March 2023
Tony Underwood
Applying rugby teamwork principles to businesss
Paul de Kock
Explaining the many positive impacts of ESG
Michelle Connolly
Encouraging over 50s to return to the workplace
Paul Smerdon
Continuing journey of raising FM standards
Mutual support for colleagues and clients embedded in company culture
Must provide a resilient two-way emergency communication connection to their lifts.
Fibre landlines will fail in the event of a mains power failure! RESILIENT
PRO
MANAGEMENT
Having distorted the original business phrase in the heading above, I thought it would be best to explain the intention and the reasons behind this. Perhaps the best place to start is by explaining that the original phrase, ‘If you build it, he will come’ was used in the Field of Dreams film, which saw actor Kevin Costner play the character of a farmer who built a baseball field on his land. I’ve adapted this to form a question, to which I’ll now aim to provide the answer.
Having organised the first FM Business Daily roundtable event in January, we’ve received a steady stream of enquiries from potential sponsors of more of these events. Earlier this month saw our second, held at the Huddersfield showroom of D3 Office Supplies, with both events attended by a mixture of client-side FMs and industry service providers.
Our next will be in May and will be followed by others in June, September and late November or early December, with another booked for the first quarter of 2024. Having organised these events for every title I’ve edited over the last 20 years, I’m very happy to report that this level of response far exceeds anything experienced to date.
From September onwards, the FM Business Daily roundtables will be held in Birmingham and Manchester, leading us to organise the event booked in 2024 at a location in Scotland. Not only will staging events in these locations further emphasise the strength and depth of the FM sector, but it will also support our major theme of promoting the long list of benefits provided by our industry.
There will, of course, be much more information about the announcements above, which have been made to whet everyone’s whistle as we begin the task of recruiting attendees. As with everything within FM Business Daily, all our live events will be designed to attract senior business leaders from all areas of FM and share their thoughts with our extensive list of 220,000 contacts.
Depending on the levels of response to these, we will consider the option of extending them into larger events to allow more industry representatives to enjoy the long list of benefits that come from meeting, engaging with and listening to other senior people.
Readers wishing to gain further insight into how these events will be structured are invited to read the latest issue of FM Director, which once again provides a wealth of content. Personal interviews with industry leaders, case studies of major facilities, opinion pieces from experienced industry senior representatives and main features on important topics are all included in this month’s issue. Having promised to answer the question posed in the headline, ‘When we build it, will they come?’, my response would be, ‘Yes, of course, why wouldn’t they?’.
representatives and main features on important topics are all included in this month’s issue. Having promised to answer the question posed in the headline, ‘When we build it, will they come?’, my
From September onwards, the FM Business Daily roundtables will be held in Birmingham and Manchester, leading us to organise the event booked in 2024 at a location in Scotland
DENNIS FLOWER MANAGING EDITOR
Chris Wisely explains the ethos and culture behind the efforts of Atlas FM to support colleagues and clients to gain loyalty and mutual respect
The Saïd Business School continues to raise its levels of sustainability through the application of best-practice FM strategies
FMs tasked with outsourcing security requirements will have noted how service providers have evolved to offer a range of professional solutions
Close working with contractors and the estate management team is leading to savings and improved service delivery throughout the worldfamous rugby facility
YorPower began 2023 with a project that not only made full use of its capabilities as a national and international provider of back-up power solutions, but also underlined its environmental credentials
Following the publication of Pinnacle Group’s flagship ESG impact report, head of projects Paul de Kock explains that stakeholder support and strong data have been key to its success
PTSG is one of Europe’s leading providers of specialist services to the construction and FM sectors. It was formed in 2007 with a handful of people and a vision to deliver the full range of specialist building services from ‘under one roof’.
Many FMs regard risk assessments as necessary evils to be completed as quickly as possible, but industry experts say these can be approached in different ways to improve results
BCIA YEN chair Greg Smith and vice chair Abbie Bewley explain the formation and future aims of the recently-created group
Discussing the challenges and advantages of developing best practice modern working processes
Having successfully completed its London exhibition, The Cleaning Show is now preparing for a return to Manchester in 2024
All members of the supply chain will need to work in close cooperation to support everyone in achieving net zero carbon emissions
Adam Brindle explains why the race to the bottom in grounds maintenance is bad for sites and bad for business
Recruitment potential shown for those taking early retirement at the start of the pandemic to address long-term skills shortage issues, write 300 North co-founder and director Michelle Connolly and marketing manager Emma Thornton
Most know him as a decorated Rugby Union star. Now, British Lion and former commercial pilot Tony Underwood is seeking to make the world a fairer, more sustainable place with ESG and Carbon Management specialist Achilles Information
Paul Smerdon explains how his recent academic success is leading to better conversations with colleagues and clients and increased confidence in the workplace
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The views expressed in the
reflect the author’s opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher and editor. The published material, adverts, editorials and all other content is published in good faith.
Chris Wisely explains the ethos and culture behind the efforts of Atlas FM to support colleagues and clients to gain loyalty and mutual respect
When discussing the career paths of FM professionals, one of the common denominators is that everyone appears to arrive in the industry by a different route. During his recent exclusive interview with FM Director, Atlas group managing director Chris Wisely states that he came to the industry after training as an accountant.
“I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and become an accountant. When you go in at the entry level of accountancy you find yourself involved in completing audits, validating the financial aspects of the business,” he begins.
This meant he would spend around three weeks with each business and, in addition to meeting some very interesting people, he found that meaningful relationships would begin to be formed before he moved to the next business. In order to further his career within a single organisation, Mr Wisely moved to Capcon Limited, which provided audit and investigation services to the entertainment and leisure sector.
After an acquisition which expanded services into maritime security and working with ports, shipping operators and ferry companies, the company purchased Capital Security Services. “It was a distressed business with approximately £15m of turnover, and was based in Woodford, Essex,” he continues. Mr Wisely was soon promoted to the role of management accountant.
“The business grew very quickly and I remember very vividly the challenges of the company expanding so rapidly, including all the various elements of that in funding and managing significant numbers of people onboarding and the payroll and invoicing challenges.”
He recalls that his involvement with the business led to an appreciation of the need for attention to detail to both support the company and its people and work more closely with clients. This included operational and strategic reviews outside of his financial responsibilities. Mr Wisely describes these as the first steps that led to higher levels of involvement with the company’s senior management team to assist with its business strategy.
“I was only in my late 20s at the time and presenting to the board with thoughts on how it could become a better business,” he continues. “This was the first time I became aware of a desire, at some point, to break away from my finance shackles and become more involved with the wider managing of the company.”
His next role as finance director of Temple Security, which he joined in 1999, provided the scope to increase his areas of responsibility. This is when he first began working with Nick Earley and Ray Empson, the founders of Atlas, who had acquired Temple a year earlier. The company enjoyed considerable growth from £2m to £24m through a blend of contract wins and acquisitions.
In our organisation people are happy to share their challenges and mistakes because they know it’s going to lead to a positive solution
“Following a series of approaches, in 2009 the owners accepted an offer from Axis,” says Mr Wisely, “and I became its finance director.
“Over the next two or three years we were able to get the team to operate at a really high level in terms of financial reporting, debt collection, etc. I was regularly attending board meetings and it became increasingly obvious I was interested in all areas of the business, which led to me becoming head of operations in 2012.”
This was followed by promotion to the role of managing director in 2014 and Mr Wisely states that his rise in seniority proved to be the point where he found increasingly higher levels of job satisfaction.
“We built a good team and brought a number of experienced people together and we grew from a turnover of around £30m to £65m,” he continues.
This then led Mr Wisely to look at the broader FM industry – an opportunity initially provided by the cleaning side of the Axis service proposition.
When it became clear that his desire to further extend his involvement in additional aspects of the business would not be possible at that point, he accepted an invitation to join Churchill Contract Services, where he remained for a year.
At the end of 2016, Mr Wisely enjoyed a short break prior to joining his current employer, Atlas.
“I felt that everything I’d done in the past before that had just worked and looking back, I now consider that break to be the most important in my career. It gave me the chance to reflect on what’s important to me as an individual and created a whole load of humility that had maybe not been present before,” he continues.
This period allowed him to increase his research on company culture and development. Mr Wisely had additionally continued to maintain his relationship with the owners of Atlas, Ray Empson and Nick Earley, resulting in him joining as managing director of its cleaning business in early 2017.
“I’d attended a number of interviews with large FM service providers but felt it would not be possible to have any significant influence on their culture or the practical elements of a big corporate,” he says.
Atlas had expanded its turnover to around £40m at the time through organic growth and the strategic acquisition of other smaller businesses. “It felt good and I felt like I’d come home. I’d spent the formative years of my career with Ray and Nick learning from them, having completed a few acquisitions and learning how to facilitate business growth.”
Mr Wisely explains that his previous experience and extensive research were put to good use in discussions with the company owners to create a strategy for growth.
We’re absolutely determined to not forget that this is a people busines
This included the acquisition of other FM businesses, including Emprise in 2017 – which would prove to be a significant platform to build on.
“In the case of Emprise, we inherited some brilliant people. After winning hearts and minds and settling everyone down, it was a case of retaining the quality and keeping the clients on board. Focusing on people is the key to a successful acquisition,” says Mr Wisely.
These acquisitions improved Atlas’ ability to secure contracts with high-profile companies. Included in the list cited by Mr Wisely are names such as The British Library, David Lloyd, Hilton Hotels and others.
“The perception of the abilities of the business changed with our interaction with these recognised organisations. This led to us winning £15m of contracts in the 12 months before the COVID pandemic,” he states.
Good business culture
Mr Wisely recalls his reaction to the opposite experience as millions of pounds of contracts were suspended during the first weeks of the UK lockdown in March 2020. “I vividly recall organising a Teams call with Ray and Nick to update them. They could see I was struggling because I felt so much for them, as they had built the business over the previous 34 years,” he says.
“But in that moment, all they wanted to do was to make me feel better and it really emphasised my belief in the strength of having good business culture and strong relationships. It said so much about us as a family business, they were able to see beyond what they were going through and I think that’s an incredible thing.”
Although the start of the pandemic created a lot of uncertainty for the majority of businesses, including Atlas, Mr Wisely states that its wide range of clients saw many continuing to require its services. This was further assisted with the winning of a £22m contract with HM Courts & Tribunals Service and, although it initially involved organising 200 cleaners to work at various sites at short notice, it quickly grew to a requirement for 750 cleaners as the client responded to the changing nature of safety in its facilities.
He describes the public sector contract as an important factor in keeping the business operating at a good level until the market began to improve.
As the UK emerged from the pandemic, one of the opportunities resulting from this was for the company to increase its service offering to become a TFM provider. Having considered a number of hard service supplier businesses, the best match of culture and quality was deemed to be through the acquisition of the Salisbury Group, which was completed in March last year.
