HLM Architects is Opening Doors to Diverse Talent

HLM Architects is an employee-owned design practice, operating across six studios in Glasgow, Belfast, Sheffield, Cardiff, Dublin, and London. The business offers a diverse range of services including architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, master planning and sustainable design. Its ‘Thoughtful Design Approach’ balances its ambition to create better places for people with their environmental, social and economic design responsibilities whilst never losing sight of what makes social architecture.  

HLM Architects places a strong emphasis on listening to its people, welcoming ideas from all levels, and shaping solutions together. Innovation is another key driver and one of six strategic business objectives and it has invested in HLMRaD, a space which brings together the best knowledge to innovate, experiment and explore better ways of working, collaborating, designing and constructing. All team members are encouraged to think creatively about how to improve processes, enhance outcomes, and challenge conventional thinking in a way that meets the needs of the communities in which they work.

In 2020, HLM Architects established a Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) Group to foster an inclusive environment, with the aim that everyone feels valued, respected and has a sense of belonging. HLM Architects believes that talent is evenly spread, but opportunity is not.

Traditional architectural education is time-consuming and expensive, and the profession lacks accessibility and diversity. To implement meaningful change, the organisation has been involved in initiatives to diversify its talent pipeline and unlock untapped potential. The organisation allocates 50% of its work experience placements to students from schools in low social mobility areas where students typically face greater socioeconomic barriers that limit their chances of improving life outcomes. This includes the 25 schools identified by the Sheffield Pride of Place Board as part of Sheffield City Council’s unique See it Be it Campaign. The business was also part of a Trailblazer group, an employer-led group that develops new apprenticeship standards for specific job roles within a particular industry. This group developed two apprenticeship standards for Architecture, opening up alternative routes into the profession.

With an ongoing commitment to breaking down barriers for underrepresented groups, it signed up to the Opening Doors campaign in 2025 to explore how and where it could improve. HLM Architects assessed itself against its committed actions under the Five Keys for Inclusive Recruitment framework. The business is currently focused on the following:

Partner with organisations that support disadvantaged groups into work

HLM Architects supports care-experienced young people through its partnership with the Voice & Influence Team from Sheffield City Council. This partnership provided HLM Architects with best-practice guidance and tailored advice to help this group feel supported in their journey into the workplace, focusing on their wellbeing.

“When we were approached by the Voice & Influence Team from Sheffield City Council and asked if we could support a care-experienced young person into work, the answer of course was ‘Yes.’ But we recognised that to ensure the opportunity would be successful, it was important to understand what support structures were available to both of us. This meant asking honest questions about what additional guidance, mentoring or external resources we might need to put in place. We understood that care-experienced young people may face unique challenges when entering the workplace and wanted to be proactive in creating an environment that was not only welcoming, but equipped to support their development and wellbeing. We’ve been working closely with the Voice & Influence Team, who have given us confidence that we’re not alone. We’ve had regular check-ins, tailored advice from a variety of sources and practical guidance from a wide network of amazing support across the city.  In fact, we’re helping the team to create and facilitate an experiential training game for employers, sharing lived experiences, debating solutions and determining together the support that would be beneficial for the candidate before, during and after the recruitment process.” Karen Mosley, Social Impact and Inclusion Director.

Advertise vacancies through a range of channels that target diverse groups

HLM Architects uses an applicant tracking system to monitor applicant data to identify gaps in its reach of underrepresented groups. The Five Keys for Inclusive Recruitment framework also identifies the collection of diversity data at application stage as a key action for hiring diverse talent. The organisation utilised this data to advertise vacancies through multiple channels, such as social media platforms and targeted networks that reach underrepresented groups.

“We’ve invested in an applicant tracking system called Teamtailor. It enables us to advertise vacancies across a wide range of channels, including mainstream job boards, social media platforms and targeted networks that reach underrepresented groups. It also supports a more inclusive hiring process through features like anonymised applications to reduce bias, and its analytics tools will allow us to track the effectiveness of each channel to improve our outreach strategy over time and monitor how candidates from different backgrounds progress through the process. Through the platform we send out a survey to all candidates, helping us to gather demographic information. This helps us identify gaps in our reach.  So far, we’ve sent out 6,300 surveys with a 51% response rate. It’s anonymous, and we’re looking at ways to communicate why we gather this data so more candidates feel comfortable to respond.” Philippa Gould, HR Assistant.

Provide training on inclusive recruitment and ensure employees understand your commitment to inclusive recruitment

HLM Architects recognises that there is more work to be done in providing training on inclusive recruitment. The organisation plans to leverage guidance from Business in the Community (BITC) toolkits to implement this training, ensuring that employees are informed on practices such as recognising bias, fair and inclusive interviewing, and emphasising the importance of the role of hiring managers in the recruitment process.

“We share guidance and toolkits with recruiting teams and ensure interviewing panels are diverse, but we recognise we can go further. Currently, there is no formal training programme in place, and we’ve identified this as a gap we are keen to address.  As part of our Opening Doors commitment, we will be providing structured, practical training for employees involved in recruitment. Pulling in the guidance from the BITC toolkits, we’ll be covering understanding biases, inclusive job design and advertising, fair and inclusive interviewing and feedback, advance questions and accessibility needs, inclusive decision making and the role as a hiring manager.” Lucy-Mae Richards, HR Co-ordinator.

How has Opening Doors helped?

 “Opening Doors is providing us with a practical framework to help us improve how we attract, recruit and support candidates and is helping us to take active steps to make our processes fairer, more transparent and inclusive.”  Jill Fedyk, Associate – HR.

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