Kirby Group Engineering has been recognised for its people-first culture, maintaining ‘We Invest in People – Platinum’ and achieving ‘We Invest in Wellbeing – Gold’ accreditations in its latest Investors in People (IIP) assessment.

Following a rigorous assessment process, the Irish firm was ranked among the top 2% of organisations worldwide for leading, supporting and developing its people, with the assessor commending Kirby for maintaining its Platinum accreditation at a time of significant growth.

“Kirby has not only retained the standards set in 2020, but has exceeded them while increasing headcount by 50%, an exceptionally difficult thing for any organisation to do,” stated the accrediting body.

The company has grown significantly since its last assessment, expanding across Europe and opening an office in South Africa in 2023. With a turnover in 2023 of more than €630m, Kirby has grown its professional teams to over 1,600 permanent team members to provide full mechanical and electrical contracting services, as well as specialist high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) design and construction services, to clients across a number of different sectors including: Data Centres, Life Sciences, Industrial, and Power and Renewables.

Investors in People (IIP), the international accreditation body, is the global benchmark when it comes to people management. Having assessed over 50,000 organisations across 66 countries, its rigorous assessment encompasses in-person interviews, surveys and desktop research, with Kirby’s achievements across all nine indicators putting it in the top ranks of its category of Architectural, Engineering and Construction Activities worldwide.

Some of the feedback from the assessors included:

• People believe Kirby is a great place to work
• Kirby exemplifies leadership. People know leaders up to and including the CEO by their first name, and they have high levels of trust
• The approach to recognition and reward is considered by people to be generous and supports a culture of appreciation, positive reinforcement, acknowledgement and recognition
• People are clearly motivated to perform their best
• Succession planning is outstanding and a study in building the capability of Kirby’s future leadership
• Kirby employees are very passionate about wellbeing, in particular about mental health

Fergus Barry, Group HR Director at Kirby Group Engineering, said: “Achieving this level of recognition demonstrates that we are not only meeting but exceeding industry standards.

“Great workplace culture isn’t something that happens by accident; it’s something that is developed across all levels of an organisation, something that needs to be continuously improved and measured. In our 60th year of business we proudly acknowledge the vision of our founders and their creation of an employee focused growth culture. Investors in People allows us to benchmark and learn. It is the check-in we need to refine, improve, and enhance our employment offer, and it’s great to see we are once again one of the best.”

The addition of ‘We Invest in Wellbeing – Gold’ underscores Kirby’s dedication to fostering a healthy and supportive workplace for all employees. It highlights a proactive approach to promoting physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, which is crucial for the overall success and happiness of teams.

Malcolm Stafford, Kirby EHS Regional Manager and the chair of the wellbeing committee at Kirby, said: “To have over 90% of colleagues agree that Kirby is committed to creating an environment that supports people’s health and wellbeing, is a great achievement. As a committee, we work very closely with the Senior Leadership Team to design and implement health and wellbeing initiatives that support our people. Health and wellbeing is really driven from the top, and shaped by our people.”

Kirby acknowledges the great guidance and challenging it has received over the last five years from its Investors in People Practitioner Andy Galloway on its journey towards excellence in our people management processes. Andy is passionate about people and organisational performance and challenged us continuously to be the best we could be. His insights into the development of our culture have really been helpful and have guided us through this very exciting growth phase. He understands the challenges of growth, people and performance.