A Culture Founded on a Set of Ideals
Our distinct corporate culture was founded over 50 years ago and it is truly the personification of why Bob Burnside started a company in the first place. Bob was raised on principles of honesty, respect, grace, humility, service, care and compassion. Try to imagine a person of such character on their best day. That’s the foundation of the culture he wanted.
It was never about writing out a list of values and practices to describe what the company wanted to be like; it was writing down what was actually happening in the business at that point in time. Employees demonstrated that they cared about each other, and the way they interacted with local municipalities and Northern First Nations Communities showed this.
To this day, our firm is intentional about referencing the values and practices as an operational guide, not turning it over and rewriting it or changing it every two to three years. Rather, we liken it to the bedrock of our culture. They are not simply words on paper but reflect how we expect all of our new staff to operate and treat each other, and by extension, our clients.
To us, we are all about building relationships and delivering quality work; providing value in everything we do. We have built a culture of caring and ongoing personal development for all employees, whether they work in an office, on an active construction site or in the field.
We strive to exceed our clients’ expectations and the longevity and loyalty of many of our wonderful clients, in addition to our remarkable staff, suggest that the way we conduct ourselves does set us apart from others.
Sharing Ideas. Creating Solutions
Our history is rooted in a culture of investing and caring about informal interactions, because that is where we see creativity and collaboration emerge. It allows for ideas and connections to be made. We are intentional about trying to develop cross-sector, cross-office relationships through in-person interactions and by leveraging our communication technologies. Even before the pandemic, we were well established in facilitating employee flexibility, enabling virtual communication and considering creative working arrangements.
When we come together and share ideas in non-rigid hierarchies, this fosters a culture of respect and creativity; both of which are core values at Burnside. We find we are more likely to have new ideas being offered, and innovative solutions being created in this positive, collegial environment.
Continuous Improvement
At Burnside, we understand that the world is forever changing. For us to maintain our reputation for quality, value and responsiveness we know we need to be committed to continuous improvement. Therefore, we emphasize training and place a high value on management and technical lessons learned. We apply lessons learned from relevant projects as well as best design practices to both optimize the value we can offer to our clients and also continue to be a leader in achieving risk management in an atmosphere of growth. Our design team, key individuals, and other subject matter experts have worked together on many past assignments and bring their teamwork, collective knowledge, past lessons learned, and best practices to each project. We have a very “hands on” leadership approach, and perform internal audits to ensure our QA/QC processes “walk our talk”.
