We’re seeing more conversations, more interviews and more hesitation. This isn’t about blame, it’s about clarity. A cautious market needs clearer conversations from candidates, employers, and recruiters alike.

We’re seeing more conversations, more interviews and more hesitation. This isn’t about blame, it’s about clarity. A cautious market needs clearer conversations from candidates, employers, and recruiters alike.

A great portfolio won’t save a weak CV, and a great CV won’t save a weak portfolio. This week alone, we’ve seen some incredibly strong designers held back by avoidable basics: • CVs that list software but don’t explain how it’s been used on real projects • Portfolios with beautiful imagery, yet no context such as role, stage of project, or responsibility, • Applications that don’t align with the CV and portfolio (job titles, dates, or project scope don’t match). Your CV tells us what you’ve done. Your portfolio shows us how well you’ve done it. Studios expect both to work together, not compete. If you’re actively looking, it’s worth spending the extra hour tightening both. It genuinely makes the difference between “interesting” and “let’s interview”. If you want a 2nd opinion, feel free to reach out to me with both! ccolley@planningrecruitment.com #arc h itecturejobs #interiordesignjobs #architectlife #designcareers #recruitmentinsight

We’re seeing more conversations, more interviews and more hesitation. This isn’t about blame, it’s about clarity. A cautious market needs clearer conversations from candidates, employers, and recruiters alike.

A great portfolio won’t save a weak CV, and a great CV won’t save a weak portfolio. This week alone, we’ve seen some incredibly strong designers held back by avoidable basics: • CVs that list software but don’t explain how it’s been used on real projects • Portfolios with beautiful imagery, yet no context such as role, stage of project, or responsibility, • Applications that don’t align with the CV and portfolio (job titles, dates, or project scope don’t match). Your CV tells us what you’ve done. Your portfolio shows us how well you’ve done it. Studios expect both to work together, not compete. If you’re actively looking, it’s worth spending the extra hour tightening both. It genuinely makes the difference between “interesting” and “let’s interview”. If you want a 2nd opinion, feel free to reach out to me with both! ccolley@planningrecruitment.com #arc h itecturejobs #interiordesignjobs #architectlife #designcareers #recruitmentinsight

Silence tells a story candidates remember. Are you giving feedback? Most candidates can handle a “no”. What’s much harder is hearing nothing at all. (I'm sure that's a song), but silence isn't golden.. 🤭 After an interview, candidates replay everything, every answer, every drawing they talked through, every moment they wonder if they said the wrong thing. When there’s silence, that space gets filled with doubt. We see the impact it has on a candidate. It knocks confidence, makes people hesitant to go through the process again (especially when they’ve taken annual leave to attend), and it absolutely shapes how they feel about the studio, and what they say about the experience to others! Good feedback helps candidates learn from the interview and move forward stronger into the next one. The candidate might not be right now, but could be in a year or two. You want them to consider you as an employer of choice in the future, and speaking positively about your business in the meantime to their friends and colleagues. Rejection with clarity allows people to move on. If a recruiter is silent, trust me we are chasing, and chasing, as we too want to hear the feedback to help you to secure this role, or future interviews. If we have feedback, you’ll hear it straight away. Feedback doesn’t need to be long or detailed. A few lines acknowledging the time and effort someone put in goes a very long way. Silence just leaves people stuck and in a competitive hiring market, that impression matters more than ever. #architecturecareers #interviewprocess #recruitmentinsight #candidateexperience #architectureindustry

By Kirsty Sibbald A comment a candidate made in a recent conversation has been playing on my mind. When speaking about how their search has been going outside of our efforts, they advised they were applying to what they can see on LinkedIn but not bothering with some as they had hundreds of applications. It got me thinking, hundreds? We get a lot of applications yes, but hundreds? Rarely. But they were right, many adverts do show as "over 100 applicants" including jobs we have advertised. But what applicants don't know is that the number of applicants sent to the job poster is often much less, therefore, there is less competition than LinkedIn suggests! As an example one job we posted on LinkedIn stated there were over 100 applicants, but in reality, I only received 74 of those. LinkedIn auto-archives candidates who don't meet the essential job criteria such as holding the required UK work visa. If you see a job you want to apply to and have the relevant experience, DO NOT let the number you see on here put you off applying, because you can bet that number is significantly less. I see EVERY application. We can't respond to all, but if your application is a strong fit, we will ALWAYS follow up.