“All our acquisitions are about the values and people in the business, regardless of all the other aspects and potential advantages purchasing that company could bring,” he continues. “They have to be a good fit and we could see that Salisbury’s approach and strong culture and values would match very well with ours.”
With 4,000 clients currently working with Atlas, Mr Wisely states that there are numerous opportunities for extending existing contracts to include more services.
The team quickly identified the most prominent of these, and many of those had been converted at the start of the year. This is in addition to winning new TFM contracts that were in the negotiation stage at the time of the interview, with more success expected in the months ahead.
“We’re finding there’s a real desire from clients wanting to work with an organisation like ours that can offer a lot of flexibility and work in a genuine partnership. We completed six acquisitions last year, including Salisbury, and that’s continuing to provide even more opportunities for us,” he says.
Atlas currently employs approximately 10,000 people and, despite the impact of COVID, has recorded significant growth over the last five years with the figure now at a turnover of £200m.
“While we’ve been financially successful, which has been excellent, we’re now focusing on why we do what we do,” Mr Wisely continues. “What we’re now aiming for is to maintain the loyalty of our clients, because if we do that the numbers will take care of themselves.
We’re finding there’s a real desire from clients wanting to work with an organisation like ours that can offer a lot of flexibility and work in a genuine partnership
“We’re absolutely determined to not forget that this is a people business. You can see a few companies that simply focus on making money but we’re looking to establish a framework that better emphasises that we’re all a part of the Atlas family.”
Having created a small steering group of colleagues, 15 types of behaviour have been identified as the most important to encourage within the business. The group has additionally reached out to all employees to discover what is most important to them.
“What came through so strongly was that two of the top three points were all about happiness and enjoying work,” says Mr Wisely. He further states that this relates to all areas of the company, including his relationship with its owners and the company’s connection with its clients, who frequently state that their meetings with Atlas are the most enjoyable.
“There’s a really good atmosphere in those meetings and that often includes a lot of laughter, but they’re still professional and we get all the things done that we need to.”
He further states that the relationship between Atlas and its employees is one of the most important overriding factors and this has led to its efforts to ensure that everyone is happy in their day-to-day work. “We’re a people business and what greater responsibility can we have than ensuring all our people are happy, because to deliver loyalty you have to start with making everyone happy.”
Atlas focuses on the happiness of all those working for the company; this can then be cascaded throughout its relationships with clients and industry partners. Mr Wisely adds that he has learned that the best way to boost his own happiness is to make someone else smile and uses this to explain the importance of focusing on the emotional wellbeing of colleagues and others.
“When we first started speaking to staff about why they were in FM, at the heart of this it became clear that those who had been in the industry for some time enjoyed looking after other people. They take joy from delivering a positive emotional impact on others,” he says.
The company’s initial focus on emotional wellbeing is a central thread, while all systems and processes continue to be invested in to support its efforts be an outstanding business, Mr Wisely continues. He explains how this has led to the creation of an excellent problem-solving approach, to allow everyone to find the best solution.
This serves to encourage colleagues to highlight opportunities, with the knowledge that these call-outs will be used to make improvements and put long-term solutions in place. In addition to improving the emotional wellbeing of staff and levels of service delivery for clients, this is another aspect that both benefits from and contributes further to the company’s culture.
“I think in many organisations where the culture isn’t so good, people are terrified of making mistakes for a number of reasons,” he continues. “Whereas in our organisation people are happy to share their challenges and mistakes because they know it’s going to lead to a positive solution.
“If we get this right, through the lens of purpose and values, it unlocks the opportunity to have a better relationship with the client. We are constantly thinking about service, relationship, trust and loyalty,” he says.
Mr Wisely states that creating a positive business culture has resulted in him not needing to focus as much on company finances. In addition to encouraging more clients to continue their relationship with the business, low staff turnover also means less outlay on recruitment services and improved levels of continuity.
Another development within this has been the creation of the head of stories role, which requires the incumbent to speak to colleagues and clients and share examples of best practice. These are then used to show the benefits and encourage everyone to embrace the Atlas culture, while additionally continuing to assist the positive development of the business.
“All our account managers have a lot of site-based people working for them and it’s not possible for them to spend hours of their time talking to everyone to make sure they feel happy and well supported, although we encourage them to speak to everyone whenever they can. We think that the best way to communicate with the thousands of our site-based colleagues is to use technology and we’re developing an app that will be available to everyone,” he continues.
“We’re not doing this to help win contracts, we’re doing it to help all our colleagues to feel part of the Atlas family,” says Mr Wisely. “Having said that, it’s very likely that our clients will like what we’re doing and it may even lead to new business, but that’s not the underlying purpose.”
With more acquisitions being considered, combined with the many opportunities emerging for organic growth since the company achieved its TFM position last year, it seems highly likely that staff numbers will rise further in the years ahead. Mr Wisely is determined that Atlas will maintain its focus on providing a topquality service, delivered by staff who feel happy and supported, and he states that more of his time will be spent explaining the benefits of this to its growing list of customers.
While we’ve been financially successful, which has been excellent, we’re now focusing on why we do what we do
The Saïd Business School continues to raise its levels of sustainability through the application of best-practice FM strategies
Having joined the Saïd Business School in central Oxford just over three years ago, director of estates Ian Downie has devoted considerable effort in working with his team and service providers that has seen the facilities under his management upgraded to enhance the overall student experience.
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, Mr Downie states that he recognises the need to continue to reassess and improve the management and operation of the buildings under his jurisdiction. As such, he has implemented several modifications to align with the latest health and safety regulations and create a safe and comfortable environment for students and staff alike. These changes include improved cleaning and sanitisation protocols, enhanced levels of air quality and the introduction of contactless access systems. He has also implemented a range of measures to ensure that all the Saïd Business School facilities are well-maintained and that students and staff have access to the necessary support and services.
Mr Downie is confident that these changes will help to ensure that his buildings remain attractive to staff and students and that they will continue to be a safe and comfortable place to study and work. He believes that the pandemic has provided an opportunity to review and improve the way his buildings are managed and operated, and that these changes will help to ensure that the school’s facilities remain compliant and attractive to all.
“My background in retail, working for John Lewis, has proved to be really helpful in making the changes
required to get everything up to speed in the most important areas,” he says.
Any reader who has attempted to alter wellestablished practices will understand the challenges and successes experienced by Mr Downie. His primary goal remains to prioritise the needs of students – the business school’s customers - in all operations and future plans.
“We have implemented a unified approach to our estates teams, meaning that our external service providers are treated the same as our internal personnel. The pandemic has enabled us to improve our estate management by re-examining our relationship with our service providers,” he continues.
Following discussions with the team, it was agreed that alternative tasks would be added to the job roles of the school’s contract catering staff, who are employed by BaxterStorey and work full-time at Oxford Saïd, when reduced levels of activity and on-site attendance resulted from the conditions emerging from the pandemic.
Opened in 2001 following a generous grant from businessman and philanthropist Wafic Saïd
Constructed on the former Rewley Road railway station site
This was also the site of Rewley Abbey in the medieval period
The abbey was a centre of learning for Cistercian monks and highly relevant to the business school of today Egrove Park provides the conference centre and executive learning aspects of the school
This will be closed when the Global Conference Centre opens in 2025
The pandemic has enabled us to improve our estate management by re-examining our relationship with our service providers
This led to a number of people avoiding furlough, as they took on tasks like painting the school’s car park and helping to finish risk assessments around the estate. “We did this with everyone’s input and it worked out really well,” he says.
Mr Downie has implemented a range of initiatives to enhance the operational efficiency and compliance of the school estate, including the installation of LED lighting and the integration of energy management and automated food ordering technology. These measures have resulted in a decrease in energy consumption and carbon emissions, as well as improved service, support and engagement for students.
With investigations ongoing to identify the best options to deliver further improvements and efficiencies in future, these are likely to include improved access and security, including reducing the need for keys and increased use of contactless technology, which will be included in more use of ‘smart’ technology across the school.
After navigating the challenges presented by the pandemic and facilitating the school’s return to normal operations, Mr Downie has embarked on a significant new endeavour: overseeing the redevelopment of the former Osney Power Station. This historic site, situated alongside the river Thames as it flows through Oxford, will be transformed into Oxford Saïd’s state-of-the-art Global Leadership Centre.
Upon its opening in 2025, the new facility will replace the school’s current facility at Egrove Park and providing double the existing capacity, while also offering enhanced conference and meeting spaces tailored to both in-person and virtual educational learning.
The renovation plan will preserve the Grade II-listed Victorian facade, with major renovations undertaken to create a modern, efficient, and sustainable facility. A primary consideration in the design process has been the preservation of the main structure’s architectural integrity.
Attention to detail will be paramount in creating a sustainable and efficient facility and Mr Downie states that he and the leadership team are fully committed to achieving this goal. The new centre promises to be an innovative and world-class facility that will position Oxford Saïd as a leader in global education and research.
“It’s also in a residential area, so we have to ensure we consider how we organise the arrival and departure of visitors, as well as deliveries and collections to the site,” he says. In addition to considering the needs of staff, students and local residents, he is continuing to discuss the options of complying with the Oxford congestion zone when it comes into effect.
The comprehensive list of responsibilities that Mr Downie oversees as within his role underscores the diverse nature of the role, with many FMs citing the broad scope of their work as a source of job satisfaction. In his current capacity, Mr Downie is responsible for a multitude of functions including security, reception, housekeeping, customised cleaning, catering, health and safety, sustainability, and grounds maintenance.
Additionally, construction and other projects add further complexity to his role.
Despite the demands of this multifaceted position, Mr Downie approaches his duties with a steadfast commitment to excellence, continuously striving to improve the student and faculty experience while ensuring the school’s facilities remain sustainable, efficient, and safe. His leadership and expertise are integral to the smooth operation of school and serve to further emphasise the importance of effective FM best practice delivery.
“We have in-house people and we’ve also established a one-team approach of working with our service providers, which means I’m responsible for nearly 100 staff members, including contractors. We’re also considering how many more staff we’ll need to recruit, as well as locating additional storage areas, when the new Global Leadership Centre goes live,” he says.
FMs tasked with outsourcing security requirements will have noted how service providers have evolved to offer a range of professional solutions
One of the most impressive aspects of the wide-ranging FM industry is the speed with which it has adapted to the challenges and emerging opportunities over the last three years.
In addition to all the well-publicised and frequently covered events, including the coronavirus pandemic, supply chain and recruitment issues, rising inflation and others, the march of technology has added another dimension. When looking at the topic of security in particular, it is noticeable that many service providers have embraced the changing requirements and improved service delivery as a result, while also increasing professionalism throughout their organisations.
FM Director asked a number of security sector experts for their thoughts on how organisations have developed, with the first insights provided by SGS security excellence and projects director Rob Whiffing. He states that the sector has always been dynamic, but in recent years, security providers have adapted to a number of unusual challenges.
