provides a background of the legal obligations in hiring, as well as fair hiring processes.

1 Jesus Garcia Quintero on employing interna- [Formerly Tait Network] tional staff members

Jesus is a young architect from Venezuela. With seven years of experience, across three different countries, he came to Australia as a Permanent Resident through the Skilled Migration Program. Jesus understands that immigrants are often viewed with caution in our industry, but his own experiences encourage us to rethink that view.

What are the advantages of coming through the Skilled Migrant Program (SMP)? To participate in the SMP, and succeed, you MUST have all your paperwork, including academic qualifications, skills assessments by the ACAA and official translations, all clear and done in advance before even thinking about leaving your home town. This lengthy (often years) certification process proves your English capabilities and professional qualifications, as assessed by a trusted Australian Institution. Having all my paperwork in order was reassuring for potential employers, and helped in obtaining my Academic Equivalence for Registration in Australia.

What do you think helped you find employment so easily? I had excellent qualifications to show and could demonstrate CAD proficiency. I was an Honours Degree graduate. I had work experience beyond my local home town, including internationally in two other countries and I had worked for known transnational companies. At the same time, I was relatively young and eager to learn. Being single and childless and new in town meant that I had extra free time for training, for catching up with local laws and codes, and for participating in all of the AIA events available. The AIA events were essential for networking.

Once you found a job, how did you find settling in?I’ll be grateful forever to my first employer, where I stayed five years. They were a How many languages does company that didn’t see race at all and were willing to take the risk and your practice speak? give people a chance to show what they have to offer. They always encouraged me to be involved in the Institute activities and to pursue my Academic Equivalence and further Registration.

Why do you think they were so willing to take you on? I think the directors’ previous overseas experience, especially in third world countries, may have widened their perspectives and made them less afraid of people trained overseas. I guess they knew that in other places people also get stuff done, and often very good stuff. They were highly educated people, which is the best weapon against ignorance and ¹ SAGE Journals: xenophobia. I remember a moment when we calculated that between Gender Biases in all the staff we could speak 11 languages! (Inter) Action) What advice would you have for employers who may be hesitant to ² Parlour Guide No. 5, hire someone from another country? I would encourage considering Recruitment these overseas trained professionals without prejudice. Applying to the Australian SMP requires a strong willpower, focus in life and a lot of organisational skills. These professionals are usually giving up Jesus is available to everything in their home towns (possibly family, social status, careers) discuss any of the issues or running away from difficult places, looking to give it their all for a raised here at: better future in Australia. These are usually loyal people who will be [email protected] forever grateful for receiving that first chance to kick start their new life. I know I certainly was. 2 ³

To summarise Parlour’s suggested strategies⁴ to avoid bias:

Be an informed employer. Employment procedures are regulated by a BE INFORMED range of legal frameworks that protect the employer and the employee. Nonetheless, bias is rife in recruitment.

Include women in the decision-making process. If your firm is serious INCLUDE WOMEN about increasing women’s participation and retention, it is advisable to include women (preferably architects) on both sides of the table.

If your applicant pool, shortlisting or appointments are significantly CHECK THE POOL unbalanced you may have a problem with bias in your processes.

Make sure you are looking for a diverse range of candidates in all the WIDEN THE NET right places, and take steps to ensure bias doesn’t creep in.

Taking time to think critically about the job and its requirements can pay DEFINE THE ROLE dividends in terms of attracting good candidates and avoiding bias at all stages of the recruitment process.

3 Sander de Vries [SQC on the business Architecture] case for equality

Sander is an Architect with his roots in the Netherlands. Throughout his studies and parenthood, he successfully negotiated flexible working arrangements with his employers. He has found his spot in the ACT Architecture community and is a Chapter Councillor, Chair of the ACT Practice Committee, member of the National Practice Committee and former member of the National Committee for Gender Equity.

What type of issues do you think of when you talk about Diversity and Equity? We’re really talking about many different issues that combine to manifest as inequity in the workplace. The common culprits Are male parents in are pay equity, long hour’s culture, part-time work, flexible working your office offered the arrangements, equitable recruitment and equal opportunities for career same flexibility as female progression. In the ACT, I think our awareness of these issues is parents? becoming strong, however, unconscious bias (subtle discrimination) on all of these topics still leads to one bigger problem.

Does your workplace have Can you give us an example of this? A prevalent issue in our a culture of competitive profession is the long hour’s culture. There are still many instances ‘presenteeism’? where unconscious bias assumes that the best person for domestic tasks, in a young family, is the mother, which pressures the female architect to commit fewer hours to the office. Meanwhile, her male counterpart, obviously not to his fault, freely commits more hours to the firm and will be (unconsciously) perceived as ‘more engaged’ and ‘more deserving’ of a raise or promotion. So aside from being unhealthy and exploitative, this long hour’s culture becomes a pressure pot for exaggerating inequality. Interestingly though, the long hours culture is taught to us at University, where it is often regarded as a badge of honour to pull an all-nighter.

