Better never stops: How Amey’s leadership powered its Platinum success

Michael Burgess, Chief People Officer
28 August 2025
Amey members celebrate launch event at Amey's Furnival Street office.
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On 20 April 2025, Amey achieved Investors in People (IiP) Platinum accreditation, the highest recognition for our commitment to leadership, workforce development, and inclusive culture.

It is a rare and proud moment, not just for me personally or for Amey as a business, but for the thousands of colleagues who bring their best to work every day, affirming our unwavering belief that people are our greatest asset.

Platinum accreditation places Amey among a select group of companies, with only 3% of accredited organisations reaching this level. It reflects the deeper foundations of our success, that our values are embedded across the business, aligning with our corporate strategy while ensuring employees are engaged, empowered, and motivated to improve and innovate.

Yet, for us, recognition isn’t truly the goal. Excellence is. At Amey, better never stops.

We built an embedded relationship with Investors in People.

A bold decision: Reinventing our people strategy

Amey has worked with IiP for many years, but by 2021, our relationship had threatened to become process-heavy and document-focused rather than transformational. As our Silver accreditation came up for reassessment, we faced a critical decision: continue with business as usual or set ambitious goals to overhaul our approach to culture, leadership, and workforce development.

We chose ambition and launched the Journey to Platinum—a bespoke three-year programme designed to reinvigorate our people strategy, embed high-performance culture, and make leadership accountability the driving force of change.

Rather than treating accreditation as a one-off achievement, we built an embedded relationship with IiP, ensuring continuous assessment and integration of best practices throughout our transformation journey.

Sustainable, high-performance culture where leadership inspired change rather than dictated it.

Leadership: The catalyst for change

The key to achieving Platinum was leadership, not just at the top, but across the organisation. We fundamentally shifted how our leaders operated, transforming their role from managers to active sponsors of cultural change.

Every Executive Director at Amey sponsors an affinity group, supporting key areas such as disability inclusion, race equity, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. They mentor group leaders and engage with communities to ensure diverse perspectives are represented and valued. This hands-on approach reinforced the importance of workplace inclusivity, making it a leadership priority rather than just an HR initiative.

Listening to employees became another key driver of transformation. Internal platforms like Viva Engage gave employees a space to voice concerns, share feedback, and contribute to shaping Amey’s workplace culture. Leaders were expected to not just listen but respond. Through regular engagement, mentoring, and structured feedback loops, we created a workplace where employees felt heard and empowered.

Employees gathered around a desk during a team discussion.
Listening to employees became a key driver of transformation

Beyond engagement, we modernised our policies, ensuring Amey’s approach to workforce development was progressive, inclusive, and people-centric. This included refining career pathways, improving training opportunities, and embedding continuous learning into our corporate framework.

These targeted interventions didn’t just improve compliance, they built a sustainable, high-performance culture where leadership inspired change rather than dictated it.

Embedding best practices that transform workplace culture.

Lessons for other organisations

Achieving IiP accreditation isn’t about chasing a badge, it’s about embedding best practices that transform workplace culture. For organisations looking to improve their leadership and employee experience, a few key lessons stand out.

First, leadership must be visible. Change does not happen in isolation, it requires senior leaders to champion, engage, and actively sponsor cultural evolution. At Amey, our Executive Directors took personal responsibility for driving inclusivity, which ensured that employee engagement was more than just words, it became a lived experience.

Second, listening is as important as leading. Providing employees with platforms to share their ideas, concerns, and feedback fosters trust, transparency, and collaboration. However, listening alone isn’t enough action must follow. Workplace transformation requires companies to take direct, responsive steps to address employee needs.

Finally, a fragmented approach doesn’t work. Too often, organisations introduce scattered initiatives that lack cohesion. IiP provided Amey with a structured, long-term approach to align values with systems, ensuring that change wasn’t just surface-level, it was sustainable.

Female speaker leading a workshop in an office setting
Workplace transformation requires companies to take direct, responsive steps to address employee needs.

We grow our people, and in doing so, we grow our business.

Beyond Platinum: What’s next for Amey?

Achieving Platinum is not the destination, it’s a starting point.

Now, our focus is on continuous improvement. The employee value proposition we’ve built ensures that our workplace is one where people feel safe to speak up, are empowered to grow, and are inspired to give their best. This commitment enables Amey to attract, develop, and retain top talent while remaining future-ready in an evolving industry.

Our challenge now is to keep pushing forward, to innovate, adapt, and ensure that better never stops.

Leadership, in my view, boils down to two things: encouraging people and inspiring people. When we do that, everything else follows. 

We grow our people, and in doing so, we grow our business.

Better never stops. And neither will we.

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