The Buckinghamshire-based not-for-profit worked with Best Companies to understand its workforce and successfully facilitate rapid expansion and change.
“With Best Companies, we have gone from being ‘One to Watch’ to a 2-Star Accredited organisation in four years. If I look at our revenue during that period, we've gone from being a 10 million pound organisation to a 16 million pound organisation, and our workforce has increased by a third. I can't possibly believe there's no connection between those two things.”
Professor Adam Boddison OBE, Chief Executive Officer, APM
By focusing on the areas highlighted for improvement in its bHeard employee survey, APM has gone from a ‘Ones to Watch’ status to a 2-Star Accredited organisation in four years.
Since working with Best Companies, the organisation’s revenue has increased from £10 million to £16 million and headcount has risen by a third.
Using Best Companies data has positively impacted APM’s managers, with initiatives in place contributing to one of the biggest overall improvements in this area in its latest survey.
The decision-making process at APM at leadership level has been better informed by the in-depth, granular data from Best Companies.
The importance placed on improving communication and empowering its people has led to better business results.
Association of Project Management (APM) may have its headquarters in a leafy corner of rural Buckinghamshire, but it has a reach that spreads across the globe.
That’s thanks to its role as an enabler for over 45,000 individual members and more than 470 corporate partners it helps deliver projects and programmes all over the world, ranging from infrastructure for major sporting tournaments, to brand new airports, and frontline services helping war-torn communities get back on their feet.
It’s a long way from the charity’s humble beginnings in 1972, when just 78 members sat on its books. Its impressive growth has been achieved by a commitment to its vision of bringing to life ‘a world in which all projects succeed’, a vision that’s shared with everyone in its growing workforce of over 155 people.
Like many organisations with an increasing headcount, APM needed a way of understanding the needs of its employees to ensure that its culture was one that allowed them to develop, grow, and, crucially, help the organisation deliver its plans to see projects that benefit society come to fruition.
In 2017, it approached Best Companies with a view to undertaking its first bHeard engagement survey, to gain an understanding of its workforce on a deeper level.
“One of the biggest challenges we had is what I would describe as ‘growing pains’,” explained Adam Boddison, APM’s Chief Executive Officer.
“As a growing organisation, it was really important to us to get external validation of where we were, where we were going, and what the development needs were for our people. Feedback from employees is always important, but it’s particularly important in a growing organisation when you’ve got new people coming in who won’t necessarily be aligned to your culture.
“And we take people and culture very seriously, because if people don’t feel comfortable in their workplace, you’re not going to get the best from them. You could have the best strategy in the world, but if your staff aren’t feeling engaged and switched on, the you’re never going to deliver it.”
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That initial survey saw APM recognised with a ‘Ones to Watch’ Accreditation status, representing ‘good’ levels of employee engagement. For Adam, it provided crucial data that showed the areas where the organisation was doing well, and where improvements could be made.
“When we got the Best Companies data, one of the things we did immediately as a leadership team was ask, ‘what is it telling us’? We then lined that data up against our three-year business plan and asked if there were any areas where we had a real strength we didn’t know about, that we could use to accelerate, or amplify our business plans in some way. We also looked at whether there were any areas where we weren’t quite where we needed to be, and where to invest time.”
Along with its own data-led insights, APM was able to benchmark its engagement scores against other organisations in the Not-For-Profit sector that are part of the Best Companies community. This, Adam says, gave APM a clear understanding of what similar organisations were doing, and where they could utilise best practice to make their own improvements.
“It’s important to know what ‘good’ looks like,” he explained. “We might think we’re doing ok, but having the external benchmark allowed us to see what other organisations on a similar journey were doing well.”
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After that initial survey, APM set out a project that focused on a strategy for improvement based on the Best Companies’ 8 factor model of engagement.
It used the different focus areas to roll out a programme of change, focusing on a coaching culture for its managers, knowledge transfer and upskilling initiatives, and wellbeing policies that put staff welfare at the forefront.
As a result, APM saw its overall engagement scores steadily increase each year, leading to the achievement of a ‘One Star’ accreditation, representing ‘very good’ levels of engagement, in 2021.
Instrumental in creating and delivering the project was APM’s People and Culture Manager, Caroline Brooks. “The Best Companies data gave us fantastic feedback that we needed to inform our plans and help us to use our resources in the best way,” she explained.
Since then, the organisation has been on a continuous journey of improvement, with its latest survey seeing it achieve a ‘Two Star’ accreditation, representing ‘outstanding’ levels of engagement. It also achieved one of its greatest year-on-year improvements in scores relating to its managers, and was named the ‘Best Company to Work For in the Not for Profit Sector’ in November 2024.
For Caroline, this represents hard work paying off: “People are really proud to be part of this journey. It's a company-wide initiative and everybody can get involved. We have about a 90% response rate every year, so I think that shows that people trust the process and they know that we will make change if it’s possible,” she explained.
“I think the scores relating to our managers show that the initiatives in place are really working,” she added. “If we have great managers, they will not only help our employees to reach their potential, but develop and achieve their own goals and objectives as well.”
When it comes to the connection between an engaged workforce and organisational performance, does Caroline see the benefits from a business perspective?
“Everybody recognises that if employees are happy, motivated, and supported, and they have the tools they need to do their job and the best environment to do it in, then the organisation will benefit,” she said. “Then, ultimately, the clients, the members, and the stakeholders will reap those benefits.”
So after its latest success, where does APM go from here? For Adam, to ensure that the organisation’s vision of "a world where all projects succeed” comes to fruition, as well as meeting its growth targets, it must continue to invest in its people, strive to be an employer of choice, and sustain its unique culture. This, he says, means continuing to work with Best Companies.
“In my understanding, having looked at the business case for working with Best Companies, it's the easiest business case in the world, in terms of return on investment,” he explained.
“With Best Companies, we have improved from a ‘Ones to Watch’ to a ‘Two Star’ accreditation in the last four years. If I just look at our revenue during that period, we've gone from being a 10 million pound organisation to being a 16 million pound organisation, and our workforce has increased by a third during that period. I can't possibly believe there's no connection between those two things.
“The process of it is powerful in and of its own right. I would say to any CEO thinking about this, take it seriously, because the data itself is very, very powerful and gives you insights that you wouldn't ordinarily be able to get.”
To find out more about APM’s culture and latest achievements, please click here.
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