Arcadis' growth reflects well upon efforts to put people first

On top of this, there are other significant challenges – climate change, housing need, tightened regulations, changing public opinion - that need to be addressed. 

These issues require responses from the public and private sectors. Reshaping our built landscape makes up a sizeable sector of the Scottish economy, requiring imagination in planning, designing and building as well as deep expertise in large projects.

Only a handful of international consultancies are able to operate at this scale. One of these is Arcadis;  a truly global organisation, active in some 70 countries, with 27,000 employees across 350 offices.

“Our growth in Scotland has been really good to see,” says Graham Hill, Arcadis’s Scottish Cities Director. 

“We have seen our two main offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh flourish and we now employ 220 people in Scotland. We are also genuinely a people first organisation, with the biggest shareholder our own staff foundation. 

“We really invest in our people, with an established programme of talent development allowing us to provide great, rewarding careers. And we have flexibility in areas like working from home and getting the right work life balance.”

The company’s work in Scotland – it has had a presence here for more than 20 years - includes the management of many major residential and commercial projects, design of major arterial rail and road routes, and in the energy sector it assists ScottishPower and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) on its major renewable and infrastructure projects.

Graham added: “We also advise Scottish Water principally around its commercial and programme arrangements so that  its projects are delivered on time and on budget.”

Arcadis’s consultancy includes quantity surveying and commercial, project and programme management. This work helps clients think carefully about how best to organise their projects and assets in the most efficient way.

The opening of a newer, larger office in Glasgow’s city centre two years ago has played an important part in growing Arcadis’s  offering north of the border. Its Business Director for Property,

Colin Carruthers explains: “Our presence here has grown exponentially. We have a property team of about 25 people providing project, programme, development and commercial management services to both private and public sectors.”

Colin Carruthers

There was, says Graham Hill, a market need for expanding the company’s presence  in the city. “We want to be where our clients are, and some of our biggest ones are based in Glasgow. 

“So it made good sense. Also, a lot of our people are based around the city and there was a lot of talent to be recruited. And growing our footprint gives us strong bases in both the east and the west of Scotland.”

Where are the areas of opportunity in Scotland? The residential housing market is one, and technology in the banking sector is another. There is a general move away from call centres in financial services towards high-tech solutions, and Arcadis is helping to facilitate this.

While this clearly involves major multinationals with a presence in Scotland such as Barclays and J P Morgan, the company also wants to work with local businesses.

“That’s really important to give the company a sense of its roots here,” says Colin Carruthers. “While it’s great to work with our colleagues around the world and deliver services for multinationals, it’s also really important for us to involve ourselves with local bodies, such as City of Edinburgh Council and Glasgow City Council.”

“What attracted me to Arcadis, was the breadth and calibre of our client base,” Colin adds. “Whilst making significant strides with public sector and local SME clients, the opportunity to lead a team working with internationally recognisable brands such as Intercontinental Hotels, Starwood, Barclays and RBS was simply too good pass up. Our residential experience is unrivalled in Scotland and this, combined with our expertise in tall buildings, is seeing us unlock real opportunity.”

Danny Keyes, who is Arcadis’s Business Director for Infrastructure, which includes aviation, rail and highways, says: “We’ve really developed a capability in highways over the last 18 months or so. The support we give to the Scottish Government and other clients is key to our success.”

The highways team compliments the established rail team in Scotland, which has 54 staff across all disciplines. Contracts in transport infrastructure include design work on the Holytown to Mid Calder rail electrification project and the recent commission for the Rail Systems Alliance in Scotland, working alongside Network Rail and Babcock, to deliver track renewals.  

“The Rail Systems Alliance has been a fantastic achievement,” Danny says. “We started in August, and we have already seen real success in delivery, which sets a great example going forward.”
The Bridges and Roads team  in Glasgow employs about 30 staff, focusing on design and build.

“We work with clients not just in Scotland, but on projects across the UK and internationally. 

“It’s becoming a real centre of excellence for us.”

Another important project has involved working with Barclays in choosing Glasgow for its world-class riverside hub operation at Tradeston, with input by Arcadis into selecting the site and now governance and oversight. 

Ken Wilkie, Head of Client Services, comments: “The regeneration aspects of this are going to be huge and will lead to significant growth in that area. 

“The major Banks, like RBS, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC, all recognise the consistent quality of our professional services. 

