Our Culture

The Harris Way: How We Work Together

At Harris, our culture is built on our Shared Values—the principles that shape how we treat each other, serve our clients, and contribute to our communities. We’re an employee-owned firm, which means every person here has a stake in what we build and how we build it.

Our culture isn’t a poster on the wall. It’s how we show up for one another every day: by developing and exhibiting trust, working smarter together, investing in our people, thinking and acting inclusively, and modeling the Harris Way. These values guide our decisions, our partnerships, and the kind of workplace we’re committed to creating.

Bringing together a wide range of life experiences, perspectives, and expertise is how we achieve our Purpose: to build equitable, resilient, and sustainable communities. From supporting programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to fostering a workplace where everyone has the opportunity to reach their highest potential, our culture is what enables us to be trusted advisors to the communities we serve.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

We Embrace Differences

Our diversity of ideas, viewpoints, and backgrounds leads to innovative solutions for our clients and enriching experiences for our employee owners. Different perspectives don’t just make us a better workplace—they make us better engineers, planners, and advisors.

We Promote Equal Access and Opportunity

Fairness in career advancement, professional development, and access to opportunities is what enables our employee owners to do their best work and thrive. When people can grow, the whole firm grows with them.

“Harris is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that empowers everyone to reach their highest potential.”

— Maya Strawick, Vice President / Talent Management & Human Resources

We Create a Sense of Belonging

Including each person’s perspective and all voices is vital to our success. We aim to cultivate a workplace where each individual knows their authentic self is welcome, celebrated, and encouraged—because we need everyone to bring their best ideas to work.

“Our Shared Values guide everything Harris does. We seek to elicit, understand, and include a wide range of perspectives to achieve our goals. This approach enables us to deliver the best results and the most comprehensive solutions for our clients and for the communities we serve.”

— Michelle White, Chief Executive Officer / President

“By living our Shared Values, we can be better trusted advisors for our clients. The future depends on more holistic and sustainable solutions to our clients’ challenges, and the only way to create those better solutions is to foster an environment where we can readily share different perspectives, ideas, and approaches. This is a mindset that is being embedded into the fabric of the firm rather than an ephemeral initiative. We have a way to go here at Harris, in the industry, and in society overall, but change starts at home. I am proud of our commitment to these principles in our Shared Values and see them in action each and every day.”

— Lisa Larrabee, Chair of the Board of Directors

We Lead with Empathy

Respectful listening is a big part of our collective approach. Through focus groups, surveys, and interactive educational forums, we seek to better understand one another—and turn insight into action.

“It’s one thing to talk about inclusion in our workplaces, but the fact that we’re taking action and putting resources toward living our Shared Values for Harris and for our communities at large makes me proud.”

— Ryan Binns, Vice President / Environmental Planning + Compliance

We Continuously Improve

Recognizing there is always more to achieve, we remain committed to continuous learning and improvement. Each day we make progress, but we’re not there yet. We’ll keep asking hard questions, seeking to understand, and making thoughtful choices in our ongoing journey.

“As a technical editor, I look forward to learning and helping educate others about how the way we communicate on an everyday basis may be unintentionally harmful, and about the proven effectiveness of using inclusive, bias-free language instead.”

— Lindsey Messner, Technical Editor / Environmental Planning + Compliance

Connecting Through Our Employee Community Networks

A big part of our culture is making space for our people to connect, share information, and engage with one another around work, projects, and common interests. Our Employee Community Networks (ECNs) bring employees together to enhance communication, collaboration, and awareness—creating a welcoming space that supports growth and allyship, and reinforcing the inclusive culture our Shared Values call for.

All ECNs are open to every Harris employee.