How do these issues manifest into a bigger picture? This is best explained in the graph on the opposite page. The black circles represent the cohort of female graduates available in the Architectural profession at each age group. The coloured circles represent the men. While we start out at 50-50, female architects leave our profession at a staggering rate. Studies into this reality have confirmed that the majority of this ³ Gill Matthewson, trend is due to issues around inequality and bias. Who Counts? Diagram: Proportion of Why does it matter? Aside from equitable employment being ‘the right women in Australian thing to do’, there is also a strong business case - significant creative architecture by and economic advantages are to be expected when a firm draws on age group and a broad range of skills, perspectives and expertise. Balanced design extrapolated year of teams with a diversity of experience and expertise have better problem- graduation, 2012. solving skills and produce better, more inventive outcomes. Architectural firms that create balanced workplaces, will inevitably be productive and ⁴ Parlour Guide No. 5, motivated workplace. The staff retention rates for highly skilled and Recruitment experienced professionals are higher and will help the firm grow and develop. An Architectural firm with a broad diversity of staff, will better reflect clients and have greater access to networks. Sander is available to discuss any of the issues This indicates that diversity of staffing is not only about gender raised here at: balance? Correct. While gender inequality is our largest imbalance, sander.devries@sqca. we will also benefit if we improve in relation to other underrepresented com.au groups. The good news is that increasing equitable employment opportunities for one group, will equally increase our access and retention of others. 4 When assessing applications and shortlisting, it is important to focus on FOCUS ON SKILLS the skills required to successfully fill the role.

Write a good advertisement. The tenor and tone of the advertisement ADVERTISE WELL can play an important role in attracting the right candidates, while the wrong tone may put off great potential candidates.

CONSIDER OFFICE ‘Cultural fit’ can be very important to creating a productive working environment. However, narrow understandings of the concept can also lead CULTURE to poor recruitment and can restrict the demographic makeup of the practice.

Interviews should be structured in a way that gives all applicants a fair INTERVIEW WELL opportunity to present themselves well and to clearly articulate what they could bring to the position and the company.

A clear letter of offer and employment agreement is vital to good BE CLEAR employee management and business practice.

PROVIDE Successful hiring depends as much on what happens after a choice is SUPPORT made as it does on the selection process.

Consider targets or quotas. If you realise you have a gender balance problem, but can’t seem to deal with it effectively, consider putting targets BE or quotas in place. These can help practice management to focus on the STRATEGIC issue, and encourage them to act and think inventively about how to address it. Targets give you a clear aim, while quotas are a technique of last resort, which can force cultural change when used effectively.

Check out Parlour Guideline No. 5 for strategies Parlour and helpful suggestions to improve your recruitment Guide No. 5 practice. Recruitment

5 How equitable is your RECRUITMENTrecruitment process?

Does your practice currently have a recruitment policy? Does this policy articulate measures to avoid bias in the recruitment process?

Are your interview panels diverse?

Have recent applicants and recruits represented a broad cross section of the community? If not, how could this be addressed?

What ways do you think your practice could improve staff balance? Would targets or quotas be acceptable?

6 PAY INEQUITY

Pay gaps are caused by a range of factors, many of which are cumulative and accrue over time¹.

One of the most prevalent ways we feed inequality is perhaps through our subconscious prejudice and bias.

The case study on the opposite page explores the subconscious conversation we can have with body language. Social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, identifies two spectrums of body language: high power and low power². Check out the comparison below:

< > High Low power power

7 Are you subconsciously influenced by prejudice or bias?

Social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, studies prejudice and bias, and has published some eye-opening research that is tangibly relevant to gender equity in our industry.

Cuddy’s research began by looking at ‘Power Poses’ - non- verbal expressions of when we have power or feel powerful (think Usain Bolt after a race or Oprah Winfrey giving away cars). These poses are deeply inbuilt for all living creatures; we make ourselves big, tall and ‘central’ when we are confident, and small, defensive and ‘tucked away’, when we are intimidated. Even studies of blind people have shown that these actions are deeply hardwired in our psyche.

Unsurprisingly, these non-verbal power poses are more likely to be exhibited by men, while women generally feel “chronically less powerful than men”².

We also know that “we make strong subconscious judgements on people every day based on their body language”². And therein lies subconscious bias - where genetic differences between men and women can advance or hinder ones impression of us without even beginning to assess ‘merit’.

But - this is where Cuddy’s research takes an interesting turn. Apparently it’s not just others who are influenced by confident body language; we can influence ourselves. In various studies, Cuddy asked participants to take on poses of power, or poses of vulnerability, for two minutes before taking a hormone test and sitting a very stern job interview. The results were staggering. Those who power-posed for just two minutes experienced significant spikes in testosterone, big dips in cortisol (stress hormone), were more likely to take a gamble, and were viewed far more favourably by the specialist interviewers. The exact opposite occurred for those who had ¹ Parlour Guide No. 1, assumed the low-power poses. Pay Equity

² Amy Cuddy, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are, 2012 Bottom line:

The full TED We need to be aware of how our genetic differences might help presentation is highly or hinder our opinion of others, and that we should use objective recommended! performance criteria to limit prejudice and bias. Excitingly, this TEDGlobal 2012, research suggests that those with lower confidence can, in a Amy Cuddy, Your sense, “fake it until you make it.” Or, as Cuddy suggests, “fake it Body Language until you become it.” Shapes Who You Are

8 Where to start? Create an office pay scale.

One of the easiest ways to eliminate bias from your workplace is to create subjective templates and proforma for assessing and reviewing staff fairly. While we don’t claim to be experts, based on advice from Parlour³ and the Institute’s HR+, we suggest that the following steps may be a good starting point for developing your own approach:

Download the latest Architects Award, along with other pay Collect your research you may have available to you such as the AACA STEP ONE resources salary reports.

