How Engineers Can Find Flexibility in Structural Engineering – Ep 081

In this episode, we talk to Malory Atkinson, CPSM, LEED GA, about how engineers can find flexibility in structural engineering and what company owners can do to retain staff at their firms. Engineering Quotes: Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Malory: What does flexibility in engineering mean for you? What are some of the things that Shear has been doing to find flexibility in the SE profession beyond working from home? What are some of the challenges you have faced with providing engineers with more flexibility and how do you overcome these challenges? What is some of the feedback you have gotten from employees on how providing them with flexibility increased their quality of life? What are some ways that company owners can incorporate flexibility into their company vision and mission? What are some of the things employees can do to encourage company owners to incorporate flexibility? What is Shear's perspective on employee retention, and what are some of the other things Shear has done to retain staff? Do you have any advice for young engineers starting out in their career? Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About How Engineers Can Find Flexibility in Structural Engineering: Incorporating flexibility in your company’s culture will increase your company’s success and help keep your employees happy and dedicated to growing the company. Flexibility starts with trust. If you are unsure if an employee is doing their work, look at the metrics of their billable time and deadlines reached. Outline your expectations for your employees and trust them to get it done. Providing hands-on learning for younger engineers can be difficult to do remotely. Everyone has their own circumstances in life, which means that there will not be a one-size-fits-all flexible work-plan. Communication is a vital part of having flexibility in structural engineering, and the expectations must be outlined. Going back to the office working environment after the pandemic can be challenging. Try making a fun weekly event for everyone to attend. Make time during the event to discuss things like the weekly schedules and expectations. It will help to build the relationships between everyone again. It will help open conversations to take place so that you can find out what each of your team members are currently experiencing, and if some changes need to be made to better accommodate them. Be open to new and different suggestions and build a wide variety of people who you can call on when you need to. To incorporate flexibility into your company vision and mission, it must first be part of your company culture. Start by incorporating intentional moments of flexibility like closing the office for everyone over holiday seasons and broaden it out from there. The thing that engineers sell is themselves and the people in the company. Include your employees in your company’s mission and vision statement by saying something like you want to have fulfilled employees. If an employee wants a flexibility culture in the company they work for, but the company does not want it, they can leave the company for one that is better suited to them. But before leaving, talk to the leaders and managers of the company and tell them why you like working in that company. Tell them that you are considering leaving because of the reasons why you need flexibility and ask if they would consider letting you work with more flexibility that would suit you better. Ensure that you discuss your company’s flexibility at the time of interviewing new staff candidates. Employees are the most important thing in a company. Employee retention must be a very important topic in your company. Focus on company transparency and including employees in decision-making.