11
A spotlight on Retrofit Support Years ago, whilst other teenagers were “getting tattoos and staying out late”, a 17 year-old Trysh Bing was carrying out weather reports for her home country of Slovakia. Not your typical route to working in the Retrofit Support Team at Elmhurst… but it’s a role she loves!
First of all how did you enter the industry? I’ve always been interested in the environment. In fact, while I was at secondary school I carried out research on climate change in Slovakia; I used weather data gathered from the country’s meteor stations to analyse heatwave trends in the country and find out why they were happening more often. Other teenagers were getting tattoos my thing was weather! After that I studied for a bachelor’s and then later a
master’s degree in Environmental Engineering. I was only supposed to be in the UK for one year but… that didn’t happen! Why did you join Elmhurst? I’ve always wanted to make a change and I’ve always believed that I can. That’s very important to me. I figured that working for Elmhurst, who lead the industry in a lot of respects, would give me the best chance to do that. It also helped that I really liked the friendly and family vibe that the company has. So, to retrofit support! What kind of questions do you get? We get a lot of questions from recently accredited assessors and coordinators asking ‘where do I start?’ Not a lot of people know what the role looks like in practice, so I usually advise them to go to Access Elmhurst and read the technical bulletins we have. Then they can give me a call and we can talk through it - so they know what I’m referring to.
How does the team support retrofit members? We provide all the standard things such as technical bulletins, videos and training but I think the best thing we do is listen and be empathetic. We’re always happy for people to call up and ‘bounce ideas’ off us or just double check that what they’re doing is correct. It’s what we’re here for. For me I take pride in the personal relationships we have with members. I used to work in the Existing Dwelling Support Team so I often talk with a lot of people I’ve previously helped as DEAs, and they’re usually pleased to hear a familiar voice on the phone. Any advice for retrofit members? The best advice for those starting out is to call us and have a chat. It’s why we’re here. We’ll never say “that’s a stupid question, don’t bother me”. We would much rather you ask than doubt yourself, guess and fail an audit. So if you’re unsure, give us a call!