The Institute’s HR+ service provides templates such as How to Prepare and Use Job Descriptions as well as providing robust STEP TWO Prepare or update starting templates for typical positions for you to easily edit to role descriptions suit your practice. It is important to create role descriptions so that you can fairly assess and compare staff members.

Make a list of the Collect each staff member’s position/seniority, salary (full current staff, their time equivalent if they are part time/casual), and years of STEP THREE pay rates and role experience post-graduation. descriptions

Check for disparities and ask yourself whether outliers are well Audit staff pay justified and a genuine reflection of performance and contribution. Don’t forget to include STEP FOUR This can be useful to prompt objective assessment and yourself! comparison between staff.

The format of your pay scale is up to you - a line graph or Build your table can be useful. You can easily address yearly inflation by STEP FIVE office pay scale building your graph as a percentage above Award Wage, and updating as the Award is adjusted.

Revisit each employee’s pay and see whether they sit fairly Check your graph STEP SIX on your company pay scale.

Decide whether to share your scale with employees, and in what format. A transparent pay system enables employees to understand STEP SEVEN To share or not all the components of their pay and its relation to their job and to share performance. Research suggests that younger generation-employees respond well to knowing the milestones for performance and remuneration that lie ahead of them.

Complete this process annually to ensure that you are Review annually STEP EIGHT continuing to provide a fair and equitable workplace.

“Pay equity is good for business. In addition to meeting a practice’s Parlour legal and ethical obligations, it helps to achieve fairness, respect Guide No. 1 and equality in the workplace, which is important for contributing to a Pay Equity motivated and productive workforce”. 9 Cassandra Where to start? Keller Are youon starving subconsciously the pay Create an office pay scale. [Clarke Keller] prejudiceinequity or beastbias?

Cassandra is Practice Principal and Design Lead at local firm, Clarke Keller. As a passionate advocate for gender equity, Cassandra offers five points of advice for employers on how together, we can raise the bar across the industry.

1. It’s easy to slip into thinking the habits of pay and working conditions that we may have experienced as a graduate or employee are normal. It’s up to each employer to make a conscious decision to do things differently. Something that is ‘accepted’ is not necessarily ‘right’.

2. We as employers need to ask ourselves if it’s reasonable to line our pockets with the money earned by our staff who may be reticent at seeking a pay rise. The habit of many businesses - not just architectural ones - is to wait to give pay rises until they are pushed for by staff. In practice, this is a sure way to feed the pay inequity beast. There are many examples where confidence can come without competence. It’s also possible to be subconsciously convinced that confidence is competence.

3. At annual staff reviews, salary increases should be considered (when practice income warrants it) on a merit and experience basis, as a matter of course for all staff members (regardless of their expectations or what they ask for). If one pay increase is to be given, consider how it sits with every staff member with similar experience and capacity. Create a simple set of expectations for staff to achieve an improvement in salary relative to their level. Differences in pay must be real and quantifiable, written down, and ideally checked by another manager. It’s easy to fall into the trap of paying someone more because you relate to them, like them or are persuaded by their own sales pitch about themselves.

4. The other easy way to feed the pay inequity beast is to hire at a higher rate because we are desperate to snag the clever young How are pay rises grad or ambitious mid-career professional. We must ask ourselves, allocated in your is this new hire coming at a rate that is fair and matching the relative practice? experience and pay of existing staff members? If we can’t live without them, then we should be prepared to match that level and Do you have a adjust other salaries accordingly. It could end up being a seriously pay scale and is it universally applied? expensive hire if it impacts five other staff salaries in equity terms. Is the new hire really worth it or is it better to define a salary cap appropriate to their experience and capacity and stick to it? ³ Parlour Guide No. 1, Pay Equity 5. A table with relative staff experience and expected capacity by level should be kept up to date by the practice manager to make this process simpler and transparent in the case of an audit. It’s our Cassandra is available to duty as an employer to comply with relevant employee awards. It is discuss any of the issues also our duty to maintain a fair and equitable pay scale that does not raised here at: discriminate by default or inaction or unconscious bias on our part. [email protected]

10 Parlour Guide No. 1 suggests the ways in which pay inequity can creep into a practice. Keep an eye out for:

DIFFERING “Practices may inadvertently introduce pay gaps via unequal ⁴ Parlour starting salaries. This can be difficult to remedy later. Pay STARTING gaps can also be compounded (or introduced) over time Guide No. 1 SALARIES through pay increases and promotion procedures⁴” Pay Equity

UNEVEN PAY Different pay rates for roles requiring similar levels of expertise, skill and experience. Similarly, uneven pay rises and opportunities for promotion for RATES + RISES employees with similar experience and performance

Different negotiation skills and expertise. “Anecdotes from architectural employers and employees, and research in other areas, suggest men are more likely to NEGOTIATION negotiate or over-estimate their previous salary, while women are more likely to accept an initial offer⁴”

... continued on p13

⁵

11 Jenny Edwards [Light House Areon you office subconsciously culture and Architecture & Science] realisticprejudice expectations or bias?

Jenny Edwards is director of Light House Architecture and Science. Light House employ 8 staff, all of whom at times work reduced or flexible hours. We asked Jenny how she manages workload and equity in this office culture.

