17Apr

Welcome back to #WeAreGreenKey, where we shine a spotlight on our powerhouse recruiting team. 

We recently met up with Lucas Leitenberger, Account Executive on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction team at Green Key. Lucas started his career at our firm in 2022, after having worked in the recruiting industry for 2 years. As a seasoned staffing industry professional, he now works with clients and candidates in the Pennsylvania and Ohio markets.

How did you first get started in Architecture and Engineering recruiting?

I originally started working as a construction recruiter with another recruiting agency. From there I saw early success and was promoted to an architecture sales position that focused on contract to hire basis in the Pittsburgh market. Since I made the transition to Green Key, I’ve been able to run a business of my own with an increased territory in Pennsylvania & Ohio.

What motivated you to pursue a career in this niche?

Architecture is something that I sincerely find interesting. I was never talented enough to be much of a designer/drawer, so I have such a profound respect for the creatives that make our built environment come to life. This role allows me to utilize my sales skills while also working within an industry I have interest in.

What have been some of the most rewarding aspects of your career?

I saw a report that said 20 to 25% of your life is spent at your workplace. So, I think the least that you could really ask is that you’re fairly compensated and comfortable in a place where you spend a quarter of your time. Many candidates we talk to mention the issues of being overworked or underpaid. So, it has been really rewarding to help change someone’s well-being by placing them into a role where they feel appreciated and fairly compensated.

How do you identify and attract top talent in the Architecture and Engineering fields?

We use LinkedIn heavily, there’s a lot of communication, a lot of marketing, and a lot of interactions within our community there. So, it’s always been important to be active on the site.  When targeting potential candidates, we are looking for good tenure.  On average an architect makes a move every 3 1/2 to four years.  It’s also excellent if you’re licensed – this opens a whole new world of opportunities for you like increased pay and more flexibility.

How do you stay updated on industry trends and developments to better serve your clients and candidates?

We stay involved in current events and news articles and have emerged ourselves into the design communities we support. I think the best way to stay up to date on trends is to talk to the people in the field experiencing them. My team and I are constantly networking with candidates/clients in all design disciplines each day. This way, we get a good feel for how the market is trending in live action.

What are some key factors that clients typically consider when selecting candidates for Architecture and Engineering positions?

I would say it’s similar to how we look for top talent, we look at tenure and also in my industry they like to see a portfolio. Having your portfolio put together and ready to roll is just as important as your resume.

2024 marks 20 years of Green key and how would you describe your experience since starting here?

It’s been wonderful. My quality of life has increased. It’s awesome to have that flexibility here at home to be able to see my little one intermittently between calls/meetings. This has also been a great move for me in a sense of success and building trust with my clients and candidates in this territory. I’ve been given the autonomy to build things the way that I see fit, and I’m respected as an architecture expert in my market. I’ve also had the opportunity to see my team grow, we just added more recruiting partners and hope to add more by the end of the year. We have big plans for the coming years and are looking forward to continuing to provide an impact for our partners.

Will We Be Living at Work in the Future?

Working where you live has become, if not yet the norm, certainly a much more common practice since the COVID pandemic.

Yet even as that trend becomes rooted – PwC found employees far from eager to return to an office – a new one may be emerging. The company town, reincarnated in the form of mixed-use buildings, is beginning to gain traction.

These developments are barely a blip on the real estate radar. Yet a few ambitious developers are taking the risk that workers in the post-COVID world will not want to endure the daily commutes to a central workplace as they did before.

Brooks Howell, the global residential practice area principal with the San Francisco architecture firm Gensler, says a sort of living at work arrangement make sense.

“If I’m a company and I’m going to build a 400,000-square-foot office space with the typical office configuration — offices, conference rooms — now I’m realizing that if I build 200,000 or 300,000-square-feet of apartments to go with that, those units become work-from-home offices of sorts,” he told Digiday.

Subsidized housing and employer-owned rentals are hardly a new phenomenon. The practice harkens back to the days when mining companies built whole communities to attract and house the workers they needed. Though the abuses of avaricious owners made the company town nearly synonymous with feudalism, some version of employer-provided housing exists in places as different as oil fields in the Dakotas and high tech centers of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now a more updated version is emerging. Gensler has been involved in a number of hybrid work and home constructions including one in Los Angeles and the 6 X Guadalupe project (pictured) now being built in Austin, TX.

“We’re not all going to be working from home for the rest of our lives, and the office is not going to die,” said Howell.

In these mixed use projects, Gensler has designed in some traditional office space, conference rooms and co-working spaces, as well as apartments with in-home offices. When workers need to collaborate in-person, it’s a short walk to the company office.

In another project in downtown Philadelphia, Franklin Tower has been converted into a mixed-use building. Apartments are on floors with windows. The windowless floors are used for co-working space, study pods and storage areas, gyms, yoga studios and community kitchens for corporate tenants.

Says Kevin Miller, CEO of the firm GR0, “If employees design their homes to be adjacent or combined with their offices, they can start to view their coworkers as friends and even family.

“The most successful, productive businesses always seem to have teams with close ties and deep connections with each other.”

Photo by Erin Doering on Unsplash

21 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day Today & Beyond

Happy Earth Day!

This annual holiday began in 1970 to demonstrate support for environmental protections. Today, Earth Day includes a wide range of events and celebrations across the earth.

While Earth Day only happens once a year, there are plenty of things you can do to help protect the earth and “go green.” We’ve compiled a list of 21 ways to help the planet & celebrate Earth Day today and beyond.

  1. Minimize your consumption of single-use plastic.
  2. Reuse before recycling.
  3. Recycle!
  4. Walk around your neighborhood and pick up litter to dispose of or recycle.
  5. Switch your lights off when you’re not using them.
  6. Use less water by taking shorter showers or cutting back on sprinkler use.
  7. Go digital! Get rid of paperwork and help the environment.
  8. Cut down on unnecessary travel.
  9. Turn your computer off when you’re not using it.
  10. Pack your own lunch to cut down on disposable packaging.
  11. Switch to low-energy light bulbs.
  12. Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store to cut down on plastic bag use.
  13. Fix leaky faucets.
  14. Unplug electronics when they are not being used.
  15. Use rechargeable batteries instead of single-use batteries.
  16. Switch to a programmable thermostat to save energy while you’re away from home.
  17. Recycle old cell phones and electronics.
  18. Walk, bike, or use public transportation for errands two miles or closer.
  19. Shop eco-friendly products and stores.
  20. Start composting your food scraps.
  21. Plant a tree!

While many of these may seem like small changes, they can have a big impact on the health of our planet and all of us who live here. Happy Earth Day!