Program schools engineering graduates in the Buro Happold way: Organizational culture preserved during rapid growth

Abstract

Purpose

Describes an award‐winning graduate‐training program that helped a fast‐growing engineering consultancy to expand its national and international operations while retaining the close knowledge of local markets that is more typical of a small business.

Design/methodology/approach

Explains the background to Buro Happold's graduate program, the form it takes and the results it has achieved.

Findings

Describes how the graduates the consultancy recruits tend to be from specific disciplines, and the graduate program helps to ensure that they become aware of how they fit into, and can work with, other disciplines in the company.

Practical implications

Reveals that Buro Happold's graduates tend to stay with the company: three‐quarters of the graduates it recruited in 2005 were still with the consultancy two years later.

Social implications

Highlights a successful way of producing the skilled and experienced engineers the country will need in the future.

Originality/value

Outlines how Buro Happold nurtures, manages and helps graduates to be able to lead projects and attain key positions in the business in the future.

Citation

(2010), "Program schools engineering graduates in the Buro Happold way: Organizational culture preserved during rapid growth", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 27-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670731011028465