3 min read March 2023 — AKF Group sees great opportunities in the life science space. “I think it’s full speed ahead right now. We’ve only seen an acceleration in terms of our clients’ RFPs and overall interest,” said Christina Mahady, principal of the firm.
What are the major trends in your industry now?
In the past five years across a lot of the East Coast markets, there’s been a shift in commercial interests toward the life science industry. We’ve been trying to take advantage of that by coordinating some of those relationships. Some clients are not sure if they want to make the venture — it is very attractive numbers-wise, but they understand that there can be limitations in some of the properties that are available and whether or not it’s worth their investment to build a property that would draw the right type of tenants.
We’ve been contributing a lot to studies of existing buildings and helping our clients understand their ventures. Anything can be done if you have the capital to do it, but then it’s a matter of helping them understand the cost impacts, so they can do that analysis to see if it’s worth it.
What role does the AKF Institute play in training?
The goal of the AKF Institute is to provide internal and external AEC professionals with the proper knowledge and tools to improve the future of our industry. The AKF Institute is one of many internal programs that reflect our core values on what we call the internal client. The Institute is our internal training opportunity and within it, we have different academies geared towards the varying level of experience and departments. I was fortunate to be selected to participate in the Leadership Academy, a program that provides leadership coaching for more senior employees. I was fortunate to be selected to participate in the Leadership Academy, a program that provides leadership coaching for more senior employees within the firm. Training is non-technical in nature and topics range from the soft skills of business development and public speaking to AKF financials, risk management, and strategic thinking, helping graduates to be well-rounded, knowledgeable professionals within the industry. Externally, we provide our clients and industry partners with AIA-accredited courses to stay abreast of the trends and rapidly changing codes and regulations within the AEC industry. With a continued focus on learning, AKF Institute fosters growth not only in the firm but also in the marketplace by recognizing and developing the talents of each individual so they can assume more leadership responsibility in their respective fields.
What is your company’s approach on the sustainability front?
We have to move forward — what we’re certainly doing now is having that conversation upfront at the start of every project, no matter the scale. Sustainability and energy conservation are nothing new to AKF. We’ve always focused on reducing our environmental impact and energy use through the design of high-performance building systems. AKF utilizes energy modeling and our in-house carbon calculating tools throughout the design process to aid in the decision process. There are certain limited challenges for the smaller projects to make investments to move in this direction.
We try to get our clients to think outside of the realm — from the start to finish of small and medium-sized projects. Every project is an opportunity for them to make improvements to their product’s carbon impact. We listen to the client’s priorities and present energy, carbon, and cost implications of various MEP options to ensure the appropriate systems are selected. In the Boston market, there’s still some stigma with all-electric and how achievable and successful it can be. We’re trying to be very hopeful and that it can be a model for success in the Northeast. We’re making headway on projects and some clients are more invested in it than others. We try to be forward-thinking for some of the clients that might not be thinking about that as much.
How has the work-from-home changed your approach to projects?
My focus is on healthcare and life sciences. I understand it’s a changing landscape for some of our commercially focused clients with so many people adapting to the work-from-home environment. They’re in a little bit of a different position and they’re certainly looking at repositioning. When it comes to healthcare, a lot of that work can’t be done from home. I think flexible workstation spaces are always going to be the focus. From a planning standpoint, we want to make sure we’re not over-planning for those kinds of stations, but it’s not a drastically different landscape. Virtual Patient Care is an option but in-person patient care is still prevalent. I don’t think it’s changed much, and this is similar for researchers. Researchers can work from home two or three days a week, but of course, that depends on the process and experiment. They are spending their time in the labs as well. I would say that the shift isn’t as dramatic. In the office space, there’s a consideration from an architectural planning standpoint and it affects us when we’re having conversations with the client to determine how to have a building that’s part lab, part support and part office. When we’re planning for office spaces, we’re asking: Do you want to invest in putting in systems that can make this flexible into a lab space later on? I think that’s probably the biggest consideration now.
How is AKF working to bridge the gender gap in the industry?
