Openness, accessibility and transparency lie at the heart of Abbott Risk Consulting's culture, so much so that staff have the managing director's home phone number.

John Abbott worked hard during the pandemic to maintain his close relationship with his team, which previously had included impromptu nights out at a local pub or restaurant. These were replaced by Teams calls over a bottle of wine, walk-and-talk meetings outdoors and YouTube video messages.

An important part of employee engagement is the twice-yearly conferences, which went ahead in full on Zoom. Picnic hampers were sent to staff before the summer conference, so they could eat together as they would usually do in a hotel. The winter conference was similar, with a Christmas box of goodies.

Edinburgh-based ARC, founded in 2002, offers risk management and safety engineering services to the energy, nuclear, defence, mining and rail sectors. The employee-owned company has offices in England and Australia as well as Scotland.

ARC believes passionately in sustainability and helping to strive towards a net zero future. After extensive research, the company has partnered with Cool Earth, a charity that works alongside rainforest communities to halt deforestation and the impact of it on climate change.

All employees are encouraged and supported to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers through STEM programmes or to work with a nominated climate change charity.