Building the dream team: discover Jubb’s award-winning engineering and planning solutions
Jubb is an award-winning multi-disciplinary team of engineers and planning design consultants. Punching above its weight, Jubb has a remarkable track record of experience spanning multiple sectors within the built and natural environments and is a trusted partner to both its valued clients and fellow industry professionals. Notably, the company places a great emphasis on investing in its people and embracing cutting-edge technologies. By leveraging the latest design tools, Jubb is empowered to deliver the smartest and best fitting solutions. Rob Harrhy, Managing Director, shares a brief introduction to the business.
“Jubb has been a privately owned business since it was founded in 1963,” Rob opens. “I joined Jubb in 2013 with the objective to help grow the business and was given the opportunity to lead a full management buyout in July 2016, which gave us the platform to accelerate the transformation of the business into the modern, forward-looking company that we are today. Our core business is engineering design, but the scope of our work effectively extends way beyond that. Today, our core offering consists in providing civil, structural, and ground engineering, as well as transport planning, all contained within a wrapper of professional advisors to our clients. Additionally, we offer front-end planning led services to support our clients in acquiring land and obtaining development consent, and we also assist in the procurement and management of construction contracts to deliver on the schemes we design. In a nutshell, Jubb tends to work across all sectors, from cradle to grave.”
Hyperscale projects
Through its comprehensive range of services, Jubb has garnered a reputation as a trusted development partner. Rob explains how the company supports its customers throughout every stage of the project. “Typically, we try to get involved very early on in projects, helping clients identify land they would like to build on, securing planning consent, and completing the detailed design of a huge range of schemes in defence, healthcare, education, residential, industrial, and commercial sectors, as well as critical infrastructure such as data centres, logistics and distribution facilities, highways, and bridges. To make that happen, we provide a comprehensive range of expert engineering services, including assessment of ground conditions, local transportation, flood risk, and access challenges, as well as designing the necessary built infrastructure to ensure smooth project development. This might also involve the remediation of contaminated brownfield sites, shaping the land and ultimately, delivering our client’s project. Jubb operates across numerous industries, and we are particularly proud of our work on data centres. We punch way above our weight in this sector delivering hyperscale projects across Europe,” he adds.
Rob reveals that these services are delivered all around the country and beyond as Jubb actively expands its global reach. “Jubb operates across four locations in the South of England and Wales: Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth, and Winchester. Although we were historically based in the Southwest, we now successfully work nationwide across the UK and mainland Europe. Consequently, it seems inevitable that our continued growth will be fuelled through geographic expansion to take our successful model to a greater national presence and we always look to expand our service offering,” he highlights.
Developing talent
Sitting at the core of Jubb’s company DNA is its unwavering focus on its people. Rob provides valuable insights into Jubb’s company culture and ethos. “First off, Jubb’s history is significant, and I think it’s crucial to acknowledge our successes. However, back in 2016 when we secured ownership, it was clear that we had some modernising to do to reflect our vision for the business, and this had to start with our people. Our business can only succeed by having brilliant people doing great things – the knowledge, attitude, and personality of our staff are our entire offering. When I joined Jubb, we undertook a mindset shift towards aligning business and staff goals to generate better outcomes. In simple terms, we are all about being good citizens with a strong moral compass and treating people with respect to achieve our simple objective of being ‘a great business to work for, and a great business to work with.’ Ultimately, our goal is to enhance the business by attracting, nurturing, and developing talent to provide great service to our clients. To achieve this, we have implemented various initiatives focused on employee well-being and care, including comprehensive packages for rewards and recognition, along with upskilling and learning opportunities. This includes competency frameworks, learning pathways, and a companywide continuing professional development (CPD) programme driven by our staff. Also, we have established schools of excellence to share knowledge around the business. Importantly, we now emphasise the importance of measuring the effectiveness of these initiatives. Traditional metrics like P&L productivity and recoverability are important; but in addition, we’ve shifted our focus towards gathering feedback from every staff member. By taking care of their performance, the results will naturally follow. This approach has led to increased investment in learning and development, digital upskilling, and modern workplace infrastructure. As a result, we have witnessed high staff and customer satisfaction levels alongside increased revenue and earnings per employee. Our goal is to be a company that people genuinely want to work with and for, thereby driving the best outcomes and fostering a culture of excellence,” he states. Acknowledgement for Jubb’s efforts focusing on people has recently been recognised at the NCE awards, where the business was crowned both Recruitment and Retention Leader, and SME Consulting Firm of the Year.
Looking to the future, Rob states that much of the groundwork to take Jubb to new heights has already been laid. “While there’s still more to accomplish, we have transitioned from perhaps lagging a bit behind the curve to now being on par with industry best practice, at the very least, and I think leading in many ways. Going forward, I see us expanding our geographic presence and further enhancing the breadth of skills we offer. I don’t think we will pursue rapid acquisitions, focusing instead on sustainable growth, building upon our existing strengths, and enhancing our capabilities organically. Our model centres on fostering collaboration among talented people across our offices, each operating as a local business with the capacity to support Jubb’s nationwide operations. I also see substantial growth in both team size and presence across multiple locations in the coming years,” Rob ends.