​In today’s society everyone has access to Social Media posting their life online. Any comment, opinion, picture or video shared reflects on you as a person and can be easily found by current and future employers. Companies will employ a search online as part of their screening process and any remark made in the heat of the moment might come back to haunt you. Ensure that there is no adverse information about you online. ​​Follow these tips below. ​Clean up your act. What to do if you have bad press? Removed all negative statements, videos or pictures from any social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, forums, company websites etc… (Usually they allow you to delete or hide comments. If not, contact the service provider and ask for the information to be removed). If you have been tagged in any pictures or conversations that you would not want public, ask the person who posted it to remove the tag. Ensure your privacy settings are positioned to the strictest level i.e. only friends and family. Paint the right picture How do you want to be seen? The right public profile will support you in your future growth, so nurture how you are seen. Only post positive remarks Always think twice about what you write or authorise to be seen. Pictures/Videos - Would you be happy to show them to work colleagues? Comments would you say them to your employer? Add statements that demonstrate your experience, knowledge and insight into the industry. Timing – Avoid posting in core working hours. Often sites will time/date stamp. Status – How do you want people to perceive you? Recommendations – Only asked for referrals when you have performed a good job and ensure it is from senior management. A peer adding a recommendation will only dilute what you have done, rather than carry weight. Don’t be upset with a person if they decline to recommend you. Sometimes this can be their company policy or perhaps concern about their ‘public face’. Think about what groups you are in or what your interests say about you? Schmoose, Network, Interact Proactively give intelligent, well thought views of the industry. Channels to utilise could include to tweet, update status, comment on industry articles (such as BD online), blog, forums etc… Pursue recommendations – you will not get them unless you ask Link to influential people in your industry Be associated with all major industry events 5. Key Points Protect your reputation Keep up to date with what is being disclosed about you and act accordingly. Only reflect information in a professional and intellectual manner. Become someone who’s views, comments and opinions count and are sought after. Above all use Social Media to sell you. Agency Representation When you are ready to move jobs the agency(s) selected to represent you is crucial to how you’re perceived in the marketplace. If you register with a number of agencies you run the risk of your CV being sent to the same client on a number of occasions. This only reflects desperation and often a client will disregard your application to avoid a dispute over which agency has ownership. Select one agency to take you professionally to marketplace in the outset. You can always expand this to 3 agencies after a few weeks if you are not getting the desired outcome. You should have:- Control over who is being approached on your behalf. Trust that an expert is representing you A strong relationship your agent 

Directors – Important Employment Law Changes Coming in 2026 I wanted to flag a big shift that’s coming down the line with the Employment Rights Bill, expected to take effect from 2026. This could be one of the biggest changes to unfair dismissal law in over 40 years, and it’s something every business leader and hiring manager should be aware of. Here’s the highlights: 1. Day-one protection for unfair dismissal The Government plans to remove the current two-year qualifying period, meaning employees will have unfair dismissal protection from day one. Even in probation, you’ll need to show a fair reason and a reasonable process for dismissal. 2. Statutory probation period They’re proposing a new statutory probation period, likely around 9 months, with “light-touch” dismissal rules during this time. That said, if someone dismissed in this period successfully brings a claim, there may no longer be a lower cap on compensation — so the risk increases for early dismissals. 3. Fire & rehire clampdown The Bill will also make it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee who refuses a restricted contract variation they didn’t agree to. This tightens up the long-debated “fire and rehire” approach and limits employer flexibility around changing terms. What this means for employers: You’ll need to manage performance and document feedback from day one. Contracts and probation clauses must be watertight. Any contractual changes will require clear employee consent. HR & leadership teams should start planning now At Planning Recruitment, we’re already working with our clients to align hiring and onboarding processes to these proposed changes helping reduce risk and ensure smoother probation management. We’ve pulled together a 2-page Director Briefing summarising everything you need to know. If you would like a copy or to chat through what this means for your business, drop me a message, we’re happy to help and our contact number is 023 80 181055 #EmploymentLaw #Recruitment #Architecture #Design #HR #Directors #EmploymentRightsBill #UKLaw #Leadership #PlanningRecruitment

