HUMAN CAPITAL ADVISOR BRIEFING · ISSUE 9 · SEPTEMBER 2026
A monthly briefing for consultants and transformation advisers on what's happening in your clients' sectors, plus the Human Capital Intelligence (culture, workforce and talent) to take into the room. Built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Construction clients are being asked to hire and cut at the same time. Balfour Beatty plans 2,000 UK hires on the back of energy work, while the August PMI marked a 20th month of contraction and official data showed construction jobs falling. Our data adds the people picture: only two of six Top 100 contractors and service groups improved their culture in 2025, leadership sentiment fell furthest, and the skills needed to land change are unevenly spread. That is where advisers can add value.
Phil Spratt, CEO & Co-Founder, Deltabase
What happened: On 23 September, Balfour Beatty said it plans to grow its UK workforce from about 14,000 to 16,000 by the end of 2027, with about half of the new roles coming through apprenticeships, graduate schemes and other early-career routes. Energy is the main driver, with UK Power Transmission revenue up 24% in the first half.
The Deltabase lens: Balfour Beatty's own NSS fell from −6.5% to −11.2% in 2025 (211 reviews), and its Learning & Development score slipped from +52.4% to +42.9%, just as it leans on early-career hiring. Deltabase Employee Turnover data puts its median tenure at 6.5 years, so new joiners will depend on an experienced core for training and supervision.
Client angle: Fast early-career growth raises the bar for training and line management. Clients planning similar expansion should benchmark both first.
What happened: The S&P Global UK Construction PMI fell to 44.3 in August from 44.7, a 20th consecutive month of contraction, led by weak housebuilding. Firms cut jobs, though at the slowest pace since September 2025.
The Deltabase lens: Median employee NSS across six Engineering & Construction Top 100 contractors and service groups fell from +5.5% in 2024 to −5.4% in 2025. Deltabase Talent data shows how unevenly change capability is spread: change management skills sit with 5.3% of Kier's workforce but 2.7% of Mitie's, and project management with 15.9% against 4.3%.
Client angle: Low client confidence makes cost programmes likely. The cultural starting point is already weak, so check in-house change skills before deciding how much delivery support a programme needs.
What happened: ONS reported 36.7 million workforce jobs in June 2026, with construction among the largest quarterly falls, down 23,000, mainly in self-employment. Vacancies fell to 702,000, the lowest since early 2021.
The Deltabase lens: Supportive Leadership is the sector's weak spot: median NSS across the six fell from −20.0% to −30.2% in 2025, and only one, Kier, improved. Deltabase Workforce data shows the span challenge at a large service group: operational managers make up 5.1% of Mitie's workforce, and 41.4% of its engineering, maintenance and facilities staff are entry level.
Client angle: Where clients rely on subcontracted, self-employed or junior labour, leadership quality on site matters more, not less.
2 of 6: Engineering & Construction Top 100 contractors and service groups whose employee NSS improved in 2025; the median fell from +5.5% to −5.4%.
| Company | Culture: NSS 2025 | Change vs 2024 | Median tenure (years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kier Group | +11.2% | +4.8 pts | 6.1 |
| Vinci | +4.5% | −0.1 pts | 5.2 |
| Babcock International | +0.4% | −8.3 pts | 5.7 |
| Balfour Beatty | −11.2% | −4.7 pts | 6.5 |
| Mitie Group | −13.4% | −22.1 pts | 4.5 |
| Amey | −14.1% | +7.3 pts | 7.6 |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024–2025; Deltabase Employee Turnover data, median tenure. Median of Amey, Babcock International, Balfour Beatty, Kier Group, Mitie Group and Vinci.
Two UK service-led groups heading in opposite directions. Kier's NSS rose from +6.4% to +11.2% in 2025 (148 reviews), the best in our set, with Supportive Leadership turning positive at +5.0% and Learning & Development up from +46.2% to +57.9%. Mitie fell furthest, from +8.7% to −13.4% (394 reviews), with Supportive Leadership at −31.7% and Learning & Development down from +34.6% to +10.5%. The talent mix differs too: 11.4% of Kier's workforce list L&D skills and 15.9% project management, against 6.6% and 4.3% at Mitie. Median tenure is 6.1 years at Kier and 4.5 at Mitie. At Kier, the question is how to scale what works; at Mitie, how to rebuild line leadership across a large frontline.
Walk into every pitch with the people data already in hand. Advisers use Deltabase to benchmark culture, talent and workforce trends for any client or target in minutes. See how it works →
Sources: Sharecast via Hargreaves Lansdown (23 September 2026); Reuters (4 September 2026); ONS, Vacancies and jobs in the UK (15 September 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.