Even without a pandemic, the past two years have been eventful for Corey Damen Jenkins. He has multiplied by a series of milestones such as joining the ranks of the year 100AD, and the publication of his first book design remix, where she created a much-acclaimed dining room at last year’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Dallas, and was recruited to teach a video course on interior design for MasterClass. At the same time, his studio made a geographic relocation to New York City from its home base in Michigan.
This combination of rapid growth and relocation has made adding employees a particularly critical task for Jenkins, just as it has become increasingly difficult to track down ideal candidates in a job market upended by COVID. What he called the “biggest obstacle” was to act as an “A de facto The HR Director while wearing the hats of the CEO and the chief designers at the same time.”
Previously, more valuable employees tended to come as referrals, notes Jenkins. But now, “I knew we were going to need help getting the right people — and fast.” So, at the suggestion of a colleague, he partnered with a professional recruitment group, Inner Talent. The arrangement worked well: “They did not dare lead any of the design firms to offer me excellent options. They interviewed dozens of candidates and narrowed the selections to two or three. They also acted as a liaison in negotiating salaries and conducting background checks.” Collaborating in this way left Jenkins free to focus on his clients and other aspects of his move to Manhattan. “Now I can’t imagine Not Hiring a recruiter to hire my staff,” he concludes.
2020 and 2021 brought job challenges for New York designer Ryan Corban, too. Coinciding with a slowdown in his creation of retail space, the coronavirus shutdowns have spurred a boom in housing commissions. “The staffing needs of a staff are very different for residential than for commercial needs,” he says. “I needed people who knew how to navigate the upscale residential sector.”
Hearing the laments of several friends who were event producers for the fashion industry – all of whom were suffering from their own pandemic stagnation – made Kurban think. Putting luxury events together “is a great parallel to what we do,” he says, and the officials “understand the hand-holding process, they understand the premium customer, and they understand the installation. The experience there is very solution-oriented, with back-up plans in place and you just have to make it work.” He feels the shift from events to interiors provides a good balance for new employees: “There’s a lot of crossover, while there’s also just enough for someone to learn.”
Most designers who work on Qurban residential projects now bring at least some background in events. “Trying to find help in a booming industry is really hard,” he says. “Researching the industries where people are looking to create a hub is more interesting, and it also brings a fresh perspective.”
Martin Lawrence Pollard, enlisted in the AD100, was forced to innovate in his quest to keep his company’s entire staff in Los Angeles. “Obviously we did all the advertising in the right places, as everyone else did,” Pollard says, but the need for staff still outweighed his ability to hire.
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Then an idea arose: Do new employees really have to be new? “I started going back to my former favorite design assistants who had left and opened their own businesses, and I said to them, ‘Why don’t you come over and help with some of my projects, which we can run through your office?'” Pollard will chair the design and client meetings, while his former and future colleagues will handle follow-up and procurement for a portion of the profits.
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