“In light of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017, the government brought forward for review new Protect Duty legislation, known as Martyn’s Law. Security services now play a vital role in assessing the risks of terror attacks for venues and events and mitigating against them,” he continues.
“In 2020/21 security service providers were busy at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. While most people were forced into lockdown, a silent workforce of security officers continued to secure our buildings and critical infrastructure, ensuring a safe and secure environment for the NHS, telecommunications, power supplies and much more,” he says.
These two events demonstrate the diversity of the scenarios that security professionals now encounter. To keep up with ever-evolving environments and changes to risk profiles, security service providers are constantly upskilling and learning through training.
At the renewal of their Security Industry Authority licences, all officers now train in Action Counter Terrorism and Emergency First Aid at Work.
However, Mr Whiffing also states that the security industry lost trained workers after the pandemic. Despite this, the industry continues to evolve to meet new challenges and to make the environment attractive to a diverse workforce by improving benefits and conditions.
“This can be difficult when there is little recognition from within the wider community and salaries remain generally poor for the responsibility they hold. Most industries can’t afford to neglect technology and the provision of security is no different.
“In recent years we’ve seen an increased focus on cloud technology, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into the way we work. With the introduction of AI and ML, we can now detect threats more accurately, respond more quickly and provide detailed analysis of our performance.
“Security service providers continue to embrace change and deliver outstanding services that enhance the security of the UK’s people, property, and places,” says Mr Whiffing.
Additional thoughts are provided by Amulet managing director Kieran Mackie, who informs readers that recent developments in the security industry have seen providers take a more holistic approach to their service.
With the introduction of AI and ML, we can now detect threats more accurately, respond more quickly and provide detailed analysis of our performance
This includes a range of auxiliary services that enhance the security provision, such as waste management, health and safety, or general building maintenance.
“The integration of technology into security has seen providers find the best methods to have both human and technology working harmoniously to protect their clients effectively. There has also been a shift towards the quality of security professionals over quantity. Having a large team of security officers is not always the most effective option,” he continues.
“Focusing on the abilities, qualifications, and skills of each individual officer, blended with the right technology, can often deliver a much more suitable and cost-effective solution.
The security industry is moving towards paying its staff higher wages to support those skilled individuals that offer a high-quality service, as well as attract new talent.”
Mr Mackie further explains that security providers are beginning to attract more talent to the industry to continue this path of development. “Generation-Z are making themselves known in the world of work; young people aren’t afraid of challenging the status quo, and it is an attitude that the security industry could do with more of.
“The industry needs to be reshaped as one that offers opportunities for personal and professional development and creating a successful career. Bringing in people from different backgrounds is the key to further development in the industry,” he continues.
“Finally, the industry in general is becoming more collaborative. Different providers are working more closely together than ever before. The introduction of organisations such as the City Security Council enables private security providers to work closely with public security organisations such as the City of London Police in times of crisis or when any significant events have taken place in the city. Teams can be up to date on threat levels and other relevant information, creating better security for all,” Mr Mackie concludes.
Continuing the theme of this feature, Anabas security account director Tom Ward says the world of work is changing as companies are challenged by the adoption of a post-pandemic hybrid work model. He explains that is combined with wage inflation pressure and a significant rise in energy costs.
Focusing on the abilities, qualifications, and skills of each individual officer, blended with the right technology, can often deliver a much more suitable and costeffective solution
“The security industry must embrace this new world and innovate to help clients adapt their service provisions to reflect new working patterns and occupancy levels and reduce the impact of inflationary increases.”
Mr Ward continues: “With wage and utility cost increases, businesses are trying to make cost savings in other areas, and this has meant activity such as remote monitoring has grown significantly in demand.
The security industry must become more holistic in its approach and find ways of blending guarding and physical security measures with technology solutions to create a tailored service that suits client needs, by mitigating risk in line with individual client budgets.
“To begin, we carry out a threat assessment on the client’s building to determine what level of security is required. This can be based on several criteria such as the location of the building, its size, what businesses are close by, and the current UK threat level status.”
He further explains the benefits his company receives from working with Greater Manchester Police former assistant chief constable and head of counter-terrorism Northwest Russ Jackson.
“His insights and experience offer an expert overview of the required security. The assessment will identify the key risks and threats to the client, its people, property, assets, and reputation,” Mr Ward continues.
“For some central London clients, this threat assessment can reveal high levels of sensitivity.
Clients that are based in high towers and iconic London buildings are more likely to have 24/7 security with a dedicated security control room and CCTV monitoring, regular patrols, and professional teams guarding the building.
“For clients where the threat assessment identifies a reduced risk and the configuration of the building permits, we can consider using a reduced security team combined with physical protective measures and remote monitoring systems to achieve the mitigation required. For certain buildings, we may be able to remove guarding and provide a remote technologybased solution such as remote monitoring and remote access / egress, combined with a mobile response unit.
“The future of security services will continue to evolve through effective integration of people and technology. The days of clients simply needing a traditional guarding service are now long gone,” Mr Ward concludes.
To begin, we carry out a threat assessment on the client’s building to determine what level of security is required
Our final focus on this topic looks at technology and the role it plays in supporting security service providers. DTS Solutions, part of CSE Crosscom, sales director Dan Frith says the rate of evolution in the various technologies utilised by professionals across the security sector is more rapid now than it has ever been.
“It’s a full-time job just to keep up with the innovations that are constantly being brought to market by manufacturers in the communications sector,” he continues.
In the push-to-talk sector alone, previously dominated by “traditional” two-way radio and paging, there has been an immense shift in businesses moving towards broadband push-to-talk solutions. These provide security professionals with the significant benefits offered by instant communication over existing Wi-Fi and 3G/4G/5G data networks.
“This could be on a dedicated radio-like device with an embedded SIM, a ruggedised smart device with dedicated PTT and emergency buttons - or even your existing Android/iOS smart devices and PCs.
“Just a couple of years ago, broadband pushto-talk didn’t even account for 1% of our business
turnover. Last year, it accounted for nearly 40% of it including several huge projects across the UK, Europe and Globally,” says Mr Frith.
For end users that want the reliability of ‘traditional’ radio for mission-critical/businesscritical comms whilst having access to a full app ecosystem, there are various dual-mode devices that offer the best of both worlds now.
“From a body-worn video perspective, the sheer amount of choice on the market today makes it even more difficult for potential buyers to understand the key benefits of each body-worn offering. There are some incredible innovations out there, and these have certainly done for body-worn what broadband push-to-talk has done for radio, but there is no ‘one size fits all’.”
Mr Frith explains that it has never been more important for end-users to understand the benefits and impact of features like live-streaming, autooffload of videos to the cloud and more. Seeing the full picture allows end-users to make the best and most informed decision.
“In the realms of CCTV and access control –where do we start?” he asks. “Some of the analytics that the likes of Avigilon offer in their set-ups are
downright staggering. The acquisition of Ava by Motorola Solutions has also brought something new to the table from a scalability and ease of deployment standpoint.
“And, of course, we can’t forget the ability to integrate all these different solutions together under the ‘Safety Reimagined’ ecosystem. It’s never been easier or more cost-effective to link the technologies we provide.
“For example, a security professional can now utilise many of the push-to-talk smart devices on the market and also have access to all the apps they need. This includes benefiting from instant push-to-talk communication wherever they are by leveraging existing Wi-Fi and 3G/4G/5G networks.
“They can also view live CCTV and bodyworn video footage and receive alerts from onsite systems like access control and fire alarms via an app on the same device. The security officer can have access to everything they need on a single device for full situational awareness, connectivity, and safety whilst they’re ‘on the go’. What’s more, this often results in a cost-saving for the end-user’s organisation,” says Mr Frith.
Among the many pearls of wisdom emerging from the application of continuous improvement FM principles is that this concept is never finished, which is shown in perfect clarity in the running of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Twickenham Stadium.
Head of venue facilities David Hewins recently welcomed FM Director to the site to explain the many developments undertaken during his fiveyear tenure and those planned for the year ahead. Similar to the majority of sporting venues around the UK, the stadium experienced considerable disruption to its schedule during the coronavirus pandemic but is now fully open again.
In addition to the return of the schedule for international rugby matches and full spectator attendance, the venue also includes facilities such as a hotel, gym, restaurants, the World Rugby Museum and a number of adaptable event spaces.
It is the largest dedicated ruby union venue in the world and its 115-year history has seen it survive two world wars, numerous political changes and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the various challenges emerging from worldwide events.
Mr Hewins and his team have guided the stadium through one of its most difficult periods in dealing with the closure and reopening of the facility. Several projects were initiated and completed over the last
three years, taking advantage of this closure, and with others following as part of the drive to deliver improvements in all areas.
“One of our latest projects has been the installation of more polycarbonate roof panels for the stadium,” says Mr Hewins. “We’ve now replaced three quarters of all roofing panels and that’s saved a fair amount of energy as we don’t need as much lighting now.”
The stadium has also benefited from the installation of new speakers and improvements to wheelchair access for disabled spectators, which has coincided with upgrades and improvements to changing rooms and washrooms.
“You’d think it would be relatively easy in a stadium of this size to upgrade disabled toilets, but that wasn’t the case,” Mr Hewins continues.
“It’s actually quite a challenge to find more space to fit everything in without having to commit to redeveloping entire areas. We’ve replaced the storm drains in the stadium as part of our drive to improve health and safety, with one of the benefits being that wheelchair users will have a smoother ride as they access the improved disabled bays around the pitch.
“We’ve also set up a dedicated supply team to provide better access for those that need support and we’re also now looking at creating sensory rooms and better use of colour around the stadium for those with visual impairments.”
One of the most successful outcomes has been the focus on reducing energy, which was already delivering significant benefits before this year’s utility price increases.
Much of this has stemmed from the RFU partnership with CBRE Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) and is a result of considerable efforts to map and detail all the stadium’s assets and systems from 2016 onward.
Being armed with an accurate picture of the stadium’s systems and requirements allowed a concentrated focus on optimising these without impacting the quality of the visitor experience.
One of the results showed lighting as a major
consumer of electricity during match days, with the majority of lights switched on throughout the day.
After adjusting these settings to provide full lighting around match times and reduced levels before and after the games, the stadium has seen significant reductions in its electricity consumption, further assisted by the installation of polycarbonate roof panels.
Additional savings have also been achieved in its gas usage through the optimisation of systems and more projects are ongoing and being considered.
Sodium lighting is used by the grounds maintenance team to maintain the quality of the pitch throughout the winter months. The system has recently been upgraded and now uses more powerful luminaires which, although more expensive to operate than the previous versions, have resulted in shorter running times and cost less overall.
