Practices, including Tonic Architecture, Gale & Snowden Architects, Elliott Wood, and Collective Works, discuss their approach to overtime culture, meeting the living wage, and salary ratio between staff.
Engineers Elliott Wood’s manifesto, ETHICS, sets out the company values and vision, engendering a sense of belonging.
Creating a just space for people
Part 3 of the Regenerative Architecture Index is concerned with providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches. Responses in this section were assessed by Architects Declare steering group members Mandy Franz, Michael Pawlyn, Tom Greenall, Alasdair Ben Dixon and Mark Goldthorpe, with expert input from Regenerative Architecture Index ambassador Immy Kaur – social and civil activist, businesswoman and co-founder and director of CIVIC SQUARE. Read more about Part 3 of the RAI here.Â
Practice Question 2
Does the practice operate a no overtime culture, meet the living wage consistently, and stipulate a fair salary ratio between staff of all levels?
Answers breakdown
Front-runner
Studio Bark
We operate a nine-day fortnight, with every second Friday off for all staff. We believe that time away from the office provides perspective, energy, and wellbeing. To ensure the benefits of this policy are felt, we are intentional and efficient with our working hours. Each week our whole team assembles to ensure tasks are fairly allocated with no-one required to work overtime. This is backed by no work-related out of hours communication.
Our no-overtime culture is written into the Studio Manual. However, on the rare occasions where overtime is worked, full TOIL is given to the employee.
Formally, we have capped salary ratios at 1:3 so the highest paid can only earn up to three times the lowest. We are surpassing this target, as all of our team have a closer salary level. We also pay the London Living Wage.
Runner-up
Collective Works
We have championed a zero-overtime culture since our inception. Our team were predominantly contractors when we set up, and this helped us build a culture where each hour is paid, and overtime discouraged. Our team are also given flexibility as standard, with remote working the norm. This meant one of our team members was able to move back to their home country and has worked remotely ever since. The team enjoys this flexibility and regularly adapts work around childcare, parental care, education, and advocacy. We operate internal transparency on salaries and the largest differential is around 3:1.
The fact that the Collective Works team was predominantly contractors when the practice was launched has helped to build a culture where each hour is paid, and overtime discouraged.Â
Ones to watch
JTP
JTP has introduced a number of initiatives to protect employee work/life balance. Board-led initiatives include:
- No out of hours/weekend email policy
- No out of hours/lunchtime meetings encouraged
- Encouraging employees to protect lunchbreaks
- Close monitoring of overtime at board meetings
- Monitoring individual’s annual leave to ensure rest and recuperation
- Introduction of ‘Managing Meeting Madness’, policy
Although JTP does not fall under the regulations to undertake a Gender Pay Audit, since 2019 we have conducted audits to ensure we are meeting our objectives of equal pay for equal grade and job responsibilities. The results remain positive; particularly when compared with other organisations, and ensures male and female counterparts receive equal pay for the same role.
JTP is committed to paying the Living Wage in London and elsewhere.
Tonic Architecture
We consistently exceed the living wage and provide a fair salary based on the RIBA benchmark guidance. We provide and indeed encourage a flexible working environment with the option to work remotely and/or from a dedicated space in a communal office. This includes an optional four-day working week. One team member undertakes nature-based volunteering on this day. It is rare to require overtime. When it is ‘necessary’, it is by mutual agreement and staff are typically given time off in lieu.
Exploration Architecture
We rarely work overtime and very rarely at weekends. We have always paid staff according to industry benchmarks and have never asked interns, or any other staff, to work without pay. We are committed to never having a salary ratio of more than 3:1 between the highest and lowest paid members of the office. This is averaged over five-year periods because the principal regularly reduces his salary for extended periods in order to maintain a steady salary for the rest of the staff.
Studio Knight Stokoe
The practice operates a no overtime culture, promoting a healthy work-life balance for all employees. We recognise the importance of rest and personal time, and strive to create an environment where overtime is not expected or encouraged.
We ensure our compensation practices consistently exceed the living wage standards, allowing staff to maintain a decent standard of living, and employ a fair and transparent approach to salaries, with a reasonable ratio between staff at all levels. In the interests of transparency and fairness, we include salary information in adverts for new roles.
Our salary structure is based on objective criteria such as experience, qualifications, and performance, ensuring equitable remuneration across the organisation. We believe in fostering an atmosphere of trust and openness, where employees feel valued and fairly compensated for their contributions.
Architype
Architype is a Real Living Wage employer, the voluntary standard recognising regional cost diversity. The practice has established a Pay Review Body to establish a fair and transparent process for setting salary bandings at all practice levels, and to manage requests and recommendations for salary increases.
We operate a time off in lieu system around our flexi-working offering to ensure co-owners take back any overtime that might be required, as it is recognised that deadlines occasionally require working outside normal working hours. Co-owners are actively encouraged to accurately record all time worked in their timesheets, not only to monitor project performance, but to monitor and control any overtime worked. Our People team regularly checks reports which are discussed with studio management teams and early warning signs are addressed.
We Made That
Being the best employer we can is core to our mission and purpose. Our commitment to delivering public good, is reflected in the way we empower our team, supported by our dedicated Head of People – a progressive role for a practice of our scale. We are London Living Wage accredited and in 2023 we became a Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employer. We actively promote a healthy work life balance through all levels in the practice with time off in lieu and a clear culture of healthy working hours. Some team members work part time and we have supported several team members on their return-to-work journey, following parental leave. We actively track overtime. In 2023 it was 1.67% compared to the industry benchmark of 23%.
Gale & Snowden Architects
For the last 12 months we have tested a change from a five-day working week to a four-day working week with no change to pay or working hours. This was to done to create a better work life balance. After this test, the practice has now decided to operate a 34-hour week with flexibility for staff as to how they wish to work. The practice does not encourage an overtime culture. Staff wages are as per RIBA guidelines. The practice is moving towards becoming an EOT.
Elliott Wood
Efforts have been made to tackle the existing overtime culture through the change in working hours from 40 to 37.5 and the introduction of ME days for mental health and volunteering. Salaries aren’t openly shared and included in job adverts but the practice carries out an annual benchmarking exercise and gender pay gap analysis and commits to ensuring all staff receive the London Living Wage.