How do you manage equitable workload in this flexible environment? I focus on outcomes rather than hours. I maintain a workflow and income pipeline for all of the project architects in Excel. It maps out the predicted month by month progression, and associated invoicing, for each of their projects. Totals for the month, and difference from targets, are automatically calculated so that I can quickly gauge how an individual project and the overall business is tracking for the next 6 to 12 months.

We know what we need to do to break even and we have Are you well-informed targets that we aim for. While it’s great for monitoring progress on your employee’s toward targets, the equally important role of the pipeline is to current and upcoming ensure that staff are not overburdened. It can be tempting in our workloads? industry to accept every new project, whenever it comes along. This can really backfire – staff get stressed and exhausted, Do you have the systems in place to timelines and productivity slip, clients don’t get the attention or accurately measure quality of service that they expect and that we want to deliver. productivity, as opposed to time in the office? An important part of my role is to understand what’s realistic to expect from staff and what a sustainable workload is. It isn’t as simple as staff needing to work harder or longer, but more likely that processes, deliverables or the types of projects we take on need to change - or that fees need to increase.

How do you assess outcomes and productivity? Happy staff. ⁵ Diagram by Georgina Happy clients. Bills paid. Targets achieved or progress made Russell using analysis toward them. It’s important to accept that sometimes unexpected by Gill Matthewson things will happen, for example a project suddenly comes to and Kirsty Volz, a halt due to a change in client’s personal circumstances. It’s The numbers in a really important to understand the impact of such changes nutshell: Women in on the workload of a staff member and the cash flow of the Architecture, Australia business. Don’t panic, trust your systems, fill the gap in the Diagram: Gender pay gap: Distribution of pipeline and move on. If your systems aren’t robust enough to earnings per week by handle such hiccups then something has to change – marketing, age group and gender fees, products, processes, staff composition. - full-time workers, 2012. What simple changes have you found most helpful in your practice? Making less than full-time working hours an option. Jenny is available to discuss any of the issues Focusing on outcomes not hours. Making health, not overtime, a raised here at: priority. Understanding our business and monitoring its activity. jenny.edwards@ Understanding that our human resources are our most valuable lighthouseteam.com.au resources.

12 PART-TIME Different levels of pay for part-time employees who are performing the same work as their full-time RATES counterparts

ACCESS TO Uneven access to opportunities for professional development. “Ensure that pay, promotion and PROFESSIONAL professional development structures recognise DEVELOPMENT and reward competence and contribution, not just overt confidence or hours in the office⁶”

Uneven access to bonuses or performance pay. PERFORMANCE “Be aware that bonus payments that are only available to senior staff, or for which certain PAY positions in the business are not eligible, may inadvertently contribute to gender equity⁶”

More limited employment or promotion prospects PROMOTIONS for those with family responsibilities

Different negotiation skills and expertise. “Anecdotes from architectural employers and employees, and research in other areas, suggest NEGOTIATION men are more likely to negotiate or over-estimate their previous salary, while women are more likely to accept an initial offer⁶” ⁶ Parlour Guide No. 1, Pay Equity

13 Do you consider your practice transparentRECRUITMENT when it comes to pay?

Does your practice currently have a formal employee pay scale?

Do you think there is opportunity for improving your office pay scale? In what ways?

What goals would you like to set for your practice in regards to monitoring staff workloads?

What goals would you like to set for your practice in regards to your office pay scale?

14 FLEXIBILITY + BALANCE

Flexible working arrangements have something of a mixed reputation, but if managed correctly can provide significant benefits to both employer and employee.

Why consider flexible working arrangements*?

REDUCED Studies show that making flexible working arrangements available ABSENTEEISM reduces absenteeism and staff leaving the practice.

COPING The ability to negotiate flexibile working arranagements assists staff in MECHANISM coping with busy work periods.

INCREASED Increased staff satisfaction and productivity as well as encouraging PRODUCTIVITY participation in the workforce.

SUPPORTS CARING Supports employees with caring responsibilities, ie children, elderly RESPONSIBILTIIES parents.

SUPPORTS RE-ENTRY Facilitates staff returning from parental leave.

*Flexible work arrangements need to be negotiated under the National Employment Standards and the relevant award. Additionally, you need to ensure that any flexible working arrangement negotiations suit both the employee and employer¹.

15 Alanna King on balancing early [Philip Leeson Architects] parenting and career

As a young architect, whose partner is in the same industry, Alanna reflects on her recent experience of maternity leave, returning to work, and shared parenting. Her thoughts are insightful, and can offer value to both individuals and employers who may be approaching similar challenges themselves.

I had been with the practice for four years when my first child was born. When it came to maternity leave discussions, our director consistently said, you come back whenever you want, however you want. The practice didn’t have a maternity leave policy. In the office I had worked in previously I had seen a number of women head off on maternity leave, never to return. I was determined that this would not be my fate.

Once my son arrived, the realities of mothering and a baby became clearer, including three hour feeding intervals and a baby that only slept well in my arms. The practice was great while I was on leave, inviting us to attend openings, events, office meetings and morning teas, as well as the odd site meeting. Continuing to be connected in this way was important.

At the six-month mark, we were offered some child care days. At six months a baby can almost sit up without toppling over, and might be beginning to try food. It didn’t feel right to take this option just yet. My parents then offered to look after my son one day a week. Their house is close to the office, and this involved my commuting back and forth during the day to breastfeed. Alternatives to this might have been expressing and stockpiling milk, but the only private space at the office was the toilets, and I couldn’t come at this.

