Investing in our people

About GHD 2017 Investing in our people

Recruiting the leaders of tomorrow

GHD is the place for talented people to thrive, achieve their career goals, and make a lasting impact. Importantly, our intake of graduates continues to provide a strong pipeline of talent, with 314 graduates. Women made up 38 percent of our graduate intake, up from 25 percent the previous year.

This year, we implemented strategies to reinforce our position in the talent market and optimise our recruitment processes. For example, our People Team in the UK worked hand in hand with our Young Professionals committee to develop a program that highlights the opportunities offered by a career at GHD. And in North America, we streamlined our recruitment strategies and identified focus areas that will ensure a strong talent pipeline into the future.

A connected network

We’re developing initiatives to bring our global network of people together; fostering strong working relationships and facilitating knowledge transfer across regions and markets.

In 2018, we will launch talent exchange programs to allow GHD employees to live and work in a different country, developing broad skills and capabilities in new cultural and business contexts.

Embracing diversity and inclusion

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we support, encourage and empower our people by providing an environment where everyone has an opportunity to succeed.

We’re making progress towards our ‘Strategy to 2020’ objective of women comprising 40 percent of the business. We have already achieved this level of diversity at Board level, and the overall percentage of female employees has risen to 31 percent. In Australia, we have been recognised as an Employer of Choice from the Workplace Gender Equality agency for the third year in a row. In the UK, we have joined WISE, a campaign that aims to increase women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

As a global company, we work in culturally diverse regions around the world. In Australia, we launched our first Reconciliation Action Plan as a public commitment to continue developing strong relationships with Indigenous Australians. Through our longstanding partnership with CareerTrackers, we offer internships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students, and our partnership with organisation Tupu Toa is unlocking career opportunities for Maori and Pasifika students in New Zealand.

Our pursuit of diversity also includes initiatives for generational and LGBTI inclusion in all our regions.

Global leadership

Looking to the success of the ‘Principal’ and ‘Associate’ organisational framework in our North American region, we are now adopting it across our global business.

Our Global Executive Development Program equips leaders with high-level strategic skills to operate more effectively in the complex global environment.

We are also developing our Future Managers Program to help grow our future leaders.

Expanding our capabilities

Our growing business attracts leading professionals around the world who are helping us expand our service offerings and realise our strategic aspirations.

In FY17 we welcomed:

  • Jan Sipsma, General Manager, People
  • Karen Reinhardt, North American People Leader
  • Kumar Parakala, Global Digital Leader
  • Malcolm Alder, Digital Strategy and Transformation Lead
  • Mike Moran, Chief Financial Officer – North America
  • Yong Huang, Country Director – China

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