Our Culture and Core Values

Headland Archaeology is a privately-owned company. It was founded to deliver profitable archaeological work to the highest standard. We are respected within the industry for successfully balancing the cultures of business and heritage, and we lead from the front, encouraging innovation and excellence in all aspects of our work.

Our Culture and Philosophy

Archaeology – our subject – interesting work done well

Headland contributes to archaeology through a combination of academic strength and a professional, business-like approach. We contribute to the advancement of archaeological knowledge and communicate our results in innovative and accessible ways.

Business – our clients – addressing their needs

We are a business and our clients’ needs come first. However, we believe it’s in our clients’ interests to engage in high quality archaeological work, which minimises delays, creates community engagement and achieves planning consent. Our job is to offer strategic and tactical advice to minimise your archaeological risk, and provide best-practice, imaginative and cost-effective solutions.

Careers – our staff – investing in potential

Headland benefits from employing talented individuals who share the company’s values and vision. We place a strong emphasis on job satisfaction and training within a culture of taking responsibility. With our support, we expect people to take full ownership of their personal development, improving their profile and expertise within the company and the profession. We are keen to acknowledge commitment and achievement and to develop careers based on merit and potential.

Our Core Values

1. Our people are at the heart of great customer service

Everyone at Headland is responsible for making sure our clients receive the best possible service, both in the office and on-site.

We have built a team which combines archaeological knowledge, individual specialisms, project experience and management skills so that we can always match the right people to the right jobs.

We work hard to create an environment where our people feel valued, respected and motivated and enjoy what they do. We invest in training and development and  give everyone the opportunity, the encouragement and the support to do a great job and deliver the highest quality customer service.

2. We understand our clients

Whatever sector they are in, we make it our business to understand our clients’ businesses, how they work, what is important to them and what they really need. 

We listen to our clients, we question them and we are not afraid to challenge them. That way, we can deliver a service which is absolutely right for them.

We value our clients, so we invest in building strong relationships with them.

3. We meet our clients' expectations

We work in partnership with our clients to create a project design which gives them exactly what they need,  and  that the work we do is entirely relevant to their objectives.

We want to make the experience of working with Headland an easy and enjoyable one, so we aim to get it right first time, every time – on time and on budget. If we don’t, we’ll explain why and do our best to turn things around.

We believe in dealing openly and honestly with our clients and always taking the time to explain how we work and why we work the way we do.

If we encounter obstacles or challenges along the way, we’ll work with our clients to overcome these and find the right solution for the problem.

4. Good communication is vital

We communicate with our clients at key stages of every project, checking progress and encouraging them to ask questions or raise any issues with us. We do the same with our colleagues so that everyone in the project team knows what’s going on.

We believe in complete transparency and telling it straight, and we expect the same from our clients.

Our teams are fully briefed at the start of every project, so that everyone involved understands exactly what the client needs. Every member of the team is responsible for communicating effectively with client contacts and colleagues throughout a project.

We understand and respect client confidentialities and sensitivities.

5. We aim to be the best at what we do

We work to the highest professional standards and we won’t compromise on these.

We are committed to continuous improvement so that we can all keep challenging, learning and developing.

We understand and believe in the value of what we do.

We lead by example, working with our clients, our industry and partners to improve things for the better.