For the first month I was in the office one day a week, rushing back and forth, but I had a couple of distinct tasks and this was achievable. In my second month, my husband began working a four-day week so that I could step up to two days a week. In the third month – by this time our son was beginning to consume more food –my husband and I each worked three days a week, looking after our son two days a week, and at my parents’ on the third. It wasn’t until I was in the office three days a week that I was able to pick up and run with project work, corresponding with clients, consultants and builders. At ¹ Australian Institute of 12 months, we felt better prepared for childcare, allowing my husband Architects, Flexibility in and I to return to the office four days a week each. the Workplace, available to members via HR+ I feel extremely fortunate to have such a strong and supportive network of partner, employer and parents. I was also fortunate at the office to be able to determine and manage my own deadlines, Alanna is available and gradually ramp up my contribution. This wasn’t always smooth to discuss any of the or easy, but I was upfront with clients and found them to be very issues raised here at: accepting and understanding – it turns out parenting and managing alanna@philipleeson. return to work is pretty universal. com.au

16 Most problems in managing flexible work arise when flexible work arrangements are not clearly defined².

The Institute’s HR+ provides the following advice on organising flexible work:

Be clear from the outset what the request is, how it will work (or not work) in practice and what work performance you expect during this temporary arrangement.

Consider the technology available in the business to keep the employee connected with the business. Include all staff in training opportunities, irrespective of how many hours of work they do or where they work. Be sure to monitor productivity and attendance from employees who work remotely or reduced hours².

It is crucial to monitor workloads of other employees to ensure they are not overloaded as this may foster resentment, work stress and/or resignation. If there is too much work for current staff, consider hiring a casual or part time employee to cover this workload.

Constructive and regular feedback (from both the employer and employee) is another critical factor in maintaining a positive flexible working arrangement. Be clear when giving employee feedback about what they are doing well and where they can make improvements².

HR+ provides a useful guide, sample letters for flexible work requests and grants as well as a sample flexible work policy.

Parlour Guide No. 4. Clearly outlines the case for flexible work, the challenges inherent in it and strategies and advice for implementing it in your practice.

The Fair Work Ombudsman provides extensive advice, information, examples and pro forma documents relevant to both employee rand employees wishing to negotiate or establish a flexible working arrangement.

IT to support flexible work.Practice management software can assist firms by providing systems to support work flexibility. Many of these software packages provide the infrastructure to support remote work, including file management and backup, centralised communications and project tracking and time management.

Some platforms include: Archi-office, Dapulse, NewForma, Total Synergy (Xero add on), Deltek Ajara and Workflow Max.

17 Hannah-Jean on enabling Cadan [AMC Architecture] flexible work

Hannah-Jean Cadan is a Practice Manager and Project Architect with AMC Architecture and is currently working part-time in the office and from home having recently returned to work after maternity leave. Hannah shares some of this practice’s experience of the challenges and rewards of flexible work practices.

Can you tell us a little about how flexibility works at your practice? A number of our staff have families with young children and we’ve found that flexible working arrangements can be mutually beneficial. Flexible work has allowed staff to balance their work and family commitments while maintaining contact with the office, projects and clients. This flexibility has enabled us to continue to meet client expectations, maintain high quality outputs and achieve project milestones. The practice has developed a flexible working policy through consultation with staff and testing a number of different working arrangements. Dependent upon staff and project requirements, we can accommodate part-time, remote work and split-shift work arrangements.

Has flexible work changed how staff are managed?Experience has You are recruiting for shown that flexibility is reliant upon continuous, transparent communication a new senior project between staff and management, including formalising clear expectations architect. A highly skilled, for working hours, availability and performance. Careful management and experienced architect delegation of tasks by project leaders and directors becomes even more applies. During their crucial in a flexible work context. interview they request flexible working hours What infrastructure and systems have you needed to put in place to accommodate family to make this possible? We’ve found that a robust IT system that can responsibilities - how accommodate remote working is essential. This system needs does this affect their to enable staff to access emails on smart-phones, log in remotely and application? securely to the office network from home PCs or laptops and submit timesheet entries electronically. We recently rolled out new practice management software which has enabled us to implement a more effective system for managing project resources and tracking and reporting on projects in real-time. Although this transition was not without issues, we definitely recommend other practices consider making the move.

Have you found that the option for staff to work flexibly has been an advantage when recruiting? Given the increasingly competitive market for high quality candidates, offering flexible working arrangements does enable us to keep pace with, and possibly differentiate us from, our ² Australian Institute of competitors. As we have only recently formalised these arrangements we Architects, What are may be in a better position in the coming months to confirm the impact of Flexible (Modified) more flexible working arrangements. Working Arrangements?, available to members via HR+ How has having the option to work flexibly affected office culture and moral? I believe our ability to offer flexible working arrangements has had a positive impact on the culture and morale of the office. Our office has always been a welcoming environment for staff and their Hannah is available to families, however offering flexible work practices has helped in improving communication between all levels of the firm, encouraging transparency discuss any of the issues and an appreciation for the broader lives of our staff. In saying this, there raised here at: hannah@ can be challenges in working around part-time staff and careful, considered amcarchitecture.com.au management is important to achieve project outcomes. 18 Ever considered a 4 day working week?