How to re-energise your Employees and Retain your Best Talent. ​What is quiet quitting? Coined by career coach Brian Creedy in March 2020, and gaining increasing popularity on TikTok ever since, quiet quitting is a newly trending term for an old behaviour: worker dissatisfaction and disengagement. Quiet quitting, also known as Silent Quitting or Soft Quitting, describes individuals who have actively disengaged from their jobs, choosing not to offer any more of their time, enthusiasm, or effort than is necessary to stay employed. They opt to do the bare minimum based on their job description and salary. Whilst some critics associate this behaviour with entitlement, laziness, or worse, passive aggression toward the employer, those that self-identify as quiet quitters see it as a solution to rebalance their feelings of burnout, of work-life boundaries being repeatedly over-stepped, and a solution to regain the autonomy they feel they have lost. Quiet quitting, therefore, is a way for employees to express their feelings of dissatisfaction within their roles when they feel that there is no other viable way to do so. For you as an employer, it is your last opportunity to address this dissatisfaction, to keep the skills and experience of talented members of staff before actual quitting occurs. How prevalent is quiet quitting? In a June 2022 survey, Gallup, leading workplace consultancy and global research company, found that at least 50% of the US workforce were now made up of quiet quitters, those who classified themselves as not engaged at work. In the UK, only 9% of workers felt enthused by their work and workplace (compared to 32% in the US). This suggests that in the UK the number of quiet quitters is likely to be even higher. Gallup’s data shows that disengagement in the workplace is at its highest in almost a decade and continues to rise. Why is quiet quitting an issue for businesses? Workers scaling back on additional effort and work hours is, of course, an issue in businesses that rely heavily on that additional effort to exact their competitor advantage. It is a direct threat to those that cultivate cultures where going above and beyond for the company is core to progression, growth, and productivity. The loss of free labour because of quiet quitting is not the biggest issue for businesses, It is in fact the impact the attitudes of disengaged employees have on your company. The decisions and actions your employees make everyday affect the outcome of your business, your success, and your bottom line. Engaged employees create significantly more positive business outcomes than those making decisions and acting from a foundation of disengagement, discontentment, and possible disgruntlement. Put simply, engaged teams achieve more. What can lead to quiet quitting? Quiet quitters describe the following as reasons behind to their shift in attitude: Overwork / burnout from mid- to long-term increases in workload that employees cannot handle, see no sign of ending, and feel unable to negotiate a reduction of without effecting their career or manager’s opinion of them. Inadequate compensation offered for the work done. Employees feel undervalued and taken advantage of and choose to “act their wage” by reducing their effort to a level they think is commensurate to their pay and benefits. Poor work-life balance from personal-life boundaries not being respected or upheld – for example, by out of hours requests, interruptions during vacation or holiday not being approved. Unsupportive mangers do not make employees feel like they have their backs or have their best interests at heart. A poor employee-manager relationship that lacks trust is a key determiner in predicting an unengaged employee. Unclear expectations from management and lack of performance feedback leaves employees dissatisfied and uncertain. How to spot quiet quitters. Quiet quitters can be identified by the changes in their behaviours. They are your superstar employee until they are not. You may watch them move away from their usual behaviour of contributing ideas, taking initiative, offering additional effort to get the job done, and being fully engaged in meetings; toward them taking an increasing number of personal and sick days, no longer approaching