Arup

The overview

Arup is an international engineering consultancy. It was founded in London in 1946 as a structural engineering consultancy and has since added further design, engineering, specialist technical and management consulting functions to its remit.

Services provided

Arup has worked on high profile projects such as High Speed 1 and the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Arup provides services that cover every stage of the design and build process. It is typical for several of these services to be employed during the course of one project. These include:

• Building design – designing the foundations and skeleton of a building, as well as its active systems.
• Infrastructure design – designing physical structures such as airports, bridges, and highways, as well as structures for the maritime, rail, tunnelling and water sectors.
• Specialist technical services – these are often integrated with the design process. Services include fire and wind engineering, hydrogeology, lighting and acoustics design, as well as consultancy in fluid dynamics, materials, and communications and technology in the built environment.
• Management consulting – offering advisory services to public and private sector clients in project management, facilities management, sustainability consulting, operations consulting (helping clients to simplify business processes and reduce waste) and transaction advice (enabling clients to receive returns from their property investments).
• Advanced technology and research – providing solutions to complex engineering problems and alternative design strategies in areas that include movable structures, nuclear packaging and transportation, sustainable transport and wind, vibration and seismic engineering.

Sectors Arup operates in

Arup works across a considerable number of sectors, including:

• Aviation
• Commercial property – offices and other work spaces.
• Energy – energy efficiency and carbon management strategies, renewable energy supply projects, conventional and nuclear electrical power systems, heat and power transmission and distribution systems, and oil and gas supply.
• Government – public safety systems, military facilities, border patrol structures, secure units and postal buildings.
• Healthcare – both public and private facilities.
• Highways
• Hotels and leisure
• Maritime – port terminals, harbours and transport links.
• Railway systems
• Residential
• Resources and waste management
• Retail
• Science and industry – from data facilities to pharmaceutical laboratories.
• Sport
• Water – global water supply and sanitation, flood risk management and habitat preservation.

Notable projects

• Arup first came to prominence in the 1960s with its work on the structural design of the Sydney Opera House.
• High Speed 1 – Officially known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The project involved 1,600 Arup staff.
• Beijing National Stadium – Also, know as ‘The Bird’s Nest’, this was considered to be the most striking structure designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
• The National Aquatics Center – Also known as the ‘Water Cube’, this was also constructed for the Beijing Olympic Games. Arup was responsible for its highly sustainable ‘bubble wall’ design, which won the firm the 2009 ‘MacRobert Award’ for engineering innovation.
• The ‘Gherkin building’ –Arup designed the diagonal steel structure as well as providing fire, security, transport planning, wind engineering and geotechnical engineering services.
• M6 Toll Motorway – Arup prepared the preliminary designs, oversaw their implementation, and offered site support throughout the construction.
• Heathrow Personal Rapid Transit system – Arup designed the route for this system and its fleet of driverless pods that transfer passengers and their luggage between Terminal 5 and the Terminal 5 business car park.

Research capabilities

Arup is widely known for its research capabilities

Arup is widely known for its research capabilities, and operates a global research network facilitating communication between Aurp researchers and academic and industrial research partners. The firm maintains a long-term strategic relationship with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and recently worked with Queen Mary, University of London, to reduce the university’s carbon emissions by 34%.

Rankings and awards

• Voted most popular graduate recruiter for construction, civil engineering and quantity surveying at the TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards in 2011.
• Ranked 127 in the Guardian UK 300 top graduate employers.
• Won the Environment Award (in collaboration with De Montford University) at the MCA (Management Consultancies Association) Awards in 2011. This was for its consultancy role in reducing De Montford’s carbon footprint.
• Won ‘Sustainable Designer of the Year’ and ‘Sustainable Project of the Year (over £10m)’ with its Harlequin 1 TV studio for broadcaster BskyB at the Sustainability Awards in 2010.
• Won the RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute) Planning Consultancy Award in 2007.
• Ranked number 37 in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2011 – 12

Salary and benefits

Arup is yet to confirm salaries for its 2012 graduate intake but graduates who started in 2011 are said to have received a total benefits package of up to £32,000. Graduates typically receive a ‘welcome bonus’; the amount depends upon the graduate’s degree result, subject and discipline. Indications are that starting salaries are in the £22,000 to £24,000 region, and that welcome bonuses amount to £2,000 for a bachelor’s degree and £4,000 for a master’s.

Other benefits include:

• an interest-free travel season ticket loan or bicycle loan
• free eye tests
• private medical insurance
• life and accident insurance
• a ‘flexible benefits fund’ which can be used to buy other preferred benefits, or taken as a cash payment
• 22 days’ annual leave, plus public holidays.

Profit share

As a firm owned in trust, Arup shares 40% of its profits each year among staff who have given a minimum of three months’ service. Shares are allocated according to grade of position and length of service and are paid twice yearly on top of employees’ regular salaries.

Culture and values

Arup’s core values and aims were set out in 1970 by its founder, Ove Arup, in his ‘Key Speech’. The firm emphasises that this speech is required reading for each new employee (and, therefore, anyone who would like to become a new employee). The speech establishes that the firm’s six main aims are:

1. To strive for quality – ‘We must strive for quality in what we do, and never be satisfied with the second-rate.’
2. ‘Total architecture’ – ‘This means expanding our field into adjoining fields – architecture, planning, ground engineering, environmental engineering, computer programming etc., and the planning and organisation of the work on site.’
3. Humanitarian attitude – the firm aims to be ‘an organisation which is human and friendly in spite of being large and efficient’, where each member is treated as an individual.
4. Honourable dealings – ‘We should justify the trust of our clients by giving their interest first priority in the work we do for them.’
5. Social usefulness – ‘A wish to do socially useful work, and to join hands with others fighting for the same values.’ In particular, the firm places importance on considering the environmental impact of their projects.
6. Prosperity for all members – this is considered an ‘essential pre-requisite’ for fulfilling the other five aims, and has influenced the firm’s ownership structure (see below).

Independent ownership

The firm’s founder thought that interesting work was as much of a reward as salary.

Arup’s ownership structure is uncommon for a firm of its size – it is independent and owned in trust on behalf of its employees. One member of staff claims that this ‘has a huge effect on the way employees view the company.’ Arup‘s policies are set out by a group board, which must report to the firm’s trustees and to the firm itself, represented by a group of directors and principals.

Respect for curiosity

The firm seems to be keen to facilitate an exchange of ideas among colleagues across their global offices; it operates over 50 ‘skills networks’, covering departments such as HR, transactions, and logistics, and these are used by around 60% of employees. Former group chairman Terry Hill claims that an employee who posts a problem on the firm’s intranet can expect to have it solved within a day. The firm also produces the Arup Journal, designed to celebrate accomplishments and explore new ways of thinking across the business.

Pay or personal development?

Ove Arup’s speech of 1970 is still part of the company tradition. While Arup states that its salaries are competitive, Ove said that workers should not place high salaries above ‘the opportunity to do interesting and rewarding work.’ In fact while its salaries might not be top of the scale, the firm’s environment and culture is said to be stimulating, with employees claiming that personal and professional development is a focus.