Episode 24:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast.

The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week will be looking into the next step of starting your practice, which is people management - PC4 Practice and Management of the Part 3 Criteria.

Today’s topic looks into people management, we will be expanding on employment law, the different types of employees, staff statutory entitlements, employment contracts and managing staff.

I know you’re probably thinking why am I talking about people management today, why would we need to know about this? But this is quite a key element of a business when it comes to setting up your practice and it may be a subject that comes up in your exams or coursework. 

The most important thing in any type of business is its people - they are the ones that make the practice what it is and give it its culture. So keeping staff happy and motivated is very important to the success of a business in order to produce work of the highest possible quality. Communication is therefore key in dealing with people. Keeping staff well briefed and informed about their projects and work alongside keeping them updated with practice aims, status, ambitions and development is key to keeping them motivated and productive. 

The RIBA Code of Conduct sets out criteria on members when it comes to employment which comes under Principle 3. The RIBA Chartered Practice Manual also sets out various criteria that chartered practices need to meet when it comes to employment. (I’ll be expanding more on the RIBA Chartered Practice in the next episode). 

So let’s dig into the Legislation element of people management, employment law. 

Employment legislation is quite extensive and is updated quite regularly, it’s therefore recommended for practices to either employ an HR specialist or for smaller practices to at least outsource these services to a consultant if they are employing staff to ensure they are complying with all current legislation and following best practice in the organisation and management of their staff. 

Next, we will be looking into the different types of employees a practice can have. These are split into:

• A permanent employee - which can be full-time or part-time
• A temporary employee - which can be under a fixed-term contract or for the duration of a projects
• An agency employee
• Or a consultant/contractor

So depending on what type of employee the practice is employing, it is expected to have the equivalent responsibilities and obligations to that employee. So if an individual is considered to be an employee, then the practice is expected to deduct income tax and National Insurance contributions and pay them to HMRC.  Whereas if it’s a consultant then the individual themselves is responsible for those deductions. 

Most people working for a practice will typically be permanent employees, the benefits of this include the establishment of a long-term relationship between employer and employee creating mutual trust and respect.  In order to formalise this relationship, it should best set down in a contract of employment signed by both employer and employee. A key point for employers is that even if a benefit is not written in a contract if it’s carried out consistently over a period of time it may be deemed a term of employment over time, such as payment of a bonus on a regular basis or leaving earlier on a Friday.  

An employment contract, as per the Employment Rights Act 1996, should typically consist of:

• Details of the parties (names, addresses, etc.)
• Job title/role
• The date of commencement of employment
• The date employment will finish if it’s a fixed contract
• The date of commencement  of continuous employment 
• Details of remuneration - stating salary, when it will be paid and by what method
• Hours of work - employers should bear the Working Time Directive in mind which restricts the number of hours an employee can work
• Paid holiday entitlement
• Payment, if any, for time off due to sickness
• Notice required and conditions when it comes to employment termination 
• Normal place of work and any working from home arrangements
• Whether or not there are any collective agreements affecting the employment
• Whether or not there is a contracting out certificate in force for any pension scheme
• Disciplinary procedures or details of where these can be found
• Procedure for dealing with any grievances

There are a few more terms and condition that are advised to be included in employment contracts, although not legally required to but it is advisable that employers include terms on:

• Restrictive covenants that prevent a former employee from doing various works for a stated period following their departure from the practice - for example from approaching clients 
• Confidentiality - preventing from example former employees from breaching confidentiality agreements they may have signed with clients 
• Any arrangements for garden leave - whereby an employee is asked to leave before the expiry of their notice period
• Any arrangement for pay in lieu of notice on leaving the practice and in event of redundancy
• Intellectual property - whereby intellectual property automatically passes to the practice from works the employee carried out during their period of employment with the practice
• Any arrangements on overtime payment or confirmation that there will be no additional payment for overtime working
• Arrangements for the return of company property on termination of employment, e.g. mobiles, laptops, etc. 

So once the contract has been finalised, it should be signed by both parties and a copy to be handed to the employee and a copy is retained in the employees personnel file. The contract can only be varied if both parties agree expect as provided within it - for example to allow for salary variations and other benefits to be made in writing and given to the employee. 

If for any reason the company changes ownership, the contracts will usually be transferred under a TUPE process (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of employment) and they will either be transferred in their entirety or to negotiate revised terms. 

So what I discussed up to this point is terms and legislation for permanent employees. Now when it comes to part-time employees - their contract of employment will typically be a standard form of employment that sets out the various entitlements of pay, holiday, working hours and so on. Something to bear in mind is that employers must consider requests from part-time staff and to consider these seriously, but they’re not obliged to agree to them if there are good enough business reasons for not doing so. 

Then you have temporary employees - these can be Part 1 students for example that are employed for a limited period only. In such circumstances, a standard form of employment will typically be used with the end date of the contract indicated. There can be an additional clause to allow for scope for the contract to be extended.  

The other employee type is agency staff - whereby the member of staff will be employed by the recruitment agency and will be responsible for all the employees benefits and so on and a contract is signed between the agency and the practice setting out the basis for the engagement. This type of arrangement, however, can be terminated quite quickly with short notice.

