The Association of Consulting Architects Australia’s (ACA) fifth ‘pulse check’ continues to track the impact of COVID-19 on the architecture industry,  increasing knowledge of what is needed to ensure a robust future for architectural practices.

The ACA’s third ‘pulse check’, conducted at the end of June 2020, sought information about how practices were faring in this next phase of the pandemic’s fallout. 

The ongoing challenge of the pandemic’s pipeline disruption was the topline finding with only 17 percent of responding practices indicating they had enough work to see them through to the end of the year and 37 percent of practices reporting being currently short of work. 

Following that, the ACA conducted another ‘pulse check’ in October 2020. This fourth iteration explored the impact of the Federal Budget, as well as the scaling back of JobKeeper assistance.

It found the cost of delays and cancellations reported by respondents had increased to $10 billion with the economic impact being felt in Melbourne in particular, as 80 percent of practices based in that city reported experiencing a loss of revenue.

More than a year on from the beginning of the pandemic, the ACA’s fifth ‘pulse check’ seeks to track how practices are faring following the end of the JobKeeper payment program.

Survey questions focus around the sectors practices are currently working in and how that’s changed from pre-pandemic periods.

It also explores staff numbers, remote working facilities and changes to employment arrangements, as well as a practice’s flexibility, the wellbeing of its staff and whether the end of the JobKeeper payment had affected staff numbers.

How your practice’s workflow is looking, how working arrangements are changing, and what you have learned from the new world of remote working are also of focus in this fifth survey. 

Take the ACA Pulse Check No.5 survey here.

Please contribute. The results will inform the ACA’s ongoing advocacy.

The survey results will be made available to all, so that other groups and organisations can also draw on this knowledge as they develop their own response. 

Please answer once per practice, or one survey per state for multi-state offices – your answers should be accurate at the time of the survey.

The survey closes COB Friday 30 April.

The ACA represents the interests of architectural employers in industrial matters and is working hard to provide resources and support for navigating COVID-19 pandemic conditions.