you, and staying silent in meetings or discussions. They may also become hostile when approached to do additional work and markedly reduce their productivity, especially once targets or goals have been achieved. They may no longer participate in social activities and may withdraw from the team entirely. These are signs that they are lacking meaning and purpose in their role, and it’s time for you to find out what you can do to help. What can I do about quiet quitters? Gallup’s research shows that the manager or team leader alone accounts for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Take this opportunity to reengage with your team members to retain the experience and skills in your business. Open and regular communication: create an open and supportive environment when employees can speak honestly with you without it affecting their career progression, job security, or relationship with you. A strong, trusting relationship with a manager is the primary bolster against disengaged workers. Ensure part of this communication is regular feedback, focusing on the employee’s strengths. Listen, take action, and deliver on your promises: quiet quitting is usually preceded by signs of rising dissatisfaction. Look and listen out for these and meet employees’ opinions and feelings with understanding and respect. Plan and work toward flexible solutions that enhance engagement and meaning for the employee and work well for the company. Encourage work-life balance: keep work to working-hours or clarify your expectations of out of hours working. Respect requests for time-off and ensure your team enjoy their holidays without worrying about work. Advocate for your team: employees that feel their manager has got their back and has their best interest at heart are more engaged and willing to go above and beyond. Understand your impact: sending emails at all hours may work for you but you are likely putting undue pressure on your team to do the same, thus encroaching on non-work time that is valuable to them and key to their continued performance. Make sure your team understand what your expectations of them are and that not acting like you is OK. Keep increases to workload short-term and optional: if you don’t, you are removing your employees’ autonomy and forcing them into an arrangement that differs from the role they agreed to when starting the job. Equipped: make sure your team have all the equipment, materials, training and resources to they need to do their job well. Recognition: when employees choose to go above and beyond, or produce stand-out work, acknowledge it and make sure they know you appreciate it. Show employees that their opinions, their contribution, and their ideas are important. Clarity of expectations: it’s easy for employees to misread the behaviours and expectations of their leaders, leaving them feeling uncertain. Be clear of your expectations repeatedly and consistently. Discuss development: not everyone wants to take on additional responsibilities and progress. And not all roles allow for people to stay in the same role for years. Be open and honest during recruitment and during times of change. Map careers with your team members so that you both understand what the future you are working towards looks like. The more you know about your individual employee’s goals and desires, the easier it will be to motivate a successful, high-performing team. Correct compensation: employees can feel undervalued and disrespected when their efforts are not fairly rewarded. The balance can usually be reset with a combination of salary, benefits, perks, flexibility, mentoring programmes, upskilling, coaching and training, clear expectation management, feedback, and appreciation. By building a relationship with each member of your team, you can learn to understand what is important to them and what they are motivated by. A note for leaders. Employee engagement ultimately comes from the top. If your middle managers are quiet quitting themselves, then the above tips aren’t going to help your already overburdened manager reengage anyone. If you are seeing a move toward disengagement and an increase in quiet quitters, or actual quitters, then it’s time to look at your working environment. The natural ideological defence of quiet quitting argues that employees should not feel pressured to work outside of their job description or feel an enduring imbalance in the effort: reward ratio. And, if they do, then this is simply an opportunity to evolve a workplace culture into something fairer, more sustainable, and more in line with modern cultural change.  It is therefore likely that the recent increase of awareness of the new term quiet quitting, instead of being an issue to reverse, may be just the catalyst you need to review, grow, and reengage your staff to help you bring the best out in everyone who works for you and for your business.

