We want our people to be happy, learn new skills and have fulfilling careers. Being crowned Good Employer of the Year is a testament to the hard work our team have put in to making this a reality.

Since 2023, we have completely transformed our approach to looking after our people. The former Ridge HR department has become a first-class People team with new leadership, better supporting and reflecting the experience, diversity and development of our people and enabling us to attract diverse built environment talent. Here’s just some of the initiatives we’ve brought in over the past year.

Training initiatives

Training is the key to delivering great work and having fulfilling careers. We support professional chartership qualifications, and cover costs for up to two memberships. Last year alone we provided over 12,000 hours of continuous professional development via in-house expert teaching sessions. Plus, we’ve moved to an employee-led cycle of regular, meaningful conversations between individuals and their managers, keeping the lines of communication wide open.

Diversity and Inclusion

We want to foster an inclusive environment where our people feel valued and respected, while truly reflecting the communities in which we work. Over the past year we introduced a Head of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), brought in new D&I policies and made training compulsory. We also ran inclusive leadership workshops for our partners, and partnered with organisations such as Women in Construction, Business in the Community and Black Professionals in Construction. Our seven impact groups now all have a sponsoring partner, demonstrating senior management commitment to the success of these groups.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve built on our people-centric approach by investing in the teams, tools and initiatives that support us in delivering a fantastic experience for our people. I’m proud of how far we’ve come and am looking forward to continuing on this same trajectory in 2025.

 

Nicky Dixey, People Director

Wellbeing

We’re committed to a safe, healthy and engaging environment for everyone. To support this, we introduced an Employee Experience and Wellbeing Lead, we signed Mind’s ‘Mental Health at Work Commitment’ and currently have 19 Mental Health First Aiders. We partnered with Henpicked to work towards becoming an accredited menopause-friendly employer, and also partnered with HSBC to provide monthly access to 1:1 financial support. Throw in access to the Calm app, and we’ve just skimmed the surface.

Benefits and policies

Enhanced annual leave entitlement, enhanced sick pay, gym membership discount, life assurance, income protection and healthcare cover are just a few of the benefits we offer our people. We also gift everyone three days’ leave each year for personal volunteering activities which are meaningful to them.

Alongside our fantastic existing benefits, last year saw the launch of enhanced Family Friendly policies and support for working parents. These policies take into consideration everyone’s unique family circumstances, because no parenting/family journey is the same.

Promoting construction careers

In 2023, Ridge established a Future Talent team to lead on career growth and initiatives to reach a diverse range of talented individuals. This saw the development of our graduate and degree apprenticeship programmes and also the enhancement of our paid work placements. We also launched our social value programmes such as ‘Ridge Green Futures’ and ‘Ridge Next Chapters’.

It’s an honour to be named Good Employer of the Year. This award recognises a year of hard work and innovation in rethinking and enhancing our approach to employee experience, enabling us to do things that other business aren’t yet doing. We want to create a culture where people can thrive and reach their potential. There’s always more work to be done, but this is fantastic recognition of our efforts so far.

 

Adrian O’Hickey, Senior Partner