AE Recruiting Flash: Volume 8, Issue 1

Hiring Remote Workers? Adjust Your Process

Even after the coronavirus pandemic ends, many employees will continue to work remotely. According to a fall 2020 survey of 1,000 small business owners, human resources managers, and CEOs by online freelancer marketplace Upwork, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely in 2025, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Not all workers who excel in office environments, however, can do so working from home, which means that employers hiring for remote positions should adjust their processes accordingly.When evaluating candidates, place a greater emphasis on soft skills that are more critical for remote workers such as time management, focus, adaptability, and being a self-starter. Target candidates proficient with online collaboration tools, videoconferencing programs, file-sharing platforms such as Dropbox, and messaging platforms such as Slack. Add interview questions to learn more about candidates’ remote work experience, the tools they have used to manage projects remotely, how they have managed tight deadlines when working remotely, how they stay focused amid distractions at home, and how they have collaborated with remote team members. Since communications are even more critical for remote workers, make sure candidates respond promptly and clearly in any e-mail exchanges, and conduct at least one interview remotely to evaluate a prospective employee’s screen presence.

A/E Job Growth to Lag U.S. Economy Through 2029

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the number of architecture and engineering jobs will increase from 2.729 million in 2019 to 2.804 million in 2029, a gain of 75,000 positions. That 2.7% rise in jobs reported in the updated Occupational Outlook Handbook, however, lags behind the 3.7% growth that is forecast for all occupations as a whole. The BLS projects that the number of architecture occupations will rise by only 0.8% through the end of the decade and that the available positions for landscape architects will actually contract by 2.4%. The forecast is stronger for engineering jobs, which are expected to increase by 3.8% through 2029. The brightest long-term outlook is for industrial engineering positions, which are projected to expand by 10.1% through the end of the decade. Openings for chemical engineers and mechanical engineers are also expected to outpace those of the economy as a whole, rising 4.4% and 3.9%, respectively. On the flip side, long-term employment prospects for petroleum engineers (up 3.2%), environmental engineers (up 3.1%), and civil engineers (up 1.7%) are forecasted by the BLS to lag behind the overall economy.

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