A Look at Hospitality Design Change from the Inside

A New Culture and The Social Media Effect.  Recruiters have been a significant part of the movement of people in any industry, ours included.  They facilitate introductions that could never be possible simply because a hirer and a hiree don’t know each other, or the hiree doesn’t know a certain position is available.  This is magical.  Yet in the past four to five years, I’ve noticed a trending of less recruiter contact and more candidates who contact us directly.   Because of social media and LinkedIn in particular, anyone can now reach out and connect with senior people in an organization to make inquiries, which circumvents the recruiter.   And because of social media and company websites, candidates can independently research more about firms than ever before.  They know early on if a firm could be a fit for them.  What’s also new is that these candidates seem to be looking for synchronicity between personal life and career, a right culture fit and a quality of life, along with their salary.  They aren’t negotiating for money alone (a key role of the recruiter) as it doesn’t always guarantee key comforts - it can’t buy personal free time, the ability to sleep in your own bed, the time to cook your own meals, see your dog, and stuff like that.  We are seeing more and more candidates looking for a life AND a career, and in fact, we have had interviews in which salary was not brought up by the candidate until well into the process, which really highlights that emerging trend toward finding a “life fit” for both parties.  This is not to say that recruiters could be phasing out in hospitality, because if I wanted to move to a different country or different branch of the industry (from interior design to manufacturing, for example), I would definitely want to start my search with a knowledgeable recruiter.  But it is to say that the recruiter-as-facilitator-of-information-about-firms-and-positions has been superseded by social media and the internet.

The Downturn Effect.  It’s not news that the Downturn put a lot of people out of jobs.  Really good people.  Many smart ones changed careers entirely, and their departure left hospitality design and manufacturing with a shortage of seasoned experience.  The ones with the guts and the drive and the resources to start their own firms did so, and the effect of these two factors has been impactful.  For design in general, it has been the equivalent of the NHL opening several expansion teams.  Thus, there has been a spreading out of design talent, meaning more firms and a competitive atmosphere among those firms seeking designers with experience.  Those newer expansion teams frequently find themselves looking for skilled and experienced talent to compete with the more established expert teams.  For hotel owners and operators, the result has been mixed.  On the one hand, it’s good that there are numerous smaller firms with good people, which gives a lot more choice, yet sometimes the lack of experience within the smaller startup firms can be problematic down the road.  For the firms that were already existing, it raises the bar, which honestly is never a bad thing, if you like a high bar.

The Contractors.  This group of designers walks the finest of lines – that of choosing to be an independent designer, and that of being in one of the most neglected groups in our industry.  This group, in an effort to live independent lives, is ultra-susceptible to boom and bust and ends up being the least invested-in group of designers.  It’s not always that way, of course; some are very lucky and beloved members of the firms they work for.  But not everyone has that experience.  In the boom times, it can go like this.  Design Firm A has a new big project.  They bring in extra hands for a period of time; it can be days or months.  Because they are in need, they will pay higher-than-usual hourly rates.  In a best case scenario, the contractor later becomes an employee; in a more typical scenario, the contractor is a bit of a loner in the firm, receiving less, if any training, support, or feedback than the full-time staff.  Then as soon as the contractor’s services aren’t needed, they’re released, as they are expensive to maintain even a minute longer than needed.  When contractors do decide to make a life-change to be an employee, they’re surprised to discover that their contractor hourly rates don’t necessarily translate into the equivalent salary because their contractor rate was high (possibly to cover insurance, taxes, etc.) or possibly because it was a temporary solution to a staffing issue, so Design Firm A was willing to pay high rates temporarily. They may also discover that even though they’ve spent years in the industry, they have “holes” in their experience because they have not had the responsibility or been trained to do various project roles, like design to a budget, oversee that design, write comprehensive, deep specs, or install and punch that design.  In the bust times, the contractors are either the last people to get jobs, or they become the mainstay to firms who don’t want to commit to employees.  The problem here can be that the contractors really do fit the legal qualifications for being an employee; they’re just not being treated like they do.  What’s interesting about this group during this overwhelming upturn in the industry, is that this group is the potential solution to the staffing crisis that is affecting both design and manufacturing.  These people have experience but lack the training, feedback, and consistency that a full-time, ongoing position provides.  This is where we all should be focusing our attention as we look for candidates, and their responses will be entirely dependent on how they have been treated in the past. 

The Walmart Effect.  This evolution is actually a by-product of the Downturn Effect, but it’s worthy of its own discussion.  And I don’t mean to pick on Walmart.  They’re not the only large powerful corporation to pressure their suppliers to adapt in order to keep them as a client.  In hospitality, it wasn’t a corporation that forced us to change; it was the Downturn and our adaptation to it.  So it’s no shocker that the largest hospitality design firms with offices worldwide used their international resources to focus on increasing business outside of the US, which was a brilliant and obvious good decision when much of the world was in an economic crisis.  China and the Middle East, in particular, were less affected than North America or Europe, so these regions increased manufacturing and new construction opportunities, and the large hospitality firms were perfectly positioned to take those opportunities.  What we’ve seen most notably on the design side is the evolution of a growing group designers who’ve been working at firms with projects in these regions for much of their careers.  It’s obviously taken a few years, but we’re noticing more and more that these designers with 5+ years of experience at these firms are experiencing design in a different way than it has been practiced in the past.  In fact, some of them have never experienced anything different.  These international clients are affecting the design process because of how they want the process and their projects structured.  In their process, projects are concepted by designers and executed by locals.  Their projects are designed with mood shots, boards, sketches, and renderings, most of the products in the project will be manufactured and overseen overseas, designers will have little or no opportunity to work closely with manufacturers to work through design or VE (value engineering) issues, designers will seldom go through the steps within the Construction Administration Phase like TQ’s/RFI’s, shop drawings or submittals, and designers will have little to no access to project budgets since manufacturing and construction will be out of their oversight.  Lastly, the designers will seldom see the finished project and will miss the crucial feedback on their design to learn if it turned out and functions as intended. This new design process is a dramatic shift from how our industry began, and it’s one that has gained traction and is definitely here to stay.  It’s created a growing divergence in how the design process is structured, and it will be interesting to see how it sorts out. At this point, I do see two distinct design processes emerging where there once was one. 

It’s obvious that the changes in design that have taken place in the last five years encompass a lot more than just those things that the guest sees, touches, or influences.  The economy, the internet and social media, and our very clients have been quietly impacting our industry, and if we stop to take notice and listen, we can face these next five years with a much-needed dose of insight!