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Interviews are structured conversations through which the recruiter is trying to find out if you are a suitable candidate for the role and the organisation. As such they form an extremely important part of any job application process. Whatever other methods are being used to select candidates, recruiters always ask applicants to attend an interview before a job is offered. ​Central to the interviewing process is the employers’ need to answer 3 key questions: Can you do the job? Will you love doing the job? Will you fit in? The interview is a two-way process and so ideally, these are questions you should also be asking of yourself to help you decide whether or not to take the job if it is offered to you. This blog will show you how to prepare for and handle job interviews confidently and boost your chances of getting the job you want. In particular, we will be looking at: The main types of interview that you may encounter Getting ready for the interview – preparation is the key Examples of typical questions and how to be ready for them Important “Do’s and Don’ts” for good interview tech nique ​The main types of interview Panel interviews: Employers conduct panel interviews, whereby a number of recruiters interview together. Panels may consist of only two people but can constitute as many as four or more. The secret here is to remain as relaxed as possible and try to include all of the panel members when replying to questions. Technical interviews: these may include very specific questions relating to knowledge of a particular area of Architecture, UK Building Regulations or CAD, for example. The emphasis is likely to be upon exploring factual knowledge. Thorough preparation is needed. Technical interviews could include taking tests as well. Telephone interviews: these are used in the early stages of an application process but could occur at any point. As the name suggests, they are conducted over the telephone but in most respects can follow the format of a standard interview so prepare well beforehand. Remember, that, as you cannot see the interviewer, it is important to speak very clearly and ensure that you make or take the call in a place where you will not be disturbed. You can also prepare simple notes to use during the discussion. Mind maps work well as they allow for your thoughts to be organised clearly and concisely. Getting ready for the interview “If you fail to plan you plan to fail!” Good preparation is absolutely essential for any interview and there are some steps you can take to get ready for the big day: First – do your research & prepare Read material on the company website. Find out if the company has been in the news recently and why. Check out the company / organisations’ website, broadsheet newspapers, relevant professional journals and professional bodies. Useful information to find out about includes projects and services, turnover, locations of offices, history and culture of the company. Review your application. Think about why you want the job and how your skills, knowledge and experience match against the requirements of the job. That is to say, what can you offer the employer? Prepare your portfolio to reflect your best and most relevant work at the front. The best presentation you will ever give is about your work. How are you going to present it? What you are going to say about each example? How are you going to sell your soft skills such as communication, leadership & management etc..? Start to prepare some questions you could ask at the interview – it is highly likely that you will be given the opportunity and it is important to have something to say here. Asking questions creates a favourable impression and will enable you to understand more about the role. If the interview involves a CAD test, ensure you practice your skills beforehand. Re-read your CV to remind yourself of dates and details to discuss. Second – don’t overlook the basics. Make sure you know where you are going It seems obvious but make sure you plan out your journey in advance and allow sufficient time to reach your destination without getting flustered. Late arrival can convey a very poor impression! If any problems occur during the journey to the interview and you may be running late, telephone the employer to let them know of the problem. Do not arrive late without letting the employer know first! By arriving a little early you can get some of the sense of what the organisation is like, relax and concentrate on mental preparation for the interview. Try not to arrive too early as this could increase any feelings of anxiety. Third – dress code What you wear and how you look are essential elements to whether an interviewer gains good first impression of you. This means you need to invest time in making sure you look good. Check company websites for information on what to wear. If in doubt you could always ask. Try to wear something that you feel comfortable in and that gives you confidence. Dress: a suit is generally acceptable. Preferably this should be worn with a shirt and tie (men) or a shirt / smart top (women). Make sure your shoes are well polished! Presentation: a well groomed look is important. Hair should be neat and if your hair is long, it should be tied back if you know you might be tempted to fiddle with it during the interview. Jewellery: try and avoid large, conspicuous earrings, rings, necklaces or bracelets. Piercing and tattoos: if you do have any facial piercing(s) – choose a stud that is neat. We suggest tattoos should be