Hydrock digs deep to build firm foundations for its employees. Robust leadership, a strong sense of ownership in the company and tightknit teams underpin the engineering consultancy and specialist contracting firm.

Ranked the 12th Best Small Company to Work For in 2006, staff numbers have almost doubled in 12 months, moving it into this list. This year’s even higher ranking means Hydrock has managed to maintain high levels of employee engagement while undergoing rapid growth — no mean feat. Staff say they love working for the company, giving this question an 83% positive score and would strongly recommend it to others (92%), the latter ranking Hydrock number one.

Managing director Brian McConnell claims there was no complex strategy aimed at being a good employer when he set up the firm — winner of our special award for work/life balance — with engineering director Hamish Orr Ewing 12 years ago. “Hamish and I wanted to enjoy working and see our families and the things we wanted are what other people want. I can’t say there was a big plan, it was just how it happened,” he says.

This down-to-earth approach is typical of the positive attitude that permeates the organisation and is embodied in McConnell. “We recruit technically skilled people but they have to have the right personality. I always use the analogy of a pint of Guinness, I like people who have a pint that’s half full, not half empty,” he says.

Leadership is the factor most closely linked to a firm’s overall ranking in the Best Companies lists. So an organisation has to get it right if it is to succeed as an excellent employer, and Hydrock has. Staff are inspired by McConnell, giving him an 85% positive score; they think he runs the company based on sound moral principles (88%) and have a great deal of faith in him (89%), all top four scores. But the firm’s leadership is not just about one person. McConnell says: “When you start a company you do everything, you order the stationery, you sign the cheques.

“But as it gets bigger it becomes more important that there’s only one team, it needs to be the Hydrock team. I think the leadership of the company is getting easier, actually, because we’ve got a really great team of directors who all share the same ideals as me.”

His staff agree, scoring the question that asks if they have confidence in the leadership skills of the senior management team 80% positive.

Individuals feel part of the wider picture because they are listened to and their opinions are appreciated. Surveying technician Brian Benson, 58, joined the firm four years ago. He was pleasantly surprised to be trained in new skills at an age that many companies might not think it worth the investment. “Every day I’m doing different things and learning more. Brian [McConnell] asks my advice on things. You feel valued and part of the team,” he says.

McConnell adds: “People are valued and respected regardless of whether they are a highly skilled structural engineer or a highly skilled miner. We speak to people in the same way.”

Consideration of employees’ family lives further entrenches loyalty to the company. Partners and children are invited to social events; colleagues muck in and relevant equipment is provided if someone has to work from home to be with a sick relative, for example, and staff get more than the statutory maternity and paternity pay. Employees are encouraged to recommend a friend or family member for vacant positions, earning £500 if they are hired.

Social events include a “challenge day” with team activities, lunch, dinner and entertainment; an annual all-expenses paid trip to watch a Six Nations rugby match in Dublin or Cardiff and a four-day ski trip-come-company conference, also paid for by the firm.

Miner Wayne Munkley left Wales’ last coal mine, Tower Colliery, to work on a Hydrock project stabilising a 40-acre historic stone mine in Bath. He thinks he made the right decision. “At the interview I met Brian and when I saw him three months later he remembered my name, even though there were 120 men working here. It’s the best company I’ve worked for,” he says.

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