Mr Hewins explains that the head groundsman has adopted a “more science-based approach” to the maintenance of the pitch and this is entirely aligned with the methods applied by the estate management team. The drive to reduce energy is ongoing and one of the main areas of concentration.
“We have two main lines of focus, one of which is our new analytics system that will help us to identify any areas to reduce wasting energy. This shows everything in great detail, even down to individual valves,” Mr Hewins continues.
You’d think it would be relatively easy in a stadium of this size to upgrade disabled toilets, but that wasn’t the case
“In addition to installing more LED lighting, the installation of improved efficiency burners will provide more reductions in energy usage and we’re continuing to look at the behaviours of stadium staff and visitors. We’ve seen that encouraging people to be aware of their energy usage and to switch things off when they leave the building helps a little bit in the short term, but you then see that reduce as time progresses and you need to constantly remind everyone.
“So we’re now looking at the use of more automation, such as presence sensors that work with the BMS system to make sure everything is turned off when it’s not needed.
“We’re effectively attempting to remove the human factor from our energy consumption and it’s already paying off.
“We’ve reduced our non-event day energy load by 20%, which is saving a great deal of cost in the present climate of high energy prices,” he continues. “But it’s easy to waste a lot of money very quickly if you’re not managing everything.”
Although the pandemic had a significant impact, Mr Hewins states that the actions taken have allowed the team to improve its management of energy usage. “We turned everything off and that means we know our minimum energy base load and the level of risk we can take with our systems. While the stadium was shut, for example, we turned all our roof fans off that reduce condensation and only lost three small fans when the system was turned on again.”
Water pumps were also used less and flushing operations were reduced after the estates management team dosed the distribution system during lockdown, resulting in more savings of energy and water. “We took risks while the stadium was empty and we learned a lot about what we could do,” says Mr Hewins.
“Before COVID, we used to have the entire stadium cleaned immediately after matches, which meant having people on site late into the evening. We looked at this and now only clean the public areas after matches and use our core staff more to avoid night cleaning.
“We sometimes have tours on the days after matches, so the areas visited need to have been cleaned, but this has saved us money and resulted in better standards, so it shows how we always need to question established practices and change these where needed.”
Twickenham stadium has a capacity of 82,000 spectators that requires a major mobilisation of resources, including having all systems working at optimum levels on match days, and further benefits have arisen from the automation of tasks, Mr Hewins explains. These have been considerably reduced in number, despite the fact that spectators are spending more time on site following the introduction of additional events before and after games, depending on the time of the matches.
“During any match day, we used to have between 300 and 400 tasks to complete to keep everything switched on and working, but now it’s around 50. The rest have either been automated or they’ve been dealt with earlier and that’s another result of the pandemic and our investments in automation technology.”
In addition to the RFU award-winning partnership with CBRE GWS, Mr Hewins states: “We have a seamless relationship with all our service providers, which means we all work towards keeping the stadium fit for use. There are always frustrations, of course, but we deal with these and take everything we learn into the next project to provide continually improving outcomes.
“We share the details of our budgets with our service partners, so everyone knows where we are and what’s needed,” he continues. “It’s a very open process and we make sure we protect service providers’ payments, then use the rest to reduce risk, including more planned maintenance to avoid the cost and inconvenience of reactive callouts.
During any match day, we used to have between 300 and 400 tasks to complete to keep everything switched on and working, but now it’s around 50
“This provides a better outcome for both Twickenham and its service partners and with a venue of this age and size, the budget will never be enough to solve all issues. But working collaboratively with our contractors allows us to avoid confrontation and any savings are then reinvested in the stadium to make sure that Twickenham operates at its optimum level.”
He further explains that the high level of collaboration with its service partners has helped the stadium to understand more about its carbon footprint as part of its environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) strategy. The gaining of ever higher levels of knowledge about the facility continues to deliver benefits in all areas of its management.
“We’re managing a complex 50-acre estate so it’s essential to have a high level of understanding about everything, from our carbon footprint and energy usage to the amount of waste produced and recycling levels,” he continues. “We’re now putting this knowledge to good use before setting any targets, so these are realistic and achievable.”
The subject of knowledge and expertise is further discussed by Mr Hewins, who believes it is important for FMs and estate managers to have as much understanding as possible about the various aspects of their facilities.
He has found working for a service provider earlier in his career has proved to be highly beneficial in many ways.
“I think it’s now essential to have sound technical knowledge and understanding within all areas of FM, which helps to remove many of the barriers between clients and their service providers. If you can understand what’s needed and can visualise how to get there you can help others to improve their knowledge, too,” he continues.
“It’s often a two-way process and it’s really helpful to establish a problem-solving mentality and be able to look at the wider picture when issues occur. This frequently means that you find better solutions and can often solve problems quicker.”
How this applies to the running of the Twickenham stadium can be seen in the introduction of mitigation when jobs are raised through the helpdesk. Works tasks can only be mitigated for genuine reasons, such as waiting for parts, etc, but Mr Hewins has found this to be a valuable addition that could not have been considered without the in-depth knowledge within the estates management team.
Given the open relationship with its suppliers, it is perhaps unsurprising that there are no key performance indicators (KPIs) for service providers. This is intended to prevent the issues seen in some areas of the FM industry, where missed KPIs are used by clients to demand money back from contractors.
“That’s one area the industry really needs to address and I know that without the great relationships we have with our suppliers we wouldn’t have been able to achieve all the energy savings and sustainability successes we’ve seen,” says Mr Hewins.
Future plans include establishing beehives on the roof of the stadium and in one of its car parks, with beekeeping lessons planned for staff next year. This will be combined with the planting of fruit trees within open areas that will further support the initiative and raise the stadium’s sustainability credentials.
Twickenham Stadium is continuing to receive considerable advantages from both its long-term strategies and working closely with its contracted providers to ensure that all aspects of the facility are fully supported and benefit from exemplary levels of service.
That’s one area the industry really needs to address and I know that without the great relationships we have with our suppliers we wouldn’t have been able to achieve all the energy savings
YorPower was recently asked to provide a quotation and plan to supply and deliver two 60kVA units by its client, Weatherhaven Global Solutions (Weatherhaven).
Weatherhaven are experts at designing, planning and implementing shelter and camp solutions across the world. They provide military camps, mobile medical shelter systems, and commercial camps, varying from mining to construction setups.
As Group Sales Director, Jordan Kincaid said: “It’s always great to work with companies that offer a service that helps people in need.”
This particular project required YorPower to deliver two 60kva Perkins diesel generators to an island in the Indian Ocean, that will support the power of rapid deployment shelters that are manufactured and installed by Weatherhaven.
These shelters can hold kitchens, dry goods, mobile hospitals and other relevant facilities. The generator sets were shipped in a container, alongside two battery chargers, six additional sockets and two road trailers for easy transportation once they arrive on the island.
Emission regulations are becoming a reality for all businesses. For a leading supplier of back-up power solutions, supplying diesel generators and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units to the UK and overseas, the mandate to become netzero means a culture change throughout our entire operations.
YorPower aims to be fully net-zero long before the government deadline of 2050. The company has recently teamed up with Neutral Carbon Zone, which helps organisations take an expert look at their sustainability agendas to see how they can slash their carbon footprint in ways they may not have expected.
Increasingly, customers and employees want to work with companies that demonstrate a commitment to becoming carbon neutral. YorPower is undertaking a full carbon audit, assessing its core emissions, calculating its operational emissions and also engaging its supply chain in reducing their emissions.
The message from the YorPower group of companies is “watch this space,” as it will soon be announcing a new future-proofed model that will be focused on meeting or surpassing the government’s environmental, social and governance objectives.
YorPower takes a partnership approach in all projects, becoming an extension of its customers’ teams. Therefore, if all other companies share YorPower’s approach of becoming more sustainable in all areas of operation, with the eventual goal of being carbon neutral, they will be naturally aligned with each other.
In a similar way, the team at Weatherhaven are keen on doing their bit to help the environment. All of their shelter designs are lightweight and compact, which helps reduce fuel consumption and transport time.
Mr Kincaid concluded by saying: “This is a great project for YorPower to take part in. Knowing that these generators will travel the world providing power to the volunteers supporting third world countries and war-torn areas is extremely rewarding.”
YorPower specialises in the supply, delivery and installation of diesel generators. For all enquiries, please email sales@yorpower.com
began 2023 with a project that not only made full use of its capabilities as a national and international provider of back-up power solutions, but also underlined its environmental credentials
It’s always great to work with companies that offer a service that helps people in need
Following the publication of Pinnacle Group’s flagship ESG impact report, head of projects Paul de Kock explains that stakeholder support and strong data have been key to its success
SG (environmental, social and governance) goes way beyond what CSR (corporate social responsibility) was and is. It’s business-critical, which is why having a good framework, the right pillars and buy-in from every level of your organisation is key to ensuring it works.”
That is the view of Paul de Kock, head of projects at Pinnacle Group. As he discusses Pinnacle’s recently published 2022 ESG impact report with FM Director, Mr de Kock is frank about the challenges involved in developing and implementing an ESG strategy. He is also clear about the benefits it offers, adding that the significant success Pinnacle is enjoying in this area hinges on quality data and support from stakeholders across the business.
This success is reflected in Pinnacle’s ESG first impact report, a comprehensive document for financial year 2022, titled Transforming Communities,
Changing Lives. It outlines the organisation’s achievements in areas like sustainability, community impact, nurturing its team and being a responsible business, drilling down into the progress it has made across the four pillars of a robust ESG framework.
Notable achievements include a 12% year-on-year reduction in tonnes of carbon emitted per employee (in its Protect our Planet pillar) and a 33% growth in FTE employee numbers (as part of its People and Culture initiative).
While Mr de Kock and his team produced an ‘ESG Year End Review’ for 2021, this document was geared towards establishing the business’s ESG framework and setting up working groups.
2022’s impact report “tells a story”, both about what has been achieved, and how Pinnacle hopes to build on its progress in future.
Mr de Kock commented: “It’s great when we produce a report like this because we can see
that there are one or two areas where we haven’t necessarily gone forward, but we also haven’t gone backwards. On the whole, we’ve made some really good strides, and some great achievements over the last year.”
Mr de Kock adds that the report is enabling Pinnacle, not just to reflect on its progress, but to plan ahead.
“One of the key drivers is about being able to plan strategically for the future, and without a report like this it’s difficult to do that,” he explains.
“Our board has fully embraced it, and is ensuring that all future decisions are based on both the targets we’ve set ourselves, and the results of the report.”
The document has also been well received by clients, strengthening their confidence in Pinnacle and its approach.
Mr de Kock comments: “Those that have had the opportunity to read it already have fed back with great positivity, which is obviously quite rewarding – but it also shows that they’re very happy with who they’ve partnered with to deliver their services. We don’t just say that we do these things; it proves that we do it for all clients, not just certain clients.”