In the Boston office, I’d say about half of our leadership currently are women. I think all firms in the construction industry have this obvious gap, and the focus needs to be on the recruitment level of the students coming out of school. Those are the same people that we’re going to foster and value. We see it as a long game and don’t want to overlook it. With each graduating class, we want to make sure we’re bringing in a diverse bunch. I think AKF does an excellent job of recognizing our mid-level to senior workforce which reflects more minority-driven and women professionals in construction. We do an excellent job of pushing those people forward.
Bridging the gender gap in the engineering industry is a complex issue that requires a multi-pronged approach. At AKF, we encourage diversity and inclusion regardless of gender, race, or background. An integral part of our recruitment campaign is to foster partnerships with high schools and universities to promote engineering as a viable and exciting career choice for women, helping to create a pipeline of talented and diverse engineers. Once diverse talent is hired, we work to retain these employees by providing opportunities for career growth, mentorship, and a supportive work environment. In the Boston office, half of our leadership is currently female. Fifty percent of the most recent class of Partners and forty percent of the 2022 elected Principals at AKF were females. With the long hours and tight deadlines, women in engineering often face unique challenges and barriers that can make it difficult to advance their careers. AKF has implemented mentorship and leadership opportunities to develop the skills and talents of female employees, helping them to succeed. As part of our recruitment and retention strategy, AKF offers flexible work arrangements. Many women face challenges balancing their work and personal responsibilities, particularly when caring for children or elderly relatives. Offering arrangements, such as telecommuting or flexible schedules, helps to support work-life balance and create a more inclusive workplace. With the help of our DEI Committee, AKF promotes awareness and education about the importance of diversity and gender equality in engineering. Senior leadership and the DEI Committee regularly measure progress on diversity and inclusion initiatives and hold each other accountable for achieving these goals.
What is your strategy to retain and attract talent?
People want flexibility. The construction industry can sometimes be very traditional in terms of the long hours that the contractors are in the field. We strive as an organization because we know that people want work-life balance and we’re vocal about that. We always stress that family is important to AKF, and we consider ourselves a family, but we also are inclusive to people that maybe are more career-driven and don’t have a family. That approach attracts talent from anywhere nationally and that gives us a little bit of an advantage in that respect.
AKF has implemented various strategies to retain its current workforce while also attracting qualified candidates. We believe in effective communication within the firm. Managers regularly connect with staff to discuss workload, mental health, and expectations. We value our employees and prioritize staff retention. Rather than have employees seek employment at a competitor, we prefer to have upfront conversations. We believe it is crucial to have an open-door policy for communication to address any concerns or issues before it’s too late. Our Human Resources Department continuously evaluates and benchmarks the salaries of current employees against the industry average to ensure competitiveness within the A/E/C industry. In addition, AKF provides competitive benefits and bonuses. Flexible work arrangements have also helped to attract and retain talent at AKF. Post-pandemic, AKF continues to allow our employees to work remotely to maintain employee satisfaction, resulting in staff retention. Training is an essential investment in our staff. AKF believes that learning and development are crucial for all employees’ continual growth leading to higher job satisfaction and retention rates.
Where do you see the biggest business opportunities?
Our focus is big on science and technology practice and some of those are conversion commercial ventures. We’ve seen it come to fruition over the past three years. So, I think the opportunity is continuing to support our healthcare clients and then keeping an ear to the growing commercial life science space.
Is there any particular regulation that you follow closely that has an impact on your business?
Everybody is focused on the aggressive goals for carbon reduction by 2030. It’s been a few years now that we’ve been working on helping our clients create and implement master plans for that. It could be very difficult for an institution that’s been around for hundreds of years to make the scale of modifications required to meet the goals and expectations. In the Northeast, it’s been a huge focus for a long time now and AKF’s Energy+Performance team is leading the charge in terms of their involvement in local markets and organizations to help push the message and make ourselves available to clients who need the help.
What is your outlook for the next three to five years?
I think it’s full speed ahead right now. It’s been difficult to keep up. I’ve heard the same from our colleagues on the construction side as well as some of our competitors. It’s a positive outlook from everything that’s happened in the past year to two years. We’ve only seen an acceleration in terms of our clients’ RFPs and overall interest.
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