What’s The Secret to Being Named One of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work Four Years in a Row?

For the fourth consecutive year, we’ve been recognised as one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work.

Great places are created by great people, so having a place to work that people feel connected to, supported in and eager to bring their best work to, is crucial. The thing about the award is that it’s our people that get to have their say. Through an anonymous survey, they rate us across a range of categories including

• Communication
• Empowerment
• Wellbeing
• Job satisfaction
• Reward and recognition
• Relationships with managers

Those results are then benchmarked against other organisations in our industry and against employers more broadly.

In this article, we’re going to look at some of our results while digging into the details on what we do as a business to create a positive working environment for our team.

Some of the numbers behind the recognition

Just looking at the “Job Satisfaction” category, across every key measure, we outperformed both the architecture and design sector average and the wider global benchmark.

• Well-run organisation: 89 (Architecture & Design benchmark: 72, Global benchmark: 74)
• Developing in my role: 87 (Architecture & Design benchmark: 72, Global benchmark: 73)
• Good relationship with my manager: 91 (Architecture & Design benchmark: 75, Global benchmark: 81)
• Enjoy my job: 86 (Architecture & Design benchmark: 75, Global benchmark: 78)
• Treated with respect: 93 (Architecture & Design benchmark: 75, Global benchmark: 79)

This picture of how employees experience working at AEW is something we’re incredibly proud of. These results are reflective of a practice where people feel supported by their managers, believe they are developing professionally, enjoy the work they do and, perhaps most importantly, feel respected by the organisation they work for. These outcomes are the building blocks of our ability to deliver the high-quality architectural design and masterplanning services we’re known for.

The question is, what do we do as a business to create such an environment?

Listening before leading

Every organisation likes to believe it understands its people. But that understanding can’t be built on assumptions, it has to grow naturally out of open communication between leadership and colleagues. The most important part of that communication is the listening part, where, if you’re open to it, your people will be honest about the experience of working in the business every day.

Alongside the external benchmarking we do through The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, we also carry out our own annual people survey, giving colleagues the opportunity to provide detailed feedback on four key areas: communication and organisation, happiness and wellbeing, remuneration and development, and behaviours and goals.

Importantly, we don’t treat this like a simple compliance exercise. It’s used as a practical tool to understand what the business is doing well and where improvements can still be made and we don’t conduct it in isolation. It feeds directly into our annual business planning process, helping to shape the practice’s people strategy for the year ahead, creating a clear and transparent link between employee feedback and business decision-making.

Feedback only matters if something changes

What’s the point of asking for feedback if you’re not going to do anything with it? That’s especially true when that feedback highlights colleagues are dissatisfied with something. Previous people surveys highlighted that there was room for improvement in the way we conducted our appraisal process. That was something we had to act on.

Rather than defending the existing system or making superficial changes, we accepted the feedback and undertook a comprehensive review. We introduced a new approach and colleagues continued to share their experiences. We continued to make further refinements, particularly around competency reviews, ensuring the system continued to evolve in response to the feedback we received.

That iterative approach sends an important message to our people. They’re able to see a direct connection between the issues they raise and the changes that follow, reinforcing confidence that their opinions genuinely influence the way the business operates.

Creating a culture where people feel heard

Formal anonymous surveys provide insight that’s difficult to replicate, but they only capture a snapshot in time. Creating a genuinely positive workplace also depends on the conversations that happen between those surveys and whether colleagues feel comfortable raising ideas, challenging decisions or highlighting concerns as they arise.

Alongside the annual people survey, we operate an anonymous suggestion box, with every submission reviewed by the senior leadership team. The value isn’t simply that our colleagues have another route to share ideas; it’s that every suggestion receives a response. Where an idea is taken forward, they can see the outcome. Where it isn’t, we explain why. That transparency helps build confidence that feedback isn’t disappearing into a void and demonstrates that every contribution has been properly considered, even if the final decision isn’t always the one an individual hoped for.

That same openness isn’t limited to these examples either. We actively encourage our colleagues to speak directly with senior leaders. Even if it’s about a negative experience, rather than viewing that as a challenge to authority, our leadership team sees it as evidence that people feel safe enough to have honest conversations, confident that they will be listened to and treated fairly. Creating that level of psychological safety takes time and consistency, but it’s fundamental to building trust across the practice.

All of that is the sign of a positive business culture. Ultimately, people quickly recognise the difference between organisations that genuinely welcome feedback and those that simply claim to have an open-door policy.

Culture is built in the everyday

When people talk about workplace culture, it’s often the headline initiatives that receive the most attention. The reality is a little more nuanced. Those big things are important, but culture is usually shaped by much smaller moments; the everyday interactions that determine whether people enjoy coming to work and feel connected to the colleagues around them.

That’s why we make time to bring people together outside project work. Throughout the year, we organise a range of social events, from informal gatherings in the office to larger summer activities and Christmas celebrations. They’re intentionally uncomplicated. A quiz, pizza after work or a sports day may not seem particularly remarkable in isolation, but they create opportunities for colleagues to spend time together away from deadlines and project pressures.

Importantly, those events aren’t driven by expectation. There’s no sense of obligation or “forced fun”. People attend because they want to, not because they feel they should. That willingness to spend time together outside the working day says something about the relationships that have been built across the practice.

Recognition is the outcome, not the objective

Being recognised by The Sunday Times Best Places to Work for a fourth consecutive year is something everyone here at AEW is proud of, but the award has never been viewed as the destination. The practice takes the same approach to all external recognition, whether that’s Investors in People Gold accreditation or employee engagement awards. Success simply prompts us to ask “how can we make it even better?”.

Ultimately, that’s what sits behind four consecutive years as one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work.