How Arcadis Transforms HR (and Its Workforce) Sustainably

💼 The business challenge 

Arcadis, a company with more than 135 years under its belt, operates in 30+ countries worldwide and employs 36,000 architects, analysts, project planners, and others. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for all. 🌎

A focus on sustainability and innovation lies at the heart of this organization. It’s a commitment that goes above and beyond legislative requirements to drive decisions made at the leadership level—decisions that impact all 36,000 employees.

When it comes to driving this mission, Ian Pinkett, Global People Analytics Director and the rest of the team at Arcadis have a lot to be proud of. The business has won countless accolades, naming it one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2024 and a top place to work for diversity, LGBTQIA+, and ESG efforts, among others.

This commitment to people is reflected in Arcadis’ organizational objectives, including but not limited to:

• Reporting on non-financial metrics like turnover, gender diversity, and employee engagement and supporting these insights with robust data storytelling to the business.
• Leveling the playing field for gender diversity. Aiming for over 40% female representation by 2026.
• Creating a Skills-Powered Organization (SPO) to equip employees with the skills needed to plan and prepare for future workforce transformations.
• Maintaining a high level of employee engagement. Currently, Arcadis sits in the top 25% among competitors, but settling for good isn’t enough. With Gallup reporting global engagement trending at an eleven-year low, it’s an area that’s still a huge priority for Arcadis now and looking ahead.

💡 The Solution

Leading the industry in ESG and engagement metrics wasn’t enough for a team prioritizing innovation above all else. Arcadis knew it was time to create systems to identify problem areas and react quickly, and they knew they needed access to data and insights to make it happen.

Ian joined Arcadis in 2019, taking responsibility of the Global People Analytics Team in 2022 after working at large organizations such as Amazon, BBC, Marks and Spencer, and more. He’s been involved in workforce planning and strategic business reporting for more than a decade. Ian’s team includes four additional people analytics practitioners all working to advance Arcadis’ mission.

When it comes to how Crunchr helps his team, it all comes down to elevating the role of HR to drive that transformation.

📈 The impact

Currently, there are more than 130 Crunchr users at Arcadis. These users include data leads, HR Business Partners, and people leaders from various departments. Ian reflects that many users presently look at gender diversity in Crunchr; ‘’ We wouldn’t be able to get to the granularity of information that we need from this perspective without the help of Crunchr.”

From a holistic business perspective, Crunchr helps users at Arcadis to:

• Identify gender diversity hotspots and cold spots, track promotions, and understand recruitment and turnover trends.
• Reduce time spent on manual reporting each month. What previously would take up to five business days is now completed in 2-3. This saves Ian’s team of four upwards of 780 hours per year.
• Upskill HR with data. Ian reflects that HRBPs at Arcadis are unlike any he’s worked with previously. They’re empowered to pull data, analyze trends, and discuss complex insights as if they have their own people analyst in the room. ‘’ Finance managers are trained on numbers and how to do analysis. HR business partners are not. We need to find a way to upskill them, and Crunchr helps us step into that space.’’

🔮 Looking ahead

Crunchr came on board very early in the evolution of Arcadis’ people analytics journey, and it’s proven to be a successful decision. Thanks to HR Business Partners (HRBPs) support, the team showcased Crunchr’s potential for delivering high-quality, privacy-conscious reporting with easy distribution. Also, the ability to quickly create distinct dashboards tailored to key personas further validated Crunchr’s worth over generic business intelligence (BI) tools.

Looking ahead, Ian says he’s excited about the potential to expand data democratization at Arcadis. Crunchr’s privacy control features allow business unit leaders and line managers to receive snapshots of people analytics while enabling HRBPs to delve into the details more thoroughly. He reflects that ”This unique balance of accessibility and privacy, along with the planned integration of expanded data sets, promises additional growth and expansion.”

Expansion is nothing new to this partnership, though. Arcadis plans to expand the scope of their people analytics team to include performance, potential, and talent acquisition data in the future. From there, the next major initiative is skills. ” I expect that in the future we may also bring financial metrics into Crunchr.” Ian adds. Piece of cake, right? 😉

🤝 A perfect partnership

What’s really helping to make an impact at Arcadis, though, is a partnership rooted in support, listening, and ongoing collaboration. Ian recounts this, noting that monthly reporting which was previously done mid-month, is now complete by the 9th with Crunchr. “What used to take us five days is now around a two day close on the whole with Crunchr. We would’ve never been able to do that without their ongoing support.’’

Ian adds that his partnership with Crunchr’s customer support team is a symbiotic relationship of push and pull, which is something he truly values. ”Crunchr is a pacesetter for us, accelerating faster than us 99% of the time, but not so fast that we are exhausted and can’t keep up. It’s the perfect relationship between customer and supplier.”

This partnership, rooted in adaptability, collaboration, and trust, is a big reason why Ian signed up for a long-term renewal with Crunchr. 🎉