Guidance to Employers

The UK’s employment landscape is undergoing a significant shift. With the introduction of the Employment Rights Act 2025 , and phased changes expected through 2026 and 2027, practices across architecture and interior design will need to rethink how they approach hiring, onboarding, and workforce planning. Earlier protection for new hires One of the most notable changes is around unfair dismissal. Rather than becoming a full day-one right, employees will now gain protection after six months , instead of the current two years. For employers, this means the margin for error when hiring is narrowing. Decisions made in the first few months of employment will carry more risk, making structured onboarding and clear performance management essential. In practice, we expect to see: More rigorous interview processes Greater emphasis on cultural and technical fit Tighter probation reviews and documentation A shift away from “informal flexibility” Zero-hours contracts are not being banned, but they are being reshaped. Where individuals are working regular patterns, employers will be expected to offer contracts that reflect those hours. There will also be: Increased expectations around shift notice Potential compensation for last-minute cancellations For architecture and design studios that rely on flexible resourcing, particularly at busy project stages, this could require more forward planning and clearer workforce structures. Day-one rights expanding Several employment rights are moving to day one eligibility, including: Statutory Sick Pay Paternity leave Parental leave This reduces the distinction between new starters and longer-term employees, placing more responsibility on employers from the outset of employment. Fire and rehire under scrutiny The practice of dismissing employees and rehiring them on less favourable terms is set to become much harder to justify, with stronger legal protections for employees. While not a common approach in most design practices, this reinforces the need for careful workforce planning and transparent communication when change is required. What this means for the sector From our perspective, these changes are likely to influence hiring behaviour across the industry. We are already anticipating: More considered, and potentially slower, hiring decisions Greater scrutiny on candidate suitability before offer stage Stronger reliance on trusted recruitment partners to mitigate hiring risk For practices operating in a competitive talent market, balancing risk with the need to secure top talent will be key. Our view The direction of travel is clear: greater protection for employees, and greater accountability for employers. For architecture and interior design practices, this doesn’t need to be a barrier to growth, but it does mean that hiring strategies will need to evolve. Getting the right person into the business first time has never been more important. If you would like to discuss how these changes may impact your hiring plans, or how to adapt your recruitment strategy, we’re always happy to share insight.

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.

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

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.

Get to know our Founding Director and her career journey—how it shaped Planning Recruitment and why top talent trusts us. Click here to watch her video Meet the Woman behind the business

We unpack expert strategies for effectively orchestrating a remote workforce. Dive into proven methods for fostering communication, productivity, and a cohesive culture from a distance. This concise guide offers a practical blueprint for any business looking to adapt and excel in the remote work landscape. Stay tuned for essential tips on keeping your remote team engaged and aligned with your organizational goals.

The UK’s employment landscape is undergoing a significant shift. With the introduction of the Employment Rights Act 2025 , and phased changes expected through 2026 and 2027, practices across architecture and interior design will need to rethink how they approach hiring, onboarding, and workforce planning. Earlier protection for new hires One of the most notable changes is around unfair dismissal. Rather than becoming a full day-one right, employees will now gain protection after six months , instead of the current two years. For employers, this means the margin for error when hiring is narrowing. Decisions made in the first few months of employment will carry more risk, making structured onboarding and clear performance management essential. In practice, we expect to see: More rigorous interview processes Greater emphasis on cultural and technical fit Tighter probation reviews and documentation A shift away from “informal flexibility” Zero-hours contracts are not being banned, but they are being reshaped. Where individuals are working regular patterns, employers will be expected to offer contracts that reflect those hours. There will also be: Increased expectations around shift notice Potential compensation for last-minute cancellations For architecture and design studios that rely on flexible resourcing, particularly at busy project stages, this could require more forward planning and clearer workforce structures. Day-one rights expanding Several employment rights are moving to day one eligibility, including: Statutory Sick Pay Paternity leave Parental leave This reduces the distinction between new starters and longer-term employees, placing more responsibility on employers from the outset of employment. Fire and rehire under scrutiny The practice of dismissing employees and rehiring them on less favourable terms is set to become much harder to justify, with stronger legal protections for employees. While not a common approach in most design practices, this reinforces the need for careful workforce planning and transparent communication when change is required. What this means for the sector From our perspective, these changes are likely to influence hiring behaviour across the industry. We are already anticipating: More considered, and potentially slower, hiring decisions Greater scrutiny on candidate suitability before offer stage Stronger reliance on trusted recruitment partners to mitigate hiring risk For practices operating in a competitive talent market, balancing risk with the need to secure top talent will be key. Our view The direction of travel is clear: greater protection for employees, and greater accountability for employers. For architecture and interior design practices, this doesn’t need to be a barrier to growth, but it does mean that hiring strategies will need to evolve. Getting the right person into the business first time has never been more important. If you would like to discuss how these changes may impact your hiring plans, or how to adapt your recruitment strategy, we’re always happy to share insight.

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.

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

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.

Get to know our Founding Director and her career journey—how it shaped Planning Recruitment and why top talent trusts us. Click here to watch her video Meet the Woman behind the business

We unpack expert strategies for effectively orchestrating a remote workforce. Dive into proven methods for fostering communication, productivity, and a cohesive culture from a distance. This concise guide offers a practical blueprint for any business looking to adapt and excel in the remote work landscape. Stay tuned for essential tips on keeping your remote team engaged and aligned with your organizational goals.