Something to Nicholas Bloom, a researcher at Stanford University consider... has conducted broad scale research into Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, with over 16000 employees. With high property prices in Shanghai, Ctrip were keen to reduce their overheads in accommodating staff. Bloom designed a randomised trial where 500 staff were randomly selected to work from home 4 days a week for a period of 9 months. These workers continued to be managed by their previous manager, who also managed the in-office team. When they reviewed the results, Ctrip and Bloom were stunned. “It was unbelievable. Ctrip saved $1,900 per employee over the course of the study on office space, and we knew this would happen,” Bloom says. “But to our amazement, the work-from-home employees were far from goofing off — they increased productivity by 13.5 percent over those working in the office. That’s like getting an extra day’s work from each employee.” The people working from home also reported shorter breaks, fewer sick days and took less time off.

The gains went beyond productivity — attrition rates among the at-home group were 50 percent lower than those who worked in the office. In interviews with researchers, the remote employees also reported higher job satisfaction. Still, to the surprise of Ctrip management, more than half of the volunteer group changed their minds about working from home — they felt too much isolation. Bottom line:

The study shows that companies have little to lose — and much to gain — by allowing employees to work from home. “The need to go into a workplace five days a week started because people had to go to a factory and make products,” Bloom says. “But companies that still treat employees like that are increasingly finding themselves at a disadvantage³”.

4 Flexible men While flexible work is often considered an acceptable necessity for women, it’s much less so for men. Flexibility for men is often perceived as a poor career move. If flexible working conditions are to become mainstream and accepted as a legitimate career choice in architecture, they will need to be taken up by a large proportion of the profession, including by senior men.

19 Rob Henry [Rob Henry on managing your Architects] mental health

As our most recent (and youngest ever) AIA ACT Chapter President and the director of his own firm, Rob’s candid description of managing his mental health holds a tangible sense of gravity, and reminds us all to respect our mental health and support those around us, and ourselves.

Mental health is one of those things that men seem to struggle with, and simply not talk about - especially in a rural area like my hometown. I grew up as a red headed boy, who couldn’t kick a footy, and liked painting and drawing - I believed I was completely odd. Confusion about my own identity shadowed my confidence and sense of self.

Moving to Canberra (the big smoke) and beginning my architecture studies introduced me to the true meaning of diversity, and those assumptions about my oddness seem to dissolve. I was in fact reasonably ‘normal’; sexual orientation aside.

However, university hit my mental health in other ways I was completely Would you be aware if not expecting. Whilst my personal identity became clearer, my ability to any of your staff were cope with city living, interact with people, and reconcile no longer being the struggling? highest achiever in my class took its toll. Part way through second year, I had a breakdown, lost 10kgs and was a frail excuse of a human being. Does your office culture support staff to ask for At the end of the first degree I was about to throw in the towel. Learning help or flexibility when this, one of my lecturers was quick to react and within days I was at my they need it? first ever architecture job interview. I remember vividly being physically sick before and after the meeting with Philip Leeson, yet I must have held ³ Nicholas Bloom, Why myself together during the interview. Working From Home Should Be Standard Transitioning from the ‘freedom’ university brings to the ‘rigidity’ of the Practice, available workplace was another huge challenge. I was used to hard work but had online. 2017. never been stationary in front of a computer for 8 hours. The office was small, full of people at least twice my age, and the choice of music was ⁴ Parlour Guide No. 4, classical. From this, I assumed they were conservative folk and would kick Flexibility me out of the office if they found out I was gay; much like my family (at the time). So, my personality split into two; work persona and home persona.

Rob is available Over time, I grew into office lifestyle and felt ‘at home’. I trusted the people to discuss any of around me, realised that they were far from conservative, and that they the issues raised cared deeply. But, on occasion, I had lapses and needed time out. By now above at: rob@ I had developed a bag of tricks to get through the ‘feeling down’ days. For me, these included changing my office hours, going for long bike rides in robhenryarchitects. the middle of the day, walks around the block, and I even enrolled in an com.au ANU School of Art course for half a day a week. Short bursts of activity out of the office to clear the mind or ‘spice things up a bit’ were the perfect medication for a challenged mind with quivering motivation.

Sometimes we need to ask ourselves what we need to be healthy, work out how best to achieve it, and then pitch it to our employers. Any good employer will support you, as mine did.

Now running a small office, I do my best to keep things as flexible as possible for my staff. It’s important to keep an eye out for signs of decline and address them on the spot, but balance this with the understanding that your employees can, and should, decide what work life balance suits them best. 20 Work-life balance is obviously important to all members of our society, and is fundamental to sustainable architectural practice. Research from the University of SA³ shows that work-life imbalance can play out differently for men and women:

The majority of full-time workers experience chronic time pressure, and this is consistently higher for women. Part-time hours relieve time pressure to some extent, but as observed in previous years, part-time work offers more reprieve for men than women. Just over one third of part-time men report frequent time pressure compared to just over half (52.3%) of part-time women⁵.

Mothers are particularly affected by time pressures, with 69.0% of mothers frequently time pressured in 2014, versus 54.6% of fathers⁵.

It is important to be aware that external pressures, family and caring roles may be different each of your staff and require different managerial responses in terms of flexibility, hours and support.

Implementing flexible working arrangements is one way to support the continuing involvement in the industry of those with parental or caring responsibilities, or where disability limits access to the workplace.