Indeed, while not its primary purpose, the report has already proved to be a valuable marketing tool, and Mr de Kock is quick to acknowledge the commercial significance of ESG.
He says: “ESG has become a huge part of all of our bid submissions. Just three years ago, it might have attracted maybe 5 or 10% weighting in terms of the evaluation and the scoring. We’re seeing this is now between 20 and 25%, especially with central and local government.
“That’s because the pressure is on government to ensure that we’re all doing our part, particularly when it comes to achieving net zero targets and good corporate governance.”
Mr de Kock suggests that, without strong evidence and an impact report, it is difficult to substantiate the ESG claims upon which bids often rely.
Key to producing such a report, he adds, is good quality data. With this in mind, Pinnacle established its own data analytics team around four years ago –a move that has proved transformative.
“The team has grown, and we’ve been able to gather an immense amount of data across all spheres of our business,” Mr de Kock says. “We use Microsoft Power BI (a specialist software product) to gather, analyse and present this data, and are at a point now where we are comfortable enough to produce statistics, because we’ve got four years of history – not on all data, but we’re continually building on this.
“It ensures that we can produce reports substantiated with good data capturing and analytics.”
Mr de Kock explains that this data-gathering drive began with Pinnacle’s vehicle fleet.
“That was the first major project for our data analytics team,” he recalls. “Making sure that our whole fleet had telematics. And once we really started to see the power of the Power BI tool and the data, we rolled that out across the FM business.”
Pinnacle uses a second tool, Job Watch, to manage its soft FM services and produce daily workflows. This information is fed straight into Power BI, producing valuable insights.
Mr de Kock adds: “We have an ESG dashboard as well, where we’re capturing our carbon footprint and all our ESG initiatives. We’re capturing the amount of time and money spent on the initiatives we’ve introduced across the group.
“We’ve got dashboards for everything – mobile phone usage, the distance people travel every day. It’s great to have that information at our fingertips, and now we’ve got enough data, it’s helping us to think strategically about where we need to be going forwards.”
While generating data is relatively easy, interpreting it presents more of a challenge. Establishing its own data analytics team has enabled Pinnacle to overcome this particular hurdle.
“It has transformed the way we operate and the way we can interrogate data,” Mr de Kock comments. “And as I said, we’re continuously rolling this out, especially on the FM side of the business, because there’s just so much data you can gather –as long as you’ve got the tech in place.”
This data serves a dual purpose, enabling Pinnacle to better support its FM clients.
Mr de Kock adds: “It’s about pre-empting asset failure – being proactive about how we maintain the buildings we look after, the client assets. Without data, we can’t do that.”
The ‘G’ in ESG Security is key, and he readily acknowledges the importance of processing this data safely and efficiently.
“We need to have the right ESG elements in place, especially when you look at the ‘G’ in terms of governance,” he explains. “Data privacy and data protection are key, and we made sure that we became Cyber Essentials Plus-accredited before going down this road. It’s the highest data privacy accreditation you can get.
“Now that we’ve got that in place, our clients know their data is secure. You can’t afford for anything to go wrong; it just takes one mistake, and significant data is out there, leading to fines and lost business.
“That’s why having those processes and principles in place under each of the four pillars is absolutely critical. And although a lot of companies don’t place enough emphasis on governance, for us it’s one of the most important elements, because of the impact it could have on any business.”
Neither, Mr de Kock adds, should businesses underestimate the complexity of ESG, which is more than just an extension of CSR.
“That was exactly my thought at the beginning, before I got involved and entrenched in it,” he admits.
We have an ESG dashboard as well, where we’re capturing our carbon footprint and all our ESG initiatives
“I’ve headed up ESG since 2021, and I learnt very quickly that it is absolutely way beyond what CSR was and is.
“And it’s not only for us – it’s for our clients, our auditors. Even two years ago, they weren’t asking questions about ESG, and now the queries I get are incredibly detailed. It’s definitely taking a much higher priority in all spheres of business.”
Mr de Kock believes that, for smaller companies without adequate resource, implementing ESG measures is a “minefield.”
He comments: “You could almost say that CSR is a bit of a tick box exercise, but with ESG, if you don’t have the right processes and principles in place, it’s not something you can blag.
“You need to be very sure of what you’re doing and have dedicated immense time and resource to getting it right for your organisation, which I believe is what Pinnacle has done.”
Solid foundations
Having embarked on its own ESG journey just two years ago, Pinnacle still has a “long way to go.” Nevertheless, it is already enjoying the fruits of its labours, as evidenced by the flagship impact report.
“There’s a lot of work still to do, but we’ve got the framework, and the rest of the journey will hopefully be relatively easy by comparison,” Mr de Kock says.
This early success would not have been possible without the support of Pinnacle’s senior leadership team.
He adds: “Our CEO and CFO have both had immense input. When we first started, they were fully involved in the quarterly ESG working group sessions, just to get it off the ground and agree on targets, roles and responsibilities.
“They’ve now taken a step back, but I still update them on everything ESG-related on a monthly basis, to ensure they’re up to speed with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. This support means that ESG is now “business as usual”, which Mr de Kock believes “sends a strong message to everyone.”
Indeed, he and his team have secured buy-in from employees across the business, encouraging them to read the report and engage with Pinnacle’s ESG efforts via a dedicated intranet page.
“To ensure that our workforce understands the impact report and embeds ESG into their daily activities and the operational side of the business, we are in the process of identifying ESG champions,” Mr de Kock adds. “It was something we started about six months ago, slowly at first to ensure the process worked and we got the right level of buy-in.
“We’ve trialled it on a few contracts, and will be rolling it out across the wider group. We’ve got good evidence that proves how well it works, and the buy-in from clients has also been positive.”
These champions will help Pinnacle’s workforce to understand its ESG goals, as well as supporting clients without their own people or processes in place. While Mr de Kock and his team initially considered rewarding individuals for their efforts, they have found that “doing the right thing” is incentive enough.
“There’s the opportunity for recognition through our Pinnacle Awards, but the response has generally been ‘this is something I want to get involved with because I believe in it’,” he says.
Despite the positive response from employees and clients alike, creating Pinnacle’s first ESG impact report was not without challenges.
Mr de Kock adds: “Producing a report like this is never easy, because so many people need to be involved in reviewing and analysing the statistics. We also need to ensure there’s a story to tell – we don’t want to just produce a report that isn’t substantiated by good examples and working practices.
“So it was very much a collaborative effort, and it took some time to get the bones in place, as well as really identifying the message we wanted to convey.”
Guaranteeing that the report contained the right balance of information, statistics and evidence was key, as was ensuring that it was a “worthwhile read.”
“Our marketing team worked for many hours to get the presentation right, ensuring that it reads easily and flows nicely,” he remembers.
The result was a report that, despite taking longer to compile than anticipated, is an “interesting read for anyone who picks it up”.
With these foundations in place, Mr de Kock expects the production of Pinnacle’s second impact report to be quicker and easier.
“But we will need to keep it fresh and relevant,” he adds. “We don’t want to just update a few words and statistics every year; the images need to be different, the statistics need to be new, and the stories too.”
According to Mr de Kock, future reports must highlight, not just Pinnacle’s achievements, but the areas in which progress is required.
“If we’ve failed on something we committed to the year before, we need to state that as well,” he says.
“We need to be open about what we’re doing, and hopefully if we do fail to achieve something, there will be a very good reason for it.
“We’re a growing business, and things change –what we say today might not be relevant tomorrow. But as long as we explain it, there’s no reason to hide any of that.”
As a minimum, we discuss these values with employees on a quarterly basis
Some developments – the energy crisis, for example – are impossible to predict. In these instances, Mr de Kock adds, it’s about saying “nobody could change that, but this is the effect it had, and here’s what we learned.”
Indeed, reacting quickly to change is a priority for Pinnacle, which was a “very different organisation” when Mr de Kock joined in 2005. He believes that this ability to adapt - underpinned by the right processes and board support – has been key to its success.
While adaptability has helped Pinnacle to achieve sustainable growth, five core values (respect, involve, trust, challenge and deliver excellence) define its culture.
“As a minimum, we discuss these values with employees on a quarterly basis,” says Mr de Kock. “We have a lot of information available, and regular communications that go out every month as well, where we remind people of our values, our ESG pillars, and how we all need to play our part in delivering them.”
Mr de Kock explains that the business is often expected to define its culture in bid proposals, particularly for central and local government.
“They want to know how the organisation is run,” he comments. “Things like how we embody staff collaboration, how we ensure that employees are well looked after and happy in their work; Our People and Culture is another of our key ESG pillars.”
Increasingly, he adds, clients are looking to partner with service providers that share their values. This is also true of Pinnacle, which recently purchased a new FM business, AM Services Group, on the strength of its culture.
“They were very similar to our own values,” he says. “It was evidenced in their workforce, who embed those values in the way they work and deliver services. And we also want to partner with clients and organisations that share our values, or at least have similar values to ours.”
Mr de Kock adds that, after several years of growth, Pinnacle is now “on the cusp” of some significant opportunities – including larger contracts and central government framework agreements.
“We’re bidding on a number of opportunities with central government in various sectors, some of which we haven’t necessarily operated in ourselves before,” he comments. “But we have the experience to be able to operate in those fields.”
With bigger contracts comes further growth – and, inevitably, more carbon. Over the last two years, Pinnacle’s workforce has grown from 2,200 to just short of 4000.
“That means our carbon footprint is growing as well,” says Mr de Kock. “But what’s great about the report is that, although we’ve grown so much, our carbon footprint is still coming down on a permillion pounds of turnover level, and also on a peremployee basis.
“That’s why you need all these different metrics – to be able to show that we are still heading in the right direction. And that yes, carbon did go up, but there are very valid reasons why.”
Indeed, while new projects, new acquisitions and an influx of new employees led to increased emissions, Mr de Kock explains that Pinnacle’s carbon footprint had begun to decrease by the end of the financial year. Now, the business is striving to achieve net zero direct emissions in 2025.
While Mr de Kock admits that it “still has a long way to go”, the 2022 impact report outlines several projects developed to support this goal. Among them is the electrification of Pinnacle’s growing vehicle fleet – around 85% of which belongs to the FM side of the company.
Supply chain issues have hampered these efforts to electrify, while ensuring that each of Pinnacle’s depots is fitted with the correct charging infrastructure poses a unique challenge. Nevertheless, it has made good progress, and is currently awaiting the delivery of 120 electric vehicles.
“Because these are large orders, we were able to go directly to the manufacturer rather than working through a middleman,” Mr de Kock says. “And we’re also bringing our fleet management in-house. We’ve recently brought on a fleet manager who can help us with this whole transition, and the installation of EV charge points.
“They will ensure that we’ve got a fleet that is fit for purpose for our organisation and has the right accreditations, as well - because again, we’re seeing a lot of requirements now from clients for vehicle fleet accreditations.”