“In the last three years we have delivered over 1 million sq ft of office improvements to support the performance of banking estates – many of these new spaces created to reflect modern ways of working and creating collaborative, people focused spaces.” 

While Arcadis has had a presence in Glasgow for more than 15 years, the new office takes its activity in the city to a whole new level. “It provides us with a really powerful opportunity to grow and to work together with  clients,” says Colin Carruthers.

The company’s ethos of getting the very best  from its people is a powerful and compelling one. It places real emphasis on personal development, with the use of virtual teams allowing employees not just to work from home, but from anywhere in the world.

“We want to create an environment that makes it easy for them to do that,” says Danny Keyes. “We place great value on our staff – they are our greatest strength.”

Graham Hill is also an advocate of Arcadis’s strong people focus. “We recognise the benefits of diversity and inclusion to our business. We really want to support all our people. 
“That’s been a key driver for us and it’s great to see.”

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Technology is preserving our past while shaping the future 

THE future of business in Scotland and elsewhere is going to involve ever more digitisation and automation. From banking to construction, processes and procedures will be driven by technology.

Arcadis has helped to pioneer this digital future, bringing in state-of-the-art methodologies to help customers understand complex engineering solutions. 

“It helps with how we deliver our services and with the design process,” Graham Hill says. “For instance, we’ve used augmented reality to allow the client to see a defect in a bridge in Edinburgh in 3D. 

“It really brings the job to life.” 

Jacqui Nicol, Arcadis’s Scotland Director of Project Management, organised the laser scan of the Victorian Palmhouse at the Royal Botanic Garden, allowing the team, client, investors and stakeholders to see the structure in incredible detail and for the model to be printed in three dimensions.

“It’s like a virtual twin and a great example of how we can invest in transformational products to explain things and to help people,” she says.

As time passes, Graham adds, digital communication, aided by developments such as 5G, will become ever more ubiquitous in cities. 

“Without these things, connected autonomous vehicles won’t work, but we will see more and more of them on our streets and we’re engaged with that.”

Danny Keyes points out that new digital technology empowers staff to develop great solutions for clients and provides efficiencies in engineering processes. 

“This ranges from printing 3D models to help visually impaired people better understand a Client’s development proposals to capturing site conditions in 3D photographic models. 

“In this way we can bring the site into an office environment, making it safer and more efficient.”

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Building healthier, happier communities

BUILDING developments these days are about far more than the built infrastructure. They also need to take social impacts into consideration, ensuring positive contributions to lifestyle and well-being.

This is known as placemaking – a process that encourages the imaginative use of public spaces to create and promote a strong sense of community to realise local potential.

It’s an ethos that Arcadis strongly advocates. “Again, it’s about putting people first,” says Graham Hill. 

“It’s crucial to think about citizens and communities and how the buildings – and the spaces in between those buildings - function, taking into consideration the aesthetic, the amenity and the connectivity of the places that are being created.”

Arcadis’s UK and international approach allows for development of sector-specific solutions to help clients. “Drawing on expertise delivering more than 4,000 homes in Scotland and a pipeline of over 100,000 UK-wide, we’ve created new Residential Parametric and Urban Planning tools,” adds Colin Carruthers.  

“Parametric Design allows efficient design development of site options and, together with our Urban Planning tool,  creates a platform for testing viability,” he explains.

“It measures and quantifies the Social Value that comes from creating great places, which can often be overlooked in assessing housing viability.”   

While the built environment clearly remains at the centre of any planning, it is also important with placemaking to  be aware of the need for wider infrastructure – public transport, for instance, and ensuring that local people can access services allowing them to have ready access to employment, training and education.

Graham added: “It’s about thinking about how a place works –connectivity and really getting the community engaged. 

“For the people who are going to be living there, it’s about consultation, asking how it will work for them,  looking at the density of the buildings, tenure mix and how services will be accessed. What kind of shops and schools are going to be provided? How do all these things play into the thousands of new homes we will be needing in Scotland? 

“This means thinking widely, looking at the whole life cost and financing of a development and ensuring that the operational side works well. We don’t want new communities to be built and then to be neglected, as that creates social problems further on. 

“Getting collaboration between different organisations, working with the public sector and private sector, creates the best outcomes. The buildings have to fit in with their 
environment and serve the people who use them.”