The Institute’s HR+ suggests a few ways flexibility might be organised:

e.g. 9 day fortnights, working extra hours for taking PATTERNS time off

e.g. reduction/increases in hours worked, changes to HOURS start/finish times

LOCATION e.g. working from home or another location

⁵ Natalie Skinner and Barbara e.g. arrangements for time off, time in lieu or paid Pocock. The COMPENSATION overtime Australian Work and Life Index 2014, The Persistent e.g. part time employment or job share Challenge: Living, ROLE arrangements Working and Caring in Australia in 2014

21 Do you consider your RECRUITMENTpractice flexible?

Have you tried flexible working arrangements previously?

Were they productive? What contributed to this result?

Do you have the infrastructure and system in place to support staff to work flexibly?

Would these systems be a valuable investment for your firm?

Do you have a systems for recording overtime and time in lieu in your office?

Does the result of Bloom’s research surprise you? Do you believe this research is relevant to the smaller scale of a Canberra Architecture practice?

22 CAREER PROGRESSION

The Australian Institute of Architect’s HR+ website has some great resources on conducting performance reviews. They define a performance review as “the process of identifying, evaluating and developing the work performance of employees in the business so that organisational goals and objectives are more effectively achieved, while at the same time benefiting employees in terms of recognition, receiving feedback, catering for work needs and offering career guidance¹.”

The core purposes of a performance review are: ++ To clearly communicate an employees role and the expectations placed on that role ++ To provide specific feedback about actual performance ++ To develop strategies and identify goals for any identified areas for improvement, growth or career progression

Parlour Guideline No. 6 suggests the following steps in awareness²:

Ensure you have an objective review process that includes clear OBJECTIVE communication and expectations around performance, feedback, future goals, priorities, challenges, targets, and professional development.

PAY OR Performance reviews may be less stressful and more productive for both PERFORMANCE parties if discussion around pay is performed at a separate time.

PANEL Where possible, ensure that you have a diverse reviewing panel, (i.e. DIVERSITY include a female).

AVOID Avoid making an assessment based on assumptions about what the staff member may do in the future (i.e. travel, take parental leave, resign if ASSUMPTIONS they aren’t promoted).

Further suggestions based on scholarly research:

Ensure that the person conducting the appraisal has a good understanding of the tasks and skills the employee is being assessed on. For example, if reviewing someone who has a technical drafting role, and the person running the appraisal doesn’t perform this work as part of their role, considering bringing in someone with a working understanding of the role to assist in the appraisal³.

Align the review with the goals and objectives of the firm. For example, if one of your values is to have staff that are highly engaged in professional development and industry engagement, be sure to include this in the discussion³.

23 Bronwen Jones [Canberra on unconventional career Architect and Urbanist paths and diverse experience

Bronwen arrived at a career in architecture via an unconventional path, and has embraced available richness and diversity of practice ever since. In reflecting on her own experiences, she demonstrates the value that women, and those who bring a different perspective, can offer to our industry.

I couldn’t have written this when I started out as a fashion designer in Melbourne in the early 1980’s. I was just a young girl from Tasmania who loved beautiful fabric and who could sew. Prue Acton was my hero, and all I wanted was to work for her. Unfortunately I never did.

Instead, I chose love and arrived in Canberra in the mid-eighties to a fashion industry in its infancy. With a cracking hair do and youthful self- confidence I leveraged fashion skills into other sectors – notably in retail, as a stylist and on the selling floor honing skills in making spaces and listening. Especially listening - to what people want and learning how to meet their needs.

I found that if you can design a frock to cloth the body, then designing a building was not such a big leap. And so I became an architect in the early two thousands. I had also added motherhood to the experience portfolio by this time! Being a woman with children defined how and with whom I worked, gravitating to practices who valued my skills as much as Does the pool of staff in the need to leave the office at a family friendly hour. your practice represent a rich cross section of our community? More recently I realised that the ideas and skills I have acquired over time transcend discipline and sector, and I am currently applying them to some Does your firm consider of the critical issues of our time – notably sustainable and liveable cities. and value non-architectural skills and experience? I am amongst the blossoming of new voices practicing in the profession. A world view shaped by life experiences gained by being a woman and ¹ Australian Institute taking different life trajectories enriches the profession’s ability to better of Architects, see, hear and understand the needs of clients, and in turn serve the Performance community. Appraisals, available to members via HR+ Research supports this proposition – not only does a workforce with diversity of experience, gender and age perform better financially, but ² Parlour Guide No. 6 it also propels creativity and innovation. Fostering an environment of Career progression openness to those who have taken different forks in the road brings different perspectives and uniqueness to the table. ³ SAGE Journals: Surely this is the right way for the profession to respond to the issues of Twenty Best Practices our time. for Just Employee Performance Reviews ++ Choose love and family because the inevitable interruptions or detours will result in richer experiences and a greater breadth of skills to apply to your work; ++ Be brave and study in a new field, knowing that the learning Bronwen is available trajectory will intersect with ongoing interests and passions; to discuss any of the ++ Diversity of experience brings a contact book brimming with issues raised above at: people who you can bring to the table to solve the thorny [email protected] problems. These are also the people with whom you share the ‘wins’ with! 24 What motivates the staff in your practice?

