Terry Boniface is proof that Golder Associates lives up to its boast of being a family-friendly firm to work for. The senior engineering geologist told the environmental consultancy he would like to work flexibly when his daughter was born and asked for a four-day week. “My wife, who also works for the company, has always worked flexibly and depending on our projects we can change or swap our days,” he says. “Things have changed in the last few years and as a result Golders is a company where husbands and wives thrive.” The company is proud of its family-friendly flexible working options which include job sharing, home working, reduced hours, flexitime and term-time only, as well as school hours contracts. Employees say they are happy with the balance between their work and their home life (a 63% positive score), believe deadlines are realistic (66%) and their health is not suffering because of work (76%). Employee-owned since its foundation in 1960, the Nottinghamshire-based ground engineering and environmental services group employs more than 7,000 people in 160 offices throughout Africa, Australasia, Europe and America. Staff say they feel they can make a difference in the organisation (70%), believe they can make a valuable contribution to the success of the company (76%) and think their jobs are good for personal growth (77%). “This is the closest you can be to being self-employed, without the risks,” says UK managing director Julian Jones, who joined the firm 16 years ago as a project manager. “You can develop your own ideas, but you have all the people behind you to offer support and advice,” he says. Employees say they are not bored with the work they do (71%), find their job stimulating (75%) and agree colleagues go out of their way to help one another (76%). The UK operation employs 300 people and one of them, environmental scientist Sarah Kay, left the firm in May 2007, only to return just six months later. “I didn't know what was out there in terms of work and that was always in the back of my mind,” she says. “Other companies give you a fixed role, but Golder Associates doesn't put people in a box. A young graduate can specialise if they want to or dabble in everything from contaminated land work to environmental impact assessment.” Offering staff a variety of opportunities seems to be the company's speciality. Hydrologist Clair Young, who joined the firm eight years ago, has worked for the company in America. She says: “Once you have been with the firm for three years you can go anywhere around the world. As long as your skillset is needed it's not a problem. I was approached by the Jacksonville office in Florida who told me they had been looking for a ground water specialist for two years.” Employees say they are happy with the opportunities to learn and grow within the organisation (69%) and managers care about how satisfied staff are in their jobs (72%).