What It Does: Balfour Beatty provides professional services such as construction, infrastructure investments, and support services. The firm specialises in quantity surveying, engineering, design, project management, site supervision, planning & budget controls, etc.
Mission: Balfour Beatty’s mission statement is to fund, design, construct, and sustain the efficient and innovative infrastructure that enables economic growth, underpins daily life and provides support for its communities.
Size and Presence: This company employs more than 16,000 workers across its offices in the UK.
Best Known For: Balfour Beatty is known for taking the top spot on the list of Britain’s Most Admired Companies Awards. The company specialises in large-scale infrastructure projects. In 2021, Balfour Beatty was ranked as the largest contractor in the UK.
The Good Bits: The work is positively challenging and has several growth opportunities for freshers and interns. The company has numerous employee benefits. The pay is good, and the company is one of the best companies to launch or build a career in.
The Not-So-Good Bits: N/A.
Balfour Beatty came into existence in 1909. The company was established by George Balfour and Andrew Beatty with a starting capital of £50,000. The co-founders were previous employees of the London office of JG White & Company. The company's first business operation was solely tramways. Balfour Beatty's first contract was to build the Dunfermline and District Tramways for Fife Tramway Light and Power Company, its subsidiary. Later on, the company purchased several electric power and tramway firms. Some of these subsidiary firms eventually expanded their business portfolio to include motor buses and trolleys. The company also acquired and established some bus companies, including Scottish General Omnibus and Stratford Blue.
After the World War eras, Balfour Beatty acquired a Canadian construction firm in 1953. BICC took over Power Securities, the parent organisation of Balfour Beatty. In 1986, Balfour Beatty expanded into the construction of residential buildings. The following year, it purchased David M. Adams, a strategic move that boosted its home construction rate to 700 homes per annum. At the turn of the 21st century, BICC sold off its cable businesses and changed its name to Balfour Beatty. It then went on an acquisition spree in the UK and North America. In 2011, the company sold off its tramway construction business to Progress Rail. In 2021, Lord Allen succeeded Philip Aiken as the chairman of Balfour Beatty.
Balfour Beatty is a big family which houses professionals with various social and cultural profiles. The wealth of diversity in the company's workforce is something to be admired. Balfour Beatty is a champion of inclusion, and every employee is encouraged to be vocal about their opinions. The company has even gone as far as establishing a structure known as affinity networks which are employee-led communities for the various profiles in its workforce. There's the Ability network (for disabled employees), LGBTQ+ network, multicultural network (for black and Asian employees), and gender equality network. At Balfour Beatty, the mutual respect between employees has created a healthy working atmosphere for everyone, including freshers and interns.
Balfour Beatty offers a highly segmented apprenticeship programme to school leavers in various fields. The company offers intermediate-level apprenticeships, advanced-level apprenticeships, higher-level apprenticeships, and degree-level apprenticeships. Balfour Beatty also offers paid summer placements to undergraduates. It's a 2-3 month program designed to give these students practical work experience. For the interns, the firm offers paid industrial placements, which is a 1-year program that will expose them to challenging and exciting work at the company. Finally, there's the graduate programme in the business and technical fields. These programs are designed to nurture fresh graduates and transform them into young industry leaders.
A fresh graduate working at Balfour Beatty earns an average salary of £30,000 yearly.
The company's operations boost biodiversity and support minority businesses in the UK.
There's no widely published controversy involving Balfour Beatty in the UK.