Many employers assume that staff are most strongly motivated by pay, and in turn, assume that this should will be the focus of any review. Research presented by Dan Pink pulls together scientific studies that overwhelmingly suggest that when it comes to employee motivation “there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system–which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators–doesn’t work and often does harm⁴”. Instead he suggests that there are three key motivators built in to all of us;

1 Autonomy - the desire to direct our own lives 2 Purpose - the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves 3 Mastery - the urge to get better and better at something that matters.

The full TED presentation is highly recommended! Autonomy + TEDGlobal 2009, Dan Pink, On Motivation. Purpose + Mastery ⁴ Dan Pink, On = Motivation Motivation, 2009

Focus on facts. Discuss objective data - such a productivity records, milestones, and client feedback. To arrive at an unbiased conclusion, always begin with facts rather than opinions.

Benchmark progress. Good reviews compare this year’s work with last year’s, and then against agreed upon standards. Explore benchmarks to allow the worker to see what’s been achieved and where he or she’s going.

Balance details equitably. Consider each worker’s performance consistently by focusing on the same level of detail in each case⁵.

25 Shannon on balancing business Battisson [The Mill] and parenthood

Shannon found herself in an unexpected situation, which turned out to be one the most rewarding experiences of her lives. Her thoughts can offer inspiration for young women facing similar concerns, as well as solid advice on easy changes directors and managers can make.

What led to your decision to start your own practice? If I’m honest, I lost my job. More than that, the manner in which I lost it made me feel despondent and I wasn’t keen to join another firm and leave myself vulnerable to that happening again. So when an old friend and colleague and I took on some private jobs, and it worked well for both of us, we thought we would just take a step back and do something for us for a little while, which then grew in to a business model that worked really well for us.

What were your biggest challenges during the first few years? The greatest challenge was balancing my family life with my professional life. After many years of infertility, our first few years of business coincided with me finally fulfilling my dream of parenthood. Balancing newfound motherhood with a business start-up was one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced, but it was also one of the most rewarding. If I had my time again, I’m not sure that I’d change much at all, except perhaps leaving big practice earlier.

How did you manage these challenges from a personal point of view? When many around me were suggesting I was wrong to want both a family and a career, I never doubted that I could give myself fully to both. Now that’s not to say that early site meetings after being up all night with a newborn with reflux weren’t tough, but the point is that people have been enjoying both professional and family life for a very long time, and we weren’t any different. Remembering that, and having an amazing family and business partner were what helped me through the first few years! Does your firm actively encourage What do you think are the key issues our industry needs to address and support paths in regards to gender equity, and how do we do it? My personal belief towards registration for is that we need to face two big issues. Firstly, we need to find a way graduates? to better support and encourage young architects to gain solid industry experience as early as possible and to obtain Registration. The common Would you know how pattern of delaying registration until after many years of experience pushes to approach equitable the milestone into a time frame that often competes with starting a family. redundancy if it were The difference that Registration makes to a mother’s ability to maintain a necessary? presence in this industry whilst also supporting a young family can be huge, and may be the difference between maintaining momentum in the industry, ⁵ Australian Institute or choosing not to return. of Architects, Performance Secondly, I think we need to find a way to provide genuinely flexible Appraisals, available work arrangements for both women and men. If truly flexible working to members via HR+ arrangements were available to architects, we would see far more women staying in the industry after having children, and far more men able to share more completely in the incredible experience of caring for their children. Shannon is available Technology in our industry is developing quickly, and already allows the to discuss any of the easy setup of an ‘office’ just about anywhere. If we can embrace that, as issues raised above at: company directors, we will allow our staff to enjoy the freedom to enjoy shannon@ both a career and a family in their own way, and I think we will all reap the rewards of greater productivity and motivated and enthusiastic staff. themilldesign.com.au 26 Where to start? Create an office performance appraisal system.

STEP ONE Set Establish and communicate when, and how frequently, expectations performance reviews will be conducted within your firm.

Develop a template for performance reviews that suits Develop a your firm. There are many starting points available STEP TWO standardised online that should be tailored to suit your firm’s priorities, system measures of productivity and contribution, and office culture.

Allow Provide the template to employees in advance of the STEP THREE employees to review for them to consider and fill out/reflect upon. prepare

Use the employees role descriptions as discussed in the previous pages, along with evidence based indicators Prepare STEP FOUR of employee performance and growth, to fill out your yourself performance appraisal document for discussion. Review previous appraisal records, if available.

STEP FIVE Conduct the Provide the template to employees in advance of the review review for them to consider and fill out/reflect upon.

Create future Identify key goals and areas for improvement and STEP SIX directions document them clearly with measurable outcomes.

Summarise what you have achieved from the appraisal STEP SEVEN Finish on a and be sure that the meeting ends on a positive and positive note motivated note for both parties.

Inspire accountability and momentum by following up on Continue outcomes of the appraisal and making changes where STEP EIGHT to monitor required. If you don’t take the review seriously, your staff outcomes members are likely to do the same, and to feel that the exercise was an insincere check-box activity.

27 Where to start? Does your performance review Create an office performance appraisal system. RECRUITMENTsystem stack up?

When, and how frequently, do you aim to conduct performance reviews at your firm?

If you don’t have an appraisal system in place, what are your goals for establishing one?

If you do have a system in place, are there any areas that you think you could aim to improve?

What is the main barrier to improving your appraisals of employee performance fairly, and how might you remove this barrier?

28

Thank you for taking the time to engage with this booklet. DEEP task-force

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing oneself” Leo Tolstoy Notes: Notes: