business matters

Developing skilled staff in an SME

Like most organisations our success is based on the skills and expertise of our team. Keeping those skills and knowledge up to date and relevant is a key priority for our business.

Nigel Hall

Director, Premier Energy Services

As a Utility Consultancy, Premier Energy operates across two challenging and complex industries, the construction and utilities sectors. Even without the contribution from the pandemic both sectors are undergoing significant change. For our business this means keeping up to speed on legislative, technological, and societal changes, requiring the business to adopt a dynamic and nimble approach.

One of our challenges is that there is very little ‘formal’ training that covers the combined breadth of our two sectors. For example, whilst there are numerous courses and programmes for electrical engineers, mechanical engineers or communications technicians, our business requires staff that have expertise and knowledge in all areas.

Not all development has to be linked directly to structured training or academic studies. Whilst we continue to promote and sponsor both formal qualifications and professional registration, we have also focused on activities that increase our knowledge and help us to stay abreast of new developments in our industries. Here are some of the things we do that help us develop our skills and expertise as a business:

Stakeholders groups – We have seen a shift over recent years where most regulated utility companies are having to embrace effective stakeholder management. For some it directly impacts their turnover with the various pricing regimes, offering financial incentives to the companies that are performing well in this area.

We have taken the opportunity to engage in many of the stakeholder groups set up by utility companies. This allows us early insight into proposals, and a fair chance to discuss impacts and concerns of proposed changes. These can range from changes to the commercial charging arrangements, to the introduction of technical innovations. It is an extremely effective and efficient way to stay informed.

Advisory Groups – Being active in groups responsible for key policies at either regional or national level is also an important mechanism to gain knowledge. We are active in, and co-sponsors of, the group leading the development of the standards that apply to the identification of underground utility apparatus. This is something of critical importance for risk management in the construction industry.

We are also active in the group reviewing gas safety, which is under review following recent well publicised incidents. This not only allows us to contribute our knowledge but allows us to understand the emerging thinking and changes that are likely to result, and provides us with the opportunity to be best placed to advise our clients on emerging strategies likely to impact their business.

Technical workshops – At Premier Energy we bring in subject matter experts to present and discuss the emerging technical changes and innovations. We choose a relevant subject and approach experts from our broad range of contacts to join us in a workshop environment to inform and debate the issues. All of our technical and senior staff are involved, and success can be measured in the full attendance we see at these sessions. This approach has recently allowed us to gain insight into;

The development of heat pumps as a primary heating mechanism in new builds The impact of the electrification of transport and roll-out of electric vehicles The pressure on water resources The development of fibre communication & data networks

There is no value in promoting the skills and experience across the business if this only resides in a small proportion of the workforce, and we know from experience that not everyone can coach and train effectively, meaning knowledge transfer can be problematic.

We have recently embarked on a bespoke mentoring training programme for our Leadership team. This has been designed to make the career development of our future leaders and consultants an area of business focus.

My background in the largest UK electricity network company provided access to significant training and development resources – with a workforce of over 6,000 there was always someone to ask with expertise.

Training programmes could be developed for large cohorts and bespoke training was affordable when evaluated on a per head basis. But life in an SME is different and has meant adopting a unique approach, and this article provides a bit of practical insight of how we have addressed this challenge.

With 40 years’ experience in the Utility Industry Nigel is a Director at Premier Energy Services with a passion for Training & Development.