The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
Speaking at the Lighterman in King’s Cross last Thursday (18 July), Bayliss discussed how HTA had managed to win the award last month for the fourth time in seven years, and the third year consecutively.
Bayliss joined HTA in 1998 as a Part 2 graduate becoming managing partner in 2016. He explained how communicating with staff, offering learning and mentoring, and flexible working conditions are at the core of the practice’s mission.
Good design, stand-out employee benefits ranging from parental leave to menstrual leave, and company culture on issues such as limiting overtime are also part of the Hackney Wick-based practice’s approach to being a good employer.
Bayliss argued that being a good employer was interlinked with being good architects and that ‘as time has gone on, the two have kind of become more interlocked’.
He said: ‘The primary focus when we started [as an LLP in 2013], was really focusing on the quality of the places we were creating, because I think we felt we were already doing quite good things around the employment side ... [but] you have to do both.’
Bespoke Careers director Lucy Cahill, one of the judges for the AJ100 Employer of the Year, told the room: ‘When you walk into HTA, the first conversation is about projects linked to the people, employees and community. [It] is one conversation and it’s one from the top.’
Source:Theo Wood
Simon Baylis speaking at the AJ100 lunch on 18 July
Bayliss, who said HTA ‘had no expectation’ it would win AJ100 Employer of the Year for a third time in a row, called on other AJ100 architects in the room to close the gap with the housing and placemaking specialists.
He stressed: ‘It's really important that, as an employer, you share that [good practice] with the industry to ensure that as an industry, we can up our game.’
HTA secured the award this year after impressing judges with a culture of transparency and accountability, despite experiencing a challenging year in 2023. Employment ethos and output were also reasons cited by judges.
‘There’s a willingness to keep themselves [HTA] on their toes and keep doing better,’ said the judges. ‘They continue to hold themselves to account for everything.’
HTA Design has offices in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol, and is ranked 18th in the AJ100. In 2023 it worked towards B Corp certification, which was awarded in May.
The 2024 AJ100 Club events are supported by MSA Safety.