And then we have the consultants which is when the practice engages with a consultant on a specific contract related to a specific body of work. 

So these are the different types of employment you may come across for your practice and you can choose any variation that suits your business and growth aspirations. 

Next up are the statutory entitlements employees have, these include maternity, paternity and parental leave that provides certain benefits on employees by law irrespective if they are included within contracts of employment, staff handbooks, policies and so on. It is important for practices to understand these entitlements as they have cost and time implications associated to them. 

It is therefore recommended that practices establish policies in dealing with these scenarios to ensure all employees can be dealt with equally. Nearly all employees, regardless of hours of work per week, have certain legal rights, sometimes an employee only gains rights when they’ve been employed for a certain length of time. Some employees are not entitled to some statutory rights, these employees are typically those who work outside the UK or anyone who is not an employee, e.g. an agency. Most workers though, are entitled to certain rights, such as national minimum wage, limits of working time and other health and safety rights, the right not to be discriminated against and paid holiday. Their statutory rights include:

• Right to written statement of terms of employment within 2 months of starting work
• Right to itemised payslip 
• Right to be paid at least the national minimum wage
• Right not to have illegal deductions made from pay
• Right to paid holiday - full-time employees are entitled to at least 28 days a year and part-time employees to pro rata amount
• Right to be accompanied by a colleague to a disciplinary or grievance hearing
• Right to paid time off to look for work if made redundant - this applies after the first two years of employment at the specific place of work
• Right to paid time off for antenatal care
• Right to paid maternity leave
• Right to paid paternity leave
• Right to ask for flexible working to care for children or adult dependants
• Right to paid abortion leave
• Right to take unpaid parental leave for both men and women and right to reasonable time oof to look after dependants in an emergency
• Right under health and safety law to work a maximum of 48-hour working week. 
• Right under health and safety law to weekly and daily rest break
• Right not to be discriminated against
• Right to carry on working until at least age of 65
• Right to notice of dismissal, provided employee has worked for the employer for at least one calendar month
• Right to written reasons for dismissal from employer - provided the employee has worked for them for one year if they started before April 2012 or two years of they started on or after that date
• Right to claim compensation if unfairly dismissed - if the employee worked for the employer for one year if they started before April 2012 or two years on or after that date
• Right to claim redundancy pay - usually claimed if employee worked for two years or more
• Right not to suffer detriment or dismissal for blowing the whistle on a matter of public concern at the workplace
• Right of a part-time worker to the same contractual rights as a comparable full-time worker
• Right of fixed-term employee to same contractual rights as a comparable permanent employee

 Next we have the benefits:

The employer is not obligated to provide them but they can add choose to offer benefits if they wish and can choose to add them in the employment contract or not. 

Some benefits that a practice may consider offering its employees can include increased holiday entitlement due to length of service or seniority, can provide arrangement for sabbatical leave, bonus payments, share option arrangements, employer contribution to pension schemes, or insurance policies such as private medical insurance. 

One thing to consider with benefits is that various of these benefits are treated by HMRC as the equivalent of a salary and employees are liable to pay income tax on them. The practice should be wary that increasing entitlements should be carefully considered to ensure they don’t breach age discrimination legislation if the increase is based on length of service. 

In any case, each practice should have a policy stating the non-contractual benefits they wish to offer and it should be made accessible to all in the practice so employees are clear on what the practice offers them and the processes for claiming, assessing and warding them. One thing for employees to bear in mind is that anything stated within a policy document can be varied to suit changes in legislation without the need to consult employees. 

Now moving on to other legal and contractual obligations practices have towards their employees which consists of Health & Safety, Discrimination, Disciplinary procedure, Dismissal and insurances. 

Under Health & Safety, directors/partners of the practice are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff in the workplace and when out on practice business. Procedures should be in place for fire evacuation and disaster/emergency situations. Also when it comes to situations where an employee is working from home, the practice is required to undertake risk assessments of the working environment in the individuals home. And the practice is also required by law to carry various insurances to protect its employees, the general public and its clients.  

Then, under discrimination, the practice is legally required to conduct its business in a manner that is not discriminatory against an employee’s sex, age, ethnic origin, religion or disability, pregnancy or varied working arrangements. If employees feel discriminated against there are well set out procedures whereby they can take their employer to an employment tribunal, which is costly and time consuming for the practice and best avoided if possible. 

So when it comes to disciplinary procedures, it is recommended that practices have a policy in place when it comes to unacceptable behaviour, e.g violence against employees, breach of confidentiality and so on, therefore procedures need to be in place for reporting, investigating and dealing with such issues will need to be established and any such instances should be recorded in writing. 

This as a result could lead to a Dismissal, whereby say an employee is off long-term sick and is also unable to provide work of a require standard, the law requires that a process is introduced to identify the areas of poor performance and give the employee the time to rectify them. The practice, in essence, has to ensure it has been fair in dealing with the dismissal of an employee. 

For this next part I will be expanding on appointing, managing and motivating staff. So when it comes to employing new staff, it is initially wise for the practice to retain a log of the skills and experience of current employees to establish what further skills will be required when recruiting. 

