Ways to build an award winning company culture in 2024

Bespoke Careers is a proud sponsor of the AJ100 Employer of the Year Award, which recognises UK architectural firms with market-leading workplace cultures. 

This year’s winner of this coveted trophy is HTA Design, a multi-disciplinary practice at the forefront of innovation in the design and delivery of great housing, landscaping, urban design, and creating sustainable places to live. With over 200 staff, they have won this award for the third consecutive year – a testament to its people strategy, culture and values. 

Lucy Cahill, Bespoke Careers London director and AJ100 awards judge, discusses what it takes for a firm to be recognised as Employer of the Year and the ingredients of HTA Design’s success.

What does it take to win the Employer of the Year award? 

To enter the AJ100 Employer of the Year award, organisations distribute a satisfaction survey to all their employees. The survey results are reviewed and firms with the best survey results are shortlisted down to just six finalists. Employers on the shortlist then receive a site visit by AJ100 judges, where they may give us a presentation about their firm, or simply allow us to ask them questions about how they operate and what makes them stand out.

As an award judge, my peers and I look for demonstrable qualities of exceptional workplaces. We see that the most exemplary companies strive to continuously improve their culture with a range of well-considered initiatives. They’re champions of open communication and transparency and show commitment to fair and equitable values, from leadership to junior level. 

For this year’s AJ100 Employer of the Year award, our extensive selection criteria included employers’ approaches to career development, supporting diversity, salary reviews, employee wellbeing and benefits, hybrid working and overtime. 

When evaluating employers against each criterion, we considered the impact that policies and practices have on employee engagement and empowerment. We do this because certain measurements, such as ‘how many hours employees are working from home’ might be too simplistic. It’s more pertinent to ask, are employees genuinely happy at work and feel valued? Do they know their career path, and has someone spoken to them about how they can grow? Is there adequate support for junior employees? The answers to these questions will often derive from more than one metric or initiative. 

Why HTA Design Won AJ100 Employer of the Year

HTA Design’s comprehensive people and culture policies truly impressed judges in the AJ100 Employer of the Year. 

In most businesses, you’ll find that people and culture are managed by HR as a standalone (or siloed) function, with little day-to-day collaboration with the senior leadership team. 

When presenting the award, I reflected on how HTA Design breaks that mold with the exceptional collaboration between HR head of people and inclusion Stephanie Warner, and managing partner Simon Bayliss. Together, they work as one team to plan and execute people management strategies. By regularly surveying their staff, they are able to gather data on all aspects of the business. From gauging staff satisfaction levels, monitoring gender balance and diversity, through to understanding their waste, they analyse and assess where the business is, and hold themselves fully accountable for any aspects that require attention. This gives HTA Design’s leadership an appropriately wide field of view to identify issues as they arise. 

It’s an approach that has given HTA Design a solid foundation on which to shape policies and practices that put employees at the centre of its success.

Radical transparency 

Communication within the HTA Design is constant and thorough. They keep staff informed on a weekly, daily, and even minute-by-minute basis. Simon Bayliss emphasised to us HTA Design’s policy of total communication, which includes candid discussions about the company’s financial performance with employees. This level of transparency is rare in the architecture and design industry.

Simon personally writes a regular newsletter that goes out to everyone in the business, covering everything from financial updates and ongoing projects to their ambitious long-range future plans. 

Employees are always aware of the company’s direction, which helps engender a strong sense of involvement and trust among staff. 

Career development initiatives

Training and career development are strong suits for HTA Design, as illustrated by its latest initiative, the Career Maps & Salary Guide tool, which helps employees measure their progress and identify areas for development.

The tool guides architects through a series of illuminated buttons and interactive elements that outline the specific steps required to advance their careers to the next level. At each stage, architects can learn the exact job criteria, skills and experience needed for progression. 

HTA Design’s Career Maps tool also details the salary increments for each promotion – an exceptional move towards transparency. With pay information often a closely guarded secret in many companies, it’s fair to say this is a refreshing change from typical practices. 

This focus on professional development is supported by its equally comprehensive training and mentoring programmes, which supply the business with a healthy pipeline of future partners. In 2023, the company added 13 Associate Partners – a sign of effective succession planning.

Diversity and community representation

Under the auspices of HR head of people and inclusion Stephanie Warner, HTA Design has committed to supporting diversity and inclusion for more than 10 years, with efforts to improve gender balance at both senior level and community initiatives. 

They frequently visit schools and work within communities, to strive to hire individuals from underprivileged backgrounds. This approach provides significant opportunities for young people. For example, we met an individual who had been hired through the community outreach programme. This person went on to attend architecture school and returned to the firm as a mentee, highlighting the firm's life cycle approach to nurturing talent.

Employee benefits that meet specific needs

In response to staff feedback, HTA Design introduced a range of new employee benefits in the past 12 months, including 12 days of annual paid menstrual leave and paid leave for menopause and foster care leave. 

The company also added 10 days of leave for employees who work abroad and have caring responsibilities, raising their total leave allowance to 20 days. Employees are also entitled to three days of paid emergency childcare, offering crucial support during unexpected situations.

Beyond these leave policies, HTA’s London office boasts an in-house café with an on-site chef that provides staff with daily free meals  – a nice perk that also promotes community within the workplace. 

These comprehensive benefits reflect the company’s dedication to creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, responding directly to the needs and feedback of their employees.

Final thoughts

Being recognised as an employer of choice doesn’t come down to any single initiative or policy; it’s about having an ethos for supporting employees in their professional and personal lives and the broader community they’re a part of. HTA Design has done a fantastic job of embodying this and continuously looking for ways to put it into practice. 

Our specialist, recruitment and retention advice for the architecture and design industry

We consult with architecture businesses of all sizes and stripes, offering advice and comprehensive services to support their HR and recruitment goals. Our dedicated architecture and design recruitment team knows the nuances of hiring and managing employees in this space – and we’re always available to discuss how we can help you. 

For help with cultivating a passionate workforce, please contact me or the team at Bespoke Careers today.