State of Engagement 2026 Report |
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When Kevin Davidson (Chief Executive Officer) and Sean Buchan (Chief Operating Officer) joined Norman Broadbent in 2021, they stepped into a business facing significant headwinds. Business performance was down, attrition was high, and employee engagement had reached a critical low.
"We saw values printed on the walls, but they weren't being lived", Sean reflects. "We didn’t launch into a strategy to overhaul our revenue first. Our absolute North Star was to fix the culture. We knew business performance would follow if we got that right."
Five years into their journey, the London-listed executive search and talent advisory firm has achieved a historic milestone: securing a Best Companies 3-Star Accreditation, representing ‘world-class’ workplace engagement. It is a striking trajectory from their earlier days, proving that ambitious commercial growth doesn't have to come at the expense of human connection.
Supporting Norman Broadbent’s cultural evolution is a leadership concept known as "Warmth and Edge", which has become an important part of the firm's leadership vocabulary and approach to developing high-performing teams, "Warmth is our humanity, our shared values and how we care for each other", Sean explains. "Edge is about high performance, clear goals, accountability and the consequences of performance. To build a genuinely elite company, these two ideas have to coexist."
Importantly, Sean notes that "Edge" is never about treating people harshly. "Edge means making sure every person understands our strategic direction and exactly how their personal role contributes to it. It provides structure, while warmth provides the soul."
To keep these values authentic, the leadership team intentionally kept them out of rigid performance reviews. Instead, they built them into the natural rhythm of the business, culminating in twice-yearly, peer-nominated Values Awards that celebrate positive behaviours just as heavily as sales performance.
In the executive search and recruitment sectors, professional services firms frequently fall into the trap of over-focusing on sales roles, leaving support functions feeling secondary. Norman Broadbent consciously tore up that blueprint.
When launching Destination 25°, Norman Broadbent's company-wide growth initiative, the firm took a deep dive into every department to ensure complete transparency around its ambitions, priorities and contribution to the journey ahead.
Destination 25° provided a clear direction of travel, aligning every team behind a shared destination and a common understanding of how individual actions contribute to collective success. It was about maintaining focus, driving accountability and ensuring we stayed on course together.
Breaking Down Silos
"We wanted to change the traditional dynamic", says Jordan Clarke, Marketing Director. "It wasn’t just about the fee earners sitting in the spotlight while support functions looked on. We worked hard on our communication to ensure that every function, at every single level, felt genuinely valued as a member of our team and in the direction of our firm."
The strategy paid off spectacularly. Backed by newfound trust in leadership, the business didn't just meet its ambitious metrics; it “smashed” them, delivering the most successful financial year in Norman Broadbent’s history.
As business performance peaked, leadership made sure the financial gains were shared with the workforce. They enhanced terms and conditions, introduced market-leading compensation models, rolled out share-save schemes and improved pension contributions to ensure a Fair Deal for all.
However, Best Companies data highlighted that their team wanted a deeper focus on learning, development and long-term career mapping. The business responded rapidly.
Harriet Williams transitioned from a talent acquisition role into a dedicated Talent, People & Culture Advisor position to own this space.
"We took that feedback and immediately put structure behind it", Harriet notes. "We designed completely transparent job descriptions, mapped out clear progression pathways across all levels and launched an internal 'Lunch and Learn' series alongside mentorship programmes."
The mentoring initiative has been a massive driver for transparency. Jordan, who acts as a mentor to a project coordinator within the firm, emphasises its impact: "Our mentoring sessions focus entirely on short, medium and long-term career goals. It allows us to manage expectations honestly, help people grow as the business scales and show support staff that they have a long-term future here without needing to look outside the business for their next promotion".
Scaling a business globally while keeping a flat, accessible culture is notoriously difficult - a challenge amplified when operating as a publicly listed company (PLC). Due to stock market regulations, sensitive financial data, for example, must be released to the London Stock Exchange before it can be shared internally.
To navigate this and avoid overcommunicating or fracturing their culture across their UK, US, and Middle Eastern offices, Jordan and Harriet completely overhauled their internal communications strategy around four distinct pillars:
With low attrition and a fast-growing headcount, keeping teams bonded meant designing unique social initiatives that catered to everyone. Moving away from highly physical events like the Three Peaks challenge, which didn't appeal to all staff, the firm initiated the "NB Olympics", a year-long, inclusive monthly calendar featuring photography contests, pumpkin carving and local bowling nights.
More recently, the company celebrated its record-breaking year with an overnight spa retreat and seated three-course dinner, with an elaborate, accessible, external Traitors-themed team-building event. "The teams were meticulously chosen so people sat with colleagues they wouldn't normally speak to day-to-day", says Harriet. "It was incredibly fun, highly competitive and open to absolutely every ability."
For Sean, the shift from a fragmented culture to a world-class, 3-Star Best Companies workplace is deeply personal.
"I’ve co-founded businesses before where the connection feels entirely personal. When I came to Norman Broadbent, I wondered if I could ever replicate that feeling of deep, foundational pride", Sean muses.
"But what we’ve achieved here has actually exceeded it. Watching people like Harriet step into her fourth role within the company, seeing our micro-cultures flourish across our global offices, and watching our teams genuinely care about the brand, that is true validation. We aren't changing the world, but we are doing what we do exceptionally well, together."
Sean Buchan – Chief Operating Officer
Sean is the Chief Operating Officer of Norman Broadbent, where he oversees the executive search and interim business while maintaining a hands-on practice leading board-level searches within international energy markets and private equity. With over 20 years of experience in leadership advisory, Sean has a distinguished track record of building market-leading global brands, including co-founding a highly successful international energy search firm. A licensed practitioner in Hogan and Thomas International psychometric assessments, he is deeply passionate about operational excellence and mentoring the next generation of industry talent.
Jordan Clarke – Marketing Director
Jordan serves as the Marketing Director at Norman Broadbent, where he and his team spearhead the firm’s brand strategy, digital platforms, internal and external communications, and high-impact client proposals. Jordan brings a wealth of cross-sector expertise to the role, having developed robust B2B and B2C marketing strategies within the legal and integrated security sectors before joining the firm.
Harriet Williams – Talent, People & Culture Advisor
Harriet is the Talent, People and Culture Advisor at Norman Broadbent, playing a vital role in designing the firm's strategies around employee engagement, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, and learning and development. Demonstrating the internal career progression championed by the business, Harriet originally joined the firm as an Associate. She then took on the Team Lead role for the Research & Insights team before transitioning into her current people-focused role, where she also heads talent acquisition.
