Studio Life

We are passionate about supporting our employees’ professional development, with regular inspiring and informative CPD sessions forming a strong part of our culture. Design charettes enhance our collective and individual learning and development, and on-the-job learning never stops. We offer mentoring and financial support for those wishing to undertake their P2C, encourage the sharing of knowledge across the practice and ensure there’s enjoyment to be had in the process, including fun plant identification challenges and informative visits to completed project sites.

We strongly believe that diversity nurtures creativity and are proud of our diverse workforce. We host regular internal events to inform and educate each other with compassion and curiosity about the diverse backgrounds, cultures and lives that we all lead. A dedicated Equality & Diversity Working Group helps steer our activities to nurture our welcoming and inclusive working environment, whilst simultaneously looking outwards to see how we can support the EDI agenda outside of the workplace. University outreach, work experience placements and English language training are just some of the activities we undertake to maintain focus on inclusivity within Gillespies and our wider industry.

We are an active group of enthusiastic landscape architects, landscape planners, masterplanners and urban designers, supported by a friendly business support team. We come together socially on a regular basis for engaging events including garden visits, bowling evenings, lunchtime walks, afternoon teas, breakfast runs and our popular studio drawing clubs. We welcome ideas for how we can enjoy the time we spend together and encourage everyone to get involved beyond the annual Christmas gathering and summer party.

Our committed teams work hard for our clients and we want to support them to lead fulfilling and balanced lives where their health and wellbeing remain key priorities. Alongside a refreshing and progressive approach to flexible working (including core hours, hybrid working and the chance to work from abroad each year), we offer a health cashback scheme, employee assistance programs and a wellbeing hub through our life insurance provider.

We like to give back where we can, so everyone is gifted a paid day each year for volunteering. Activities undertaken are varied and include tree planting, clean-ups, running, touch rugby, career days and interview training for sixth form students. We’re proud of our market-leading expertise within our talented team, and encourage our specialists to share that expertise with others. Our expert head of planting combines his role with regular university lecturing whilst contributing to our understanding of plants through his PhD research, and a number of our talented landscape architects are guest and regular lecturers at leading landscape architecture schools across the UK.