Happy New Year!
As we enter 2019 and celebrate our 40th year, we look back and reflect on years past and embrace the opportunities ahead, acknowledging and planning for the challenges.
For Wessex Archaeology, 2018 was a year of coming together. Over 100 members of staff joined the organisation, many from outside the UK, and we have drawn colleagues from at least five partner organisations into our projects. As a team we have done an excellent job of integration. We have learned and taught with equal enthusiasm and we have made real progress on improving internal communication. Our engagement work has given communities across the UK the opportunity to look at their own past and to make their own stories. We can be proud that the information they have is as accurate and objective as our best methods allow and that the interpretations we have offered are reasoned and respectful.
Looking to the future
The year ahead will be a turbulent one for the UK in light of Brexit, and we have our part to play in helping to hold communities together and in maintaining our international ties. It is important that we continue to draw attention to the cohesive value of the heritage information we deliver and the positive impact of the experiences we provide to our communities.
For any organisation 40 years marks an impressive milestone, and for Wessex Archaeology we can be proud that our history spans almost the entirety of the modern profession. Our longevity and expansion prove that professional archaeology is sustainable, as a career and as a business.
We have the chance to examine our own story and set a course for the future. Wessex Archaeology’s sustained growth is the result of the passion and expertise of our staff, our continued innovation and the quality of our extensive range of services. Quality is what drives us; both in the delivery of our services to clients and in our dedication to enriching the lives of communities through archaeology. The restorative effects that involvement with archaeology and heritage can bring is something that our clients are feeling emboldened to invest in, and we pride ourselves in offering a pioneering service in this field.
Our goals
Our customers span a diverse range of industries, from construction, utilities, infrastructure, energy and defence to historic charities and trusts. Our goal is to ensure that we continue to listen to their needs and have a clear understanding of their requirements and how we can integrate more closely with their processes. With a commitment to quality and an increasingly diverse capability, we will ensure that they can rely on Wessex Archaeology, trusting us to advise them well and deliver on our promises.
In the delivery of our services, we aim to live and breathe the seven core values that have defined us for 40 years: collaborative behaviour, authenticity and ethics, customer focus, applied knowledge, reliability and resilience, communicating passion and innovative thinking. These benefit our customers, stakeholders, staff and the wider public, and ensure that our contribution to sustainable development is valued for its quality and professionalism.
As a driving force in the sector, we aim to continue developing our technology and expertise. This flexible and innovative approach has contributed to our dominance in the marine and coastal sector, where we continue to retain a 70% market share of offshore projects. Within the wider sector, we will continue to strengthen our market-leading position based on quality, completeness of service offer, capacity and reliability.
For our staff we continue our commitments to training and wellbeing, ensuring that our employees feel safe, valued and fulfilled in their work, as well as being challenged to grow and develop new skills.
Anniversary celebrations
We are rolling out a comprehensive programme of activities and celebrations to mark our 40th year; commemorating our achievements, cultivating new relationships, developing our public benefit remit and ensuring that clients, staff and communities feel the commercial and wellbeing benefits of our work.
Updates and information about the 40th anniversary will be posted on our dedicated 40th anniversary page.
