The best time to attract talent is before you need it – PR closes the gap

There’s a topic that continues to come up in conversations I’m having with clients and prospective clients: talent. It’s usually not the first reason an AEC firm reaches out to us for PR support, but time and time again, it’s often one of the main reasons clients value our support. 

Lately, I hear some version of the same question: Our growth will require talent … How can PR help us communicate why great people should want to work here? As many firms across the industry know, finding good people continues to be one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Unanet’s 2025 AEC Inspire Report found that 67% of AEC firms identified talent acquisition and retention as a top business concern, which fell ahead of economic uncertainty and competition for new business.

Give people a reason to believe you

When we talk about this with clients, we help them understand that talent attraction is a trust and reputation opportunity. Most firms we work for are genuinely great places to build a career. They have smart people, interesting projects, opportunities to grow and cultures they’re proud of. But so do a lot of their competitors, at least according to their websites and job postings. Many say almost exactly the same things, so how can you stand out? 

The opportunity is to go beyond saying those things and start showing them. If a prospective employee follows your company on LinkedIn for six months, what are they learning about the people who work there? Are they seeing people they’d want to learn from doing things they’d like to be doing in their careers? Are there interesting problems they’d want to help solve? Opportunities to grow? Outings and mentorship opportunities? Community involvement and volunteer opportunities? Telling stories that answer these questions helps build familiarity and trust in your company as a place where they can envision themselves working there.

Client: “We’ve had numerous job candidates tell us, ‘I’ve wanted to work here for two years. I’ve been following what you share on social media, and your company seems like a great place to work.’”

Our take: That’s exactly the point. Your future team members are paying attention long before you know they’re interested. They’re watching what you share, what you say and how your people show up, sometimes years before they ever apply.

That’s why one of the things we ask as part of PR work is about the people a client would replicate if they could. Who are the team members who represent the kind of talent they want more of? We want to understand what makes those people great at what they do, how they’ve grown in their careers and what they care about. Then we look for the right ways to make those stories visible.

Every client is different, but it could look like elevating their expertise through media or thought leadership, pursuing an industry award or speaking opportunity on their behalf, highlighting their career path or simply creating content that gives people a better sense of who they are. The goal isn’t to turn team members into recruiting ads, but instead help tell the story of why someone else might want to be part of the team.

People trust people, after all, so if you’re not making your best people visible through your PR strategy, you’re missing an opportunity to attract others like them.

What this looks like in practice

One of our architecture clients recently came to us with a talent-related priority.

Client: “We want to strengthen our reputation for thoughtful, creative, design-forward work. That will help us compete for the best projects, but we also need to attract more high-end designers who see us as a place where they can do exceptional work.”

Our strategy: Make the reputation they’ve already built more visible through the people and work inside the firm. That means designer spotlights, stories about the thinking behind standout projects, design-focused media and thought leadership, speaking opportunities, awards and mentorship stories.

We’re also revamping how that reputation carries through to the careers page and job descriptions so prospective employees encounter the same story throughout their experience with the firm. The strategy is intentionally designed to make the firm’s best work more visible while elevating the designers behind it.

That last point matters because this isn’t only about recruiting. It’s also about retention. The same visibility that can attract someone to a company can reinforce why someone wants to stay. Unanet found that 53% of AEC firms rate themselves as “fair” or “poor” at defining formal career paths. PR obviously can’t fix a lack of career development or poor company culture.  But, we can help create value in knowing that employees have opportunities to be quoted in industry publications, or have company support to take the stage at a conference or have your project put up for an award. Based on our experience, we know that there is tremendous value (and appreciation) when a company invests in helping make their leaders’ talents visible.

If you want to grow, talent should be part of the story you’re telling

As competition for AEC talent continues, firms should think about their reputation not only through the eyes of prospective clients, but prospective employees, too.  The ACEC Research Institute found that 64% of engineering firms expect hiring to increase over the next 12 months, while 84% still have at least one open position. 

This stat underscores that the need for great people isn’t going away, which means neither is the competition to attract them. And the time to build trust with people isn’t when you suddenly have a position to fill. It’s through the reputation you’re building and stories you’re telling every day.

This is where PR can make a difference. When your best people, best work and best stories are consistently visible, prospective employees have the opportunity to get to know your firm long before they ever consider working there. And when the time comes to make their next career move, you want to be a company they already know and trust.

Julia Bonner is president of Pierce PR and passionate about helping AEC firms use PR to support two important areas of growth: winning great work and attracting great people.