Greystone's Featured Client October/November: Ramboll

Ramboll are a true people-first company with a very unique culture.

Ranked a top 10 consultant in the UK and a top 10 building designer world-wide, this business has 1500 bright minds working across 17 different offices; and is recruiting on a wide scale in response to their success.

Their mission? To create sustainable societies where people and nature flourish. In the UK, their vision is to be the leading sustainable design consultancy, delivering integrated and sustainable solutions that shape today and tomorrow.

As one of Greystone’s most cherished clients, Ramboll will be featured throughout October as we continue to help them scale the business and fulfil their recruitment needs.

An overview of a recent conversation with Ramboll’s UK Head of Building Services, Matt Hann; Team Admin Co-Ordinator, Tracy Crichlow and Regional Talent Acquisition Team Lead, Silvia Pizzuti will have you completely sold on their culture, ethos, values and mission.

“The Ramboll Foundation is the majority shareholder in the Ramboll Group and owns more than 97.5% of the shares. The remainder are owned by Ramboll employees. We have no owners or shareholders which allows us to have a genuine focus and interest in our people” Matt Hann told us.

“The ‘where people and nature flourish’ element of our mission reflects our passion for our people and for sustainability in the built environment. It is as the centre of everything we do and so you’ll see this a lot throughout our website and marketing!”

Working on more than 10,000 building projects each year, Ramboll place particular emphasis on their liveable buildings concept where they balance the cultural, social and physical values of buildings, to improve the quality of life for building users.

Some of their most iconic projects include Cambridge Children’s Hospital, 2-3 Finsbury Avenue, Manchester’s first zero carbon building in Didsbury Technology Park, and their work with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to establish the business case for circular economy buildings.

This dynamic organisation thrives on the well-being of its people and ensures a focus on mental health with its Employee Forum – a place team members can go and anonymously pitch ideas and give feedback that will continue to improve the workplace. Ramboll has trained MH first aiders, employee representatives, HSEQ and HR professionals for support and give training and guidance on wellbeing to their teams; including webinars on sleep, nutrition, productivity, mindfulness and music’s impact on health. They also launched Body & Mind activities last year; from yoga, stretching and circuit training, to drawing and photography, music listening parties and a celebrity piano event.

In addition, Ramboll offer Social Boosts to help employees feel energised and connected. This has included celebrity motivational talks, fun activities such as Great British Bake-Off cook alongs, an interactive chat show and their own quizzes and talent shows. Sessions were open to employees’ families and friends and it helped lift morale during the height of the pandemic

Tracy Crichlow commented, “Everyone at Ramboll has a voice and no-one goes unheard, which is why we decided to adopt a hybrid approach to working. Staff can come in to the office 2 or 3 days a week and choose where they work from for the remainder. We also produce monthly staff webinars where there is full transparency about what’s going on in the business to keep teams engaged and updated; and it’s an opportunity for staff to put questions and suggestions to the MD.”

Ramboll also has sharp focus on equality, diversity and inclusion and is an exceptionally flexible employer, they have the right to flexible working built into their contracts and were the first in their space to launch an approach to hybrid working.

When asked about their staff retention, Matt proudly stated that their staff turnover is around 9% in the UK – an excellent achievement for their given industry.

Beyond values, culture and salary, Ramboll also rewards their staff with a tremendous number of financial and life benefits.

“Core benefits for everyone include 27 days annual leave, private medical insurance, an excellent pension scheme and life assurance” says Silvia.

“But then, everyone gets to choose from a range of flexible benefits on top. These can include childcare vouchers, critical illness cover, dental insurance, charity schemes, gym schemes, health assessments, mindfulness training, travel insurance, health plans and other insurances. It really is incredible what is offered.”

Paul Jones, Director of Building Services in London was recruited via Greystone in 2018 and offers some great insight in to how Ramboll handled the COVID-19 pandemic during our interview, which you can read in full here.

“The fact that Ramboll made zero redundancies during a world-wide pandemic speaks volumes in my opinion. The business’s people first approach is truly genuine and the care for their staff’s well-being is incomparable.” He says.

“Greystone spent a good 2 hours on the phone to me when we started speaking, really going under-the-bonnet of my career to figure out which company I’d be a fit for; and they definitely got it right with Ramboll.”

Ramboll have offices internationally and they have schemes in place that see collaborations and employee engagement throughout their global team.

In the UK, their offices are located in:

• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Cardiff
• Chester
• Chippenham
• Edinburgh
• Exeter
• Glasgow
• Harwell
• Leeds
• London
• Manchester
• Newcastle
• Southampton

With 30 vacancies UK-wide in their buildings department, Greystone are in search of world-class talent that will not only fit with their culture, but take advantage of the enormous career development and growth than comes with a growing business.

Like with Paul, when you become a Greystone member, your career journey is all that matters. We will spend as much time as is needed to uncover all of your career aspirations, goals, strengths and desires. This forms our brief. We then leverage our 20+ year network with engineering businesses and invest all of our time in to a search to match your brief with our clients’.

If you demonstrate you’re a good fit, you could soon be sat in front of Matt Hann, UK Head of Building Services, talking about your future at Ramboll.

Apply Now