covered. Make-up: keep it simple – nothing too strong or overpowering. Likewise, avoid strong fragrances as these can elicit emotional responses which may not always be positive. During the interview Body language Body language (sometimes referred to as non-verbal communication) is very important. The way you come into the interview room, shake hands and the way you sit can suggest interest, confidence, nerves or even boredom. An open stance i.e. not crossing legs or arms, leaning forward to indicate interest is considered the best approach. Smiling is essential in striking up and maintaining rapport with the interviewers throughout an interview. It conveys confidence and may help you to not look like a victim! Be careful of waving your hands around too much. Eye contact Good eye contact is an excellent way of conveying your interest in the job. Looking down, or at anything other than the interviewer, can make you appear disinterested or insincere. Maintaining good eye contact can help you gauge the interviewer’s reaction to what you are saying (to see whether you should be expanding on your answer or winding your answer up). With panel interviews, the best advice is to look at and answer the person asking the question, with a glance from time to time at the other interviewers to include them in your reply. Show confidence This is often easier said than done, we know, and it is natural that you should feel nervous. However, you need to show you can manage any anxiety. If an employer is looking for someone who can cope with pressure then the interview is a good guide for them. Don’t go to the other extreme and seem too laid back, act naturally as employers are looking for individuals, not clones, so there is no one way to get it right. You may be required to shake hands with your interviewer either at the beginning or end of your interview. A confident handshake is one way to create a favourable impression so if you are unused to shaking hands, a practice run with a friend is recommended. Have questions to ask the interviewers What do you think will be the major challenges facing this company over the next 3 years? What role would I be expected to play in the first team I am assigned to? Money Discussing Money at an interview can be a delicate conversation. You want the job, but with the right package. What salary you say at interview is often the salary clients expect to pay and negotiation is difficult after that point. Undersell yourself will result in a low offer and oversell could mean no offer at all, as you’re automatically priced out of the job. The interview should be focused on your skills, abilities and desire to do the job, but hey you are under pressure and the interviewer wants an answer, Here are a couple of options: Let the recruitment agency deal with money and point the interview back to them. Give a salary range - ensuring you will accept the lowest figure if offered! Ask the interviewer "based on my skills and abilities where would I fit in your salary structure" Disability disclosure The decision whether to disclose a disability to an employer is often a personal one and may be based on a number of factors such as the nature of the disability and the demands of the role being applied for. Disabilities can be disclosed before, during or sometimes even after interviews but may also be disclosed during parts of the application process. Decisions about this are largely a matter of judgment. If disclosing disabilities, always do so in a very positive manner, explaining any assistance that may be needed. It is important to answer any direct questions from the employer fully and honestly. Feedback Seek feedback from the employer if you are unsuccessful – it will enable you to address any weaker areas and build on your strengths to help you to perform more effectively at your next interview. ​ After the interview Be aware of your surroundings. Do not light up a cigarette or vape near the office or in the car park, you do not know who is watching you. Do not call someone and talk about the interview until you are clearly away from the building, you do not know who is listening. Call your Agent. As soon as you are in a position where you can talk call Planning Recruitment for a full debrief. This demonstrates interest in the job and we will want to hear from you before speaking with the client on our scheduled call. Finally some ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to help you when preparing for interviews Do: Make sure you have done your research before the day. Be able to explain why you want the job. The employer is likely to ask. Be able to explain convincingly what you can offer the company in terms of your skills, attributes and experience. Think about some of the strategies you would use in response to competency based and similar questions. Make sure you have examples of evidence you can quote in support of your claims. Provide evidence for your answers from all aspects of your life – degree, employment history, interests, clubs and societies, positions of responsibility. Spread your answers around! Be prepared to talk positively about previous employers and why you left. Don’t: Make false claims regarding your ability; don’t exaggerate your role in a team or claim an ‘amazing’ ability to do something. Indulge in flattering the reader about their organisation e.g. ‘I want to work for the number one Architectural Practice in Europe’. Sit in silence. If you don’t understand a question ask for it to be clarified. Interrupt the interviewer(s). Talk negatively about a previous employer.