This would, therefore, inform the job description and list of skills and experience required from a new recruit. Some factors to consider for a new recruit may include skills required, e.g BIM, team leading, project running and so on, required experience, qualifications required, basis of employment and personal qualities desired. 

So when it comes to the recruitment process for new staff, this would generally include personal recommendations whereby practices offer incentives to existing staff members to recommend a potential new recruit, or through advertisement on professional press, then we have online recruitment which can be through the practices own website, the other method is through agencies that can forward perspective suitable candidates CV’s and portfolios to the practice, then headhunting operates in a similar way to recruitment, the key difference is that agencies approach those already employed which is usually done for more specific and high-level jobs and finally you have unsolicited applications where an applicant sends their CV and portfolio to a practice they want to work for - with this approach you should aim to respond to each and every one to leave a positive impression of the practice on prospective candidates.

Now if you want to branch outside of the UK and look towards the EU and further, there are some strict regulations governing the employment of non-UK or EU nationals where a work permit will be required, especially now with Brexit. So practices should make sure they check the right for all employees to work in the UK and retain evidence confirming this as they are responsible for ensuring that all its employees have the legal right to work in the UK before employing them. You can get more information on this from the Home Office on the UK Border Agency website - details provided in the episode notes. 

So when it comes to the interview and appointment process the practice must be very thorough and diligent in making the right appointment and appointing the most appropriate candidate for the job, because appointing the wrong person can be very costly and time consuming for the practice, so you should try and increase your chances as much as you can in appointing the right person from the outset. 

So some key points to consider for the recruitment and interviews process would be to:

• Decide on the most appropriate method of recruiting, will it be through advertising, an agency?
• Set out a clear job description
• Establish and record the skills and experience levels for the role
• Screen CV’s of candidates with the most relevant experience and produce a shortlist
• Establish and interview process - will it be a single or multiple interviews?
• Establish who will interview the candidates 
• Set down a list of criteria to be discussed
• Decide on appropriateness of introducing tests as part of the interview, e.g. Revit

So once you’ve selected a few perspective candidate, when the interview will be taking place the interviewer should be courteous and professional and provide the candidate with information about the practice, its aims and ambitions and the role they are being interviewed for. Consider taking them a walk around the office to have a look around. Make sure to inform unsuccessful candidates know as soon as possible and provide them with brief explanation why they were unsuccessful. 

Remember that successful businesses thrive by having different skillsets and personalities so be careful not to keep appointing the same person, diversity is key. 

So once you have found your new employee they must then go through the induction and probationary period. During this time they should be briefed about the practices procedures, the projects they will be working on and any team members they will be working with, these should be spread across the first few days of them starting to ease them in the practices environment and procedures and make sure to assign them a ‘buddy’ this will be a fellow colleague who can help them become more familiar with the processes and procedures.

Now when it come to the probation period, this is typically a period where both parties get to assess the employment agreement. For the employee its an opportunity to decide whether the company is the right fit for them including culture, projects, etc. and for the employer its a period for them to assess the employee in return to see how they perform and if they are the right candidate for the role. This period is typically either three or six months and the employee should be given constructive feedback at the end of the term. In some instances the employer may wish to extend the probation period and they should inform the employee in writing stating the reasons for doing so alongside a schedule of criteria to pass the probationary period and the date which the probationary period will be reviewed again. 

And for the final part of todays episode, how to motivate staff and keep them developing. 

Keeping staff motivated is of utmost importance to make sure they stay in the practice, work to maximum effect to deliver great work that contributes to the growth and long-term ambitions of the practice. 

• Some methods to keep architectural staff motivated includes:
• Working on worthwhile/high-quality/interesting work
• Recognition - internally and among peers
• Role and responsibility giving opportunities for advancement
• Social aspects
• Training and personal development
• Financial reward and benefits

But most importantly is making staff members feel part of the long-term future of the practice. To that extent, staff should have regular personal reviews, ideally twice a year, with a member of senior management covering their performance, ambition and training requirements. The practice should then action those outcomes to keep staff engaged and loyal. Another way to keep staff engaged is also by carrying out anonymous staff surveys where they can express their opinions and concerns for the betterment of the practice and it is vital the practice takes these recommendations on board. 

So a few key thoughts to take away from today is that:

• Brilliant staff will not perform well without leadership - people need guidance and to be kept informed about the practice and their efforts - this will in return not just keep staff motivated but also assist the practice in achieving its goals and objectives. 
• The practice should continually seek to improve itself through improving its staff and seeking new talent to join and enhance the practices strengths and portfolio
• Provide recognition where its deserved to boost morale and keep your staff happy and engaged
• Always keep staff informed about the practices progress and encourage them to discuss their concerns - they feedback can greatly improve the practice both internally with its staff and externally with clients. 
• Think of your staff as your team and set with them a common sense of purpose and goals, a common sense of priorities and decisions, offer them the opportunity to speak openly and genuinely, be aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses to create a platform for mutual assistance and coaching, show value in difference and openness in knowledge sharing and expertise, create and encourage trust in each other’s ability and goodwill and make sure to generate buzz - a great, enjoyable place to work.