By bolstering its in-house capabilities, Pinnacle hopes to remain agile, adaptable, and in control of “things at a micro level.”
Ultimately, Mr de Kock is optimistic about Pinnacle’s ESG strategy, and hugely proud of the business’s first impact report.
“The report itself is very positive, in that we have been able to produce it, and back it up with really good evidence and statistics,” he concludes. “But the key to this is having access to good data; without good data, we cannot produce reports like this, and we cannot ensure that we are futureproofing our business.”
We also want to partner with clients and organisations that share our values, or at least have similar values to ours
PTSG was formed in 2007 with a handful of people and a vision to deliver the full range of specialist building services from ‘under one roof’. After 16 years of successive growth, that vision has been achieved. The Group now operates from 47 UK locations, with 2,400 specialists serving 20,000 customers.
PTSG’s five business divisions can operate independently or combine to deliver a complete solution including: façade access and fall arrest equipment, lightning protection and electrical compliance testing, high-level services, fire and security solutions and water treatment and hygiene services.
PTSG’s approach to safety is influential in the industry and has led to ten consecutive Golds from RoSPA, arguably the most rigorous judge of health and safety in the world. PTSG will never compromise – “If a task can’t be completed safely, we won’t do it.”
Customer service excellence remains the ultimate goal in all of PTSG’s endeavours and its current contract renewal rate has remained above 88% for over ten years. In 2017, PTSG reorganised its business, creating Fire Solutions Ltd in response to the demand for building operators to adhere to strict fire safety standards, particularly in tall buildings. Since that time, Fire Solutions has become the fastest growing area of business.
In May 2021, PTSG Water Treatment Ltd became the Group’s fifth business division, delivering water hygiene and treatment products and services across the UK.
This builds further still on PTSG’s ambition to provide a full complement of specialist services to its existing customers, while appealing to an everincreasing range of customers.
For PTSG, access and safety encompasses all types of equipment that allows engineers to safely access all areas of every kind of building to carry out specialist services – from the testing and certification of roof anchor points to the servicing of the world’s largest building maintenance units. PTSG also provides rescue equipment and training services for its clients. Its reach and rescue kit is used for retrieving a colleague who has fallen from height and is manufactured and tested to conform to European safety standards.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to all work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause injury. They place duties on employers, the selfemployed and any person who controls the work of others. PTSG’s training is well-known and respected throughout the industry and can be tailored to a particular industry or working method and will provide the essential skills and knowledge needed to manage work at height operatives, operate a safe system of work or to effect a safe and swift evacuation or rescue. Its experts can assist you in choosing the right safety training solution for your requirements and environment and provide ongoing re-certification and work at height support.
PTSG offers access equipment maintenance, safety equipment maintenance and testing – all of which will ensure that your job is completed to the highest standards of quality and safety.
PTSG Electrical Services Ltd
PTSG is the UK’s leading supplier of lightning protection services, surge protection and specialist earthing solutions. Its engineers also deliver innovative electrical compliance solutions. The services and equipment they provide saves lives, time and money. It really is as simple as that.
Electrical compliance is a legal necessity in the workplace and PTSG will form a collaborative working relationship with you to ensure your workplace not only meets the latest legislative requirements, protecting your duty holder at all times, but performs more efficiently. The company’s engineers use real-time online reporting to ensure your safety records are always current, accurate, consolidated and documented with a version history. Records can be viewed and printed from anywhere, across multiple sites.
PTSG Electrical Services Ltd. is the largest of the Group’s five divisions. It combines the talent and experience of some of the UK’s leading practitioners in their field. In lightning protection, this includes JW Gray – dating back to 1835, it is believed to be the oldest trading service provider of its kind in the UK, possibly even in Europe. Further companies acquired in the south west, north west, midlands and Scotland give PTSG a national reach.
The Group’s third division began as a high-level cleaning division of PTSG. This remains a core part of its services, delivering window and building façade cleaning services to clients in a wide variety of sectors. However, with the continued growth of the Group over the last few years, further services have been added, and its operatives now deliver high-level and ground-level services in the following areas:
Rope access services
Steeplejack services
Building fabric maintenance, decoration and surveys
Specialist façade cleaning
Access equipment hire
Window cleaning
Glazing services
Roof and gutter maintenance and repairs.
Siphonic drainage
In reality, engineers may be engaged in masonry restoration to signage installation and removal, painting and decoration, graffiti removal, specialist DOFF steam cleaning – and many other specialist projects.
Roof drone surveys are another way in which PTSG helps its clients to plan ahead for maintenance work. Thanks to the great level of detail provided by the drone footage, clients can see the exact condition of their buildings and any work PTSG’s engineers can deliver that will ensure they remain in first-class condition.
PTSG Fire Solutions Ltd
Fire safety must be the foundation upon which all buildings are constructed, with rigorous regular testing and maintenance. It is now integrated as one of the Group’s biggest growth areas; by continuing to keep quality and safety clearly aligned, PTSG will safeguard the users of the buildings we work on.
PTSG provides a full range of fire prevention and suppression systems and tailored security systems for a every kind of public and private building:
Dry and wet riser installation and maintenance
Fire detection and life safety systems
Security systems
Sprinkler systems
Sprinkler pump maintenance
Fire and smoke damper inspection and testing
Ventilation and ductwork
Passive fire services
Fire hydrants and pumps
Support service and maintenance
PTSG Water Treatment Ltd
Through its comprehensive provision of water hygiene, water treatment and remedial services, PTSG is a trusted partner for clients in all industry sectors. Its services ensure the safe management of water systems, with protection from Legionella and compliance with the necessary regulations. The focus is on reliability and sustainability and saving companies time and money.
PTSG Water Treatment Ltd offers a wide range of services, combining the specialist skills and knowledge of its engineers with the very latest cutting-edge tools to deliver high performance, safety and consistency. As a trusted partner to its clients, PTSG ensures water safety, protection from Legionella and decontamination from many other bacteria and viruses.
Services include:
Water hygiene
Legionella risk assessment
Water treatment
Water sampling
Eco fogging
Environmental consultancy
Mechanical engineering
Product chemical supplies
Legionella training courses
Many FMs regard risk assessments as necessary evils to be completed as quickly as possible, but industry experts say these can be approached in different ways to improve results
One of the most important areas of concern for everyone in the FM sector is that of ensuring that each facility is as safe as possible. All businesses are understandably keen to ensure that staff, customers and those attending their facilities are able to enjoy the highest levels of safety, while also avoiding the negative publicity that accompanies accidents and incidents.
Many of those tasked with delivering the best health and safety levels report that it will never be possible to avoid the emergence of issues in the workplace, mainly due to the human factor and its highly unreliable nature.
This also explains the use of “safe as possible” and similar phrases within UK legislation and further emphasises the accepted fact that none of us is perfect – or ever likely to be.
Even faced with the seemingly impossible task of predicting all the vagaries of human behaviour and other factors relating to health and safety, the UK continues to be a world leader in the delivery of effective solutions.
Despite the seemingly endless list of incidents recorded on official websites such as that of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), it appears that our country is far safer to live and work within than many others around the world.
One of the accepted methods used in all environments is that of risk assessments, which are designed to create awareness of potential hazards and allow for actions to be initiated to mitigate them.
Recording each stage of the process is one of the key factors required by legal authorities to prove that sufficient levels of effort have been devoted to avoid an accident and prove that as much “as possible” had been done in the event of an incident occurring.
Risk assessments are typically completed by those designated as being the responsible person for the site in question, who should be trained to carry them out in the correct manner.
Depending on the type of facility and its levels of activity, some FMs report that the completion of risk assessments has become one of their main tasks and needs to be completed on a daily basis in some instances.
One of the potential dangers to consider in these cases is that the completion of assessments will come to be regarded as a “necessary evil” and completed as quickly as possible, which can lead to errors or lack of attention that can have negative connotations in the future. There are numerous examples of businesses and individuals that take a different view and state that these can be used to create more positive outcomes when applied effectively.
This message is further explored by Emcor UK head of safety operations Chris Sibley, who explains that while “risk assessments are a very effective way to identify hazards”, this is only the case “if we go beyond the traditional approach of merely considering physical aspects. It’s part of a whole-person approach that we use to reach the highest possible safety standards when creating a better world at work,” he continues.
“For example, when assessing the root cause of a trip in a corridor, as well as checking for any physical factors that may be evident, we also consider psychosocial aspects that are often not so evident. Were they paying attention? Were they distracted because they were on the way to a difficult meeting? Are they going through a stressful event in their personal lives?” asks Mr Sibley.
While he states that he understands the importance of these factors, he continues to explain that a significant number of accidents or issues on client sites have proved to be caused as a result of both psychosocial as well as physical factors.
“Risk can be mitigated through a whole-person approach and ties in with employee wellness and support programs. Supervision is key to this,” he continues. “A manager that regularly meets with their colleagues can have positive conversations, mentor them, provide training and ensure they have a suitable work/life balance, which will be a big help in supporting that person’s psychosocial state.”
Companies should also encourage behavioural safety and risk-based thinking and make it a part of their culture, which mirrors what everyone does every day when they step out of their front door to cross the road. That same innate risk-based thinking should be in place at work.
“Finally, it’s imperative that we learn from incidents that take place and share those findings across the company. We do this regularly through email bulletins, brochures and in-person meetings across different teams.
Risk can be mitigated through a whole-person approach and ties in with employee wellness and support programs
“All of these procedures are a proactive approach to reducing risk, and consequently incidents, in the workplace. So, risk assessments are important in identifying hazards but they must take a whole-person approach,” says Mr Sibley.
It would appear that the effective use and application of risk assessments are likely to remain the most effective means of managing health and safety conditions within facilities for some time to come, although the comments of Mr Sibley show how these measures can be further improved. Exploring this approach in more depth can assist in the delivery of additional benefits, including the encouragement and support for increased levels of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
An illustration of this can be seen at the BBC facility in central Cardiff, located directly opposite its main line railway station, which opened in 2019. The impressive building was not only designed and constructed to provide high levels of accessibility for all those attending, but additionally included consideration for those suffering from autism and other neurological conditions.
One of the most obvious methods was that of the application of colour throughout the building, avoiding bright hues that could negatively impact those suffering from neurology-based disorders. Further to supporting the use of best practice health and safety methods, examples such as these can clearly be seen to be supporting other areas, such as diversity and inclusion.
Given the numerous references to the high levels of value delivered by the FM industry in previous issues of FM Director, it almost goes without saying that the implementation of best health and safety practice is yet another area of strength that supports this message.
Consideration for the “whole person”, as explained by Mr Sibley, can be used in a number of positive ways in addition to improving health and safety within facilities, it seems. Another question arising from the above is, when do aspirational requirements become part of accepted best practice methods?
Industry practitioners will no doubt have differing views on how or if best practice methods should be updated, with some citing the dangers of altering long-established processes. Others will no doubt state the dangers of these methods becoming part of the routine and running the risk of receiving lower levels of attention and increasing the chances for mistakes to occur.
Legislation is often seen as providing the most compelling reason for updates to be implemented and there is never likely to be a shortage of legal requirements within the area of health and safety, with the added potential of providing the opportunity for other adjustments to be made. Whether there is sufficient understanding of the additional aspects to be included needs to be an important consideration, of course.
Any alterations or additions to the carrying out of risk assessments will have to avoid the creation of grey areas where misunderstandings could occur, of course. The last outcome anyone would like to see would be for anything to be introduced that could result in reducing the effectiveness of these measures.
Regardless of how risk assessments are regarded by those that use them, the vast majority would agree that they are currently relatively straightforward to implement and comply with, which should remain the case with any updates or alterations.
Risk assessments are important in identifying hazards but they must take a whole-person approach
The FM industry is preparing to gather at The Workplace Event at the end of this month to celebrate all the best features of our vibrant sector. Whenever FM professionals gather together, the dynamic nature of the industry quickly becomes evident through discussions on the latest industry developments within our sector.
Ranging from the latest merger and acquisition (M&A) activities, to the most recent personnel appoints and contract awards, these conversations are typically interspersed with both personal and professional news and developments. Although the FM sector is not immune to the various challenges that have emerged over the last three years, it has become noticeable that those companies and individuals who have adopted an agile and positive approach are highly likely to be able to deal with these challenges and also assist their industry partners to cope, as well.
These attributes make any FM live event a highly attractive proposition and this looks to be the case for the forthcoming The Workplace Event, formerly known as The FM Event. Taking place at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) from 25 to 27 April, the show is the most popular of its type in the Midlands.
Its central England position makes the event easy to attend for visitors from all areas of the UK, with its five co-located shows providing a comprehensive and attractive showcase for the industry. Another essential element of any successful event is that of its seminar activities and The Workplace Event features no less than three of these.
In addition to the Workplace Leaders Summit, the two versions of The Knowledge Hub include focus on technology and data, along with culture, health and wellbeing – both of which are highly relevant to all areas of FM.
Attendees to the event will be welcome to visit the FM Business Daily stand, B22 in Hall 2, and meet the team of the UK’s most recent media brand, which has quickly achieved major success within the industry.
Attendees to the event will be welcome to visit the FM Business Daily stand, B22 in Hall 2, and meet the team
CHERYL ELLERINGTON FMBD MANAGING DIRECTOR
Must provide a resilient two-way emergency communication connection to their lifts. SENTINEL CAN HELP
85% of all lifts in UK will have non-resilient landlines by December 2025 as these are switched to fibre.
Fibre landlines will fail in the event of a mains power failure!
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PRO ACTIVE MANAGEMENT SIMPLE
You can now complete DBS and right to work checks without having to verify the applicant’s original documents in person. Digital identity is built into the existing DDC platform and can be simply turned on/off as required.
Right to Work
Digital Identity
Criminal Record
Employment References
If your employees have access to government assets then you will be required to screen individuals to the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) BPSS is also commonly accepted as the ‘baseline’ of background screening policy. Therefore, If you are looking to implement a pre-employment screening policy or grow within the public sector, BPSS is a great place to start.
26th April 2023
How to integrate BPSS background screening into your onboarding process
27th April 2023
Optimising BPSS & background screening: Technology, compliance and digital right to work
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Randox
Regular
FMBD will be part of the fantastic Workplace Event at Birmingham’s NEC this April 25 - 27. We’d love to see you there!
You’ll find us on stand B22, Hall Two, for the duration of this fantastic exhibition, which comprises five co-located FM and workplace shows.
Join Cheryl, Dennis, Dan, Ruta and the team for a chat, pick up the latest issue of FM Director magazine, and learn more about FMBD, the industry’s most powerful new media brand. Visitors to our stand will also receive a voucher for a free profile-raising package, worth £650.00. Featuring a free three-day banner advert on FMBD, and a free job ad on its industry job board, FM Recruiter, this completely no-strings offer is our gift to you. Think of it as a ‘thank you’ for the warm welcome we received after launching in 2022.
We’ll be exhibiting alongside a range of leading FM service providers at the free-to-attend Workplace Event. With a packed seminar schedule, it’s a chance to hear exclusive insights, share best practice, and connect with industry insiders – including FM Director’s own managing editor, Dennis Flower, who’ll be in attendance on 26 April.
For more information, contact Cheryl Ellerington at cheryl@fmbusinessdaily.com
Increasingly urgent calls for the training of young engineers have been heard in all areas of the FM industry in recent years, with the recruitment issues experienced by the majority of businesses last year adding further emphasis.
Following the various difficulties reported in the recruiting of staff in all roles, many companies stated that these increased with the level of skills required. These are particularly relevant
when considering the rise in technology use, particularly in the area of building controls, and the recruitment and training of controls engineers has become an urgent requirement for all organisations.
The situation is common to all sectors and is serving to emphasise the importance of the essential support provided by industry bodies, including the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA). One of the more specialist associations, it is the
main organisation for the UK building controls and building energy management systems (BEMS) market.
In addition to its own training courses, the BCIA continues to support the new BEMS Controls Engineer Apprenticeship for the controls sector and is working with the BEMS Employer Group to develop this. It has also formed the Young Engineers Network (YEN) group and has announced the appointment of its chair and vice-chair.
E.ON Controls lead commissioning engineer Greg Smith has taken the role of YEN chair and has been joined by InTandem Systems trainee control engineer Abbie Bewley in the position of vice chair. They spoke exclusively to FM Director to explain their involvement and the growing number of benefits being enjoyed by the group’s expanding membership.
Ms Bewley is employed by InTandem in the Portsmouth, Hampshire area, while enrolled on the mechanical engineering course at Portsmouth University. The company was recommended by the university placement team as the ideal employer with which to gain work experience.
“I worked full-time for InTandem for two months last summer and have stayed on working part-time ever since, and hope I can then continue to work for the company after I graduate in July,” she says. “I’m doing an undergraduate master’s degree and don’t have any plans to continue studying after that finishes, as yet, as I’ve been studying for five years and it’s time for a break.
Mr Smith chose his apprenticeship course after being made redundant from a previous role and initially worked for the Matrix business before its purchase by his current employer. “That was in 2014 and they’ve looked after me really well and have been really good with training.”
Both E.ON and InTandem are BCIA members and have encouraged their employees to engage with the association and its YEN group.
“The BCIA started talking about forming the YEN a while back and I was hoping to get involved. I joined as soon as they confirmed it, so have been involved since the start,” says Mr Smith.
The group was officially launched in April 2022 with the aim of providing young BEMS engineers with the opportunity to network with their peers and support their career progression.
While Mr Smith has been in the sector for nine years, Ms Bewley joined last year and is continuing her studies and apprenticeship. Having enjoyed their experiences in the first few months of the YEN’s existence, they shared their enthusiasm for the staging of more site visits which is one of the key benefits of the Network. The Young Engineers Network held three events in 2022, the first of which was a virtual tour of Soho Place in central London, followed by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club stadium in North London, then Bloomberg HQ in October.
Recalling the visit to Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Ms Bewley says: “It was the first plant room I’d been to, so I was very much in awe and trying to understand what was going on, but it was really interesting to see all the things they do and chat about it with other people from the industryI’d only been office-based up to that point, and although I’ve been to a few since, it’s still the largest I’ve seen so far.
“The attention to detail was very impressive, I thought, including all the labels having the Spurs logo on them and the club’s blue and white colours included on everything.”
“It was very interesting because Schneider were involved in other areas, apart from the BMS,” Mr Smith continues. “They were doing the power, the lifts and lots of other sections of building control.”
It only takes two minutes to sign up; a great time investment for the support and opportunities you can get back from it
With heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) a major area of interest for all YEN members, several are additionally involved in other aspects and the wide-ranging partnership between Tottenham Hotspur and Schneider therefore provided added interest to many of the group.
The event saw 25 YEN members initially guided around the stadium by the club’s tour guides to appreciate the size and various aspects of the facility. Once this was complete, the group was introduced to the Schneider site project manager to view the plant room and controls.
The company had designed and fitted out the plant room and now manages operational and maintenance requirements, with a permanent on-site presence required to deliver the service. Following the completion of the visit, the group then adjourned to a nearby pub to continue networking and discussions.
Having successfully organised the events of last year and received encouraging feedback from YEN members, Ms Bewley and Mr Smith are considering plans for the staging of more site visits in 2023. Depending on whether the numbers of attendees are limited – as in the visit to Tottenham Hotspur –these will be offered to the membership and places are likely to be offered to the membership on a firstcome-first-served basis. In addition to thoughts on potential site visits to attend in the future, Ms Bewley and Mr Smith continue to discuss more strategic matters, including the future direction of the YEN.
“We’ve agreed that we’ll work more towards encouraging diversity in the building controls sector and raising awareness of women in STEM topics,” Ms Bewley continues. “That will be driven forward when we get a few more people on the team, who can then tell their stories about diversity and inclusion and the broad range of career opportunities for women in the sector.”
“If you cast your net too far at the beginning you’ll be in danger of losing focus, so we’ve just agreed to look at the diversity topic initially and also encourage more people to move away from the idea that just because you work for a particular company, you’re only allowed a certain amount of training, and encourage more individuals to engage with taking apprenticeship courses and others,” says Mr Smith.
Following the success of last year’s site visits, Mr Smith and Ms Bewley would like to organise more in the future that will ideally include visiting plant rooms within a variety of industries to appreciate all the requirements. Potential candidates include sites operated by existing BCIA members and the YEN is drawing up a list of their preferred locations.
They will approach the companies concerned when full agreement is reached with the YEN membership. One of the requirements will be to ensure a wider geographic spread of sites to avoid everyone having to travel to the English capital.
“Last year’s visits were all in London, which is fine for me as I’m based there, but we have members in all areas and we want to make it as fair to as many young engineers as possible,” says Mr Smith. “We’re also looking at improving the BCIA website to include more for the YEN and make it easier for new members to join the YEN.
“It only takes two minutes to sign up; a great time investment for the support and opportunities you can get back from it.”
Membership of the YEN is currently only open to members of BCIA and is aimed at young engineers under the age of 35. Following the launch of the group last year and the enthusiasm with which it has been received, the association is currently considering how it can welcome more young engineers, particularly those on the BEMS Controls Engineer Apprenticeship and those outside of BCIA membership.
In the meantime, those interested in becoming a member of the YEN are encouraged to contact the association, which will contact them to advise of further developments in the future.
Discussing the challenges and advantages of developing best practice modern working processes
hile the effect of the coronavirus pandemic continues to be felt by numerous areas of UK society and many areas of the business community, it has also been described as a driver of new working practices.
One of the areas of most note has been the dramatic shift in working arrangements, which has led to many companies implementing agile working processes. While this has helped most businesses initially, a large percentage are now having to adjust these arrangements in an effort to see offices achieve higher levels of attendance.
Having appreciated the wider view of agile working, FM Director and D3 Office Group invited a select group of industry experts to the company’s Huddersfield, West Yorkshire showroom and office to discuss the issue in more depth. Those attending were welcomed with refreshments and tours of the facility, combined with introductions to industry partners of the sponsor, including Orangebox, Humanscale and Your Workspace.
Having assembled a mix of client-side FMs, real estate, office and procurement managers and directors, combined with service providers involved in relevant areas of the FM sector, conversations ranged from forthcoming construction and redesign projects to the upgrading of existing office furniture and equipment.
Following an early lunch, the more formal side of the day was initiated by Orangebox research and insight manager Nathan Hurley with an in-depth presentation that included a number of contrasting views from higher education and business leaders. Possibly the most notable of these was the statistic that the large majority (96%) of higher education chief academics claimed to be preparing students for the work environment in an effective manner, but a mere 11% of business leaders agreed with this statement.
Having gained the undivided attention of the attendees, Mr Hurley continued his presentation with an entertaining variety of results from his studies and conversations with both academics and employers. One of his main areas of focus was the comparison between the modern higher education campus and the workplace, particularly relating to the use of devices and application of technology.
With a number of attendees stating how their workplace had changed since the pandemic, or was due to do so, it was stated that the same was true for campuses in meeting the expectations of students. The majority of students (91%) would typically arrive at university with two electronic devices, with more than half of all new cohorts arriving with three.
This is another area matched with the workplace, leading to discussion on how to accommodate all members of the workforce and their methods of working.
The use of personal electronic devices is continuing to drive the need for improved levels of connectedness to company systems and allowing all employees to remain as productive as possible, regardless of whether they work at the main office or satellite facilities, at their homes or other buildings, including those of clients or industry partners.
Mr Hurley additionally discussed the emergence of activity-based learning within higher education facilities, which continued to match developments within many company workplaces. As a result of this, students are able to access areas for individual studies, along with others for teams and groups of all sizes.
These areas are designed to encourage and meet the aspirations of those requiring higher levels of social interaction, combined with amenities for digital learning, along with catering, more formal presentations or more privacy for those seeking spaces to facilitate peace and quiet.
One of the most notable results of these developments has been a dramatic change to the interior design of many universities and colleges around the UK.
The use of personal electronic devices is continuing to drive the need for improved levels of connectedness to company systems
This was illustrated within Mr Hurley’s presentation, with a number of examples of higher education interiors that resembled the interiors of modern workplaces.
Taking the above into account, Mr Hurley introduced the concept of Relationship Buildings, which has been formed by his company to assist in navigating, interpreting and re-imaging the changing landscape of the workplace in the light of the continuing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. This provided further cohesion between the day’s activities and the discussion on the topic of agile working.
Attendees agreed with the majority of points made within the presentation about the significant changes that had resulted from measures introduced to deal with the pandemic, which has been described as compressing the movement toward agile working (which otherwise would have taken 10 years) into a few months.
Having brought the issues that continue to be experienced by many businesses into sharp perspective, the continuing discussion further emphasised these issues and their ongoing impact on the workplace.
The large scale and sudden shift in working practices saw large numbers of UK workers begin to work from home at short notice as companies complied with the first lockdown in early 2020, with many yet to return to full-time office work.
One result of this has seen employers use a variety of means to encourage higher numbers of staff to use their offices on a more frequent basis. Having implemented agile working practices to allow employees to have greater variety, attendees to the D3 Office Supplies event reported that these were continuing to be reviewed and adjusted.
One of the trends discussed was that of redesigning workplaces to make them more attractive to all members of staff, often combined with reducing the amount of floorspace to reflect the lower number of people in attendance compared with the footfall seen prior to the pandemic. Questions were additionally asked about how this has and would continue to impact the real estate sector.
Lower demand for office space is continuing to cause concern among property owners, with the implication that new construction projects are likely to be designed to appeal to more buoyant sectors. However, with many individuals and businesses struggling to cope with the high levels of inflation and other issues seen over the last 18 months, questions were asked about the long-term effects these would have on the real estate sector.
The individual concerns of those in attendance were also shared, along with the issues that they had seen in both their own offices and those of their clients. With companies seeking to manage their offices more efficiently, many had turned to technology to assist with this. Systems to monitor the use of space had been deployed, with the intention to record whether the various areas within offices were being used sufficiently. The resulting data could be used to justify further changes, including reductions and increases to the space.
Following the event, numerous examples of positive feedback were shared for the opportunities provided throughout the day. In addition to networking with peers and discussing each other’s requirements and approach to agile working, the opportunity to view the many products on show and see live demonstrations of their use was also well received.
Lower demand for office space is continuing to cause concern among property owners
Having successfully completed its London exhibition, The Cleaning Show is now preparing for a return to Manchester in 2024
Having successfully completed its London exhibition, The Cleaning Show is now preparing for a return to Manchester in 2024
Visitors to this year’s The Cleaning Show were
presented with some extra challenges in the form of disruption to their journey resulting from strikes by national rail service providers and those affecting the London Underground.
Thankfully, the first day of the event was
unaffected by either and proved to be one of its busiest on record, welcoming a flood of people.
Consisting of a wide range of suppliers to the FM cleaning sector, exhibitors enjoyed the resulting high levels of attention and enquiries.
One of the most notable trends was for increased levels of automation at all levels, ranging from the application of washroom soap, towels and disposables to scrubber/dryer machines and many others in between.
With the cleaning sector recorded as one of the industries most notably affected by last year’s labour shortages, there was understandable interest in the growing number of options provided by technology and automation.
Another highly attractive element of the event was that of its conference area, which featured presentations from industry leaders and officers from the British Cleaning Council (BCC), Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) and Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA).
The first day of the show began with a keynote speech from Nigel Mills MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Cleaning and Hygiene, followed by BCC chair Jim Melvin discussing the progress, obstacles and future of the cleaning sector in the post-pandemic period.
The morning session was brought to a close with CSSA chair Paul Ashton, speaking about the future of the industry and the use of data to provide positive change.
Further insights into the recruitment issues experienced by the cleaning sector were provided by BICSc youth ambassador Kelsey Hargreaves in her presentation Youth employment: less talking more action. Sharing her experiences as a young employee in the cleaning industry, she provided thoughts on the actions required to attract more people to the sector.
One of the issues highlighted by Ms Hargreaves, the BICSc and the trade bodies present at the event was the perception of the cleaning industry, which is seen as a major barrier to overcome in order to encourage more people to consider it as a career.
This has also been a major focus for the APPG Cleaning and Hygiene group, which has attempted to launch a Trailblazer apprenticeship and formal training for the industry to raise standards and attract more young people to join.
There were numerous references to the need to raise the image and awareness of the industry throughout the show to counteract the negative impressions held by those citing reasons for not considering it as a career.
CHSA chair Lorcan Mekitarian’s presentation placed further emphasis on the need to ensure that cleaning products are suitable for use and match the claims of distributors.
He referred to the boom in sales of cleaning products that resulted from the pandemic, which had seen many unscrupulous companies offer unsuitable products at high prices.
Mr Mekatarian’s presentation was intended to raise awareness of bad practice and educate those sourcing cleaning products to understand the issues and ask the right questions before committing to purchasing decisions.
Helpful advice continued to be shared by the event’s organiser, exhibitors and other attendees to combat the travel issues affecting the second and third day of The Cleaning Show, including the potential use of the River Thames. Encouragement was also provided for those choosing to drive to the East London venue, which has access to large areas of parking.
Attendees were welcomed to the second day of the event, with the opening presentation of the day delivered by The Floorbrite Group marketing and brand director Nina Wyers. Her session further explored the theme of climate change in the cleaning sector, first voiced by Ms Wyers at last year’s Manchester event.
The next half-hour slot saw Environmental Excellence Training Development director Delia Cannings and OCS Group digital learning manager Drew Edwards discussing education opportunities for the cleaning sector. Their discussion included thoughts on the need to consider the value and importance of training, particularly where this is designed to assist with succession planning for the future.
Wider FM industry topics were included in the two main presentational slots in the afternoon of the show’s second day, both of which included panels of experts. Kimberley Clark Professional’s Louisa Clark, Craig Bowman and Jo Mullins were joined by Principality Stadium FM Darren Crossman and BICSc head of technical services Denise Hanson exploring the topic of Hygiene innovation for the future.
Their discussion was followed by the views of industry experts on the theme of the need for clear and understandable terminology to deliver the best outcomes throughout the cleaning sector in the Expect or inspect? session.
More industry debate featured in the final day of the event, with MSL Solution Providers technical innovations manager Peter Thistlethwaite opening proceedings with his Whole-room disinfection – the impact of changes to regulations presentation.
This was followed by Living Wage Foundation programme manager Elise Craig and Cleanology chief executive officer Dominic Ponniah coming together to emphasise the need to pay all staff an acceptable wage and emphasising the benefits this will have on the company question. With the cleaning sector offering some of the lowest rates of pay within the FM sector, many companies have now signed up to the Living Wage Foundation and continue to work with their clients and other industry partners to improve wages for cleaners.
A second joint presentation followed, by the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA) membership and partnership manager Ayesha Fordham and ambassador Natalie Curtis to help attendees to recognise those suffering from domestic abuse in their company and tackle the issue.
The final presentation of the event saw the CSSA explain its plans for the future, including its drive to attract more members and support the industry in dealing with the challenges to come.
There was understandable interest in the growing number of options provided by technology and automation
All members of the supply chain will need to work in close cooperation to support everyone in achieving net zero carbon emissions
Having discerned that more than 90% of the company’s carbon emissions are accounted for by its supply chain, CBRE has begun working with member organisations to assist in the drive to achieve net zero carbon emissions in future.
The first example of this took place at its Southwark Road, London premises at the start of the year and included a number of the company’s hard service providers. In addition to assisting supply chain members to gain more information on the options available to reduce carbon emissions, the HVAC Hakathon event provided valuable opportunities to share their expertise and thoughts with their peers.
Attendees were informed that the workshop had been created to provide a platform for creative thinking through a series of activities, with the overarching aim of generating new solutions to the challenge of decarbonising heating and cooling.
The outcomes of the activities were recorded and the company stated that these will be considered for further development and implementation.
CBRE stated that it recognised the fact that there are numerous opportunities to choose from to improve the efficiency of HVAC systems and how they interact with multiple elements of buildings and occupants. With this in mind, the company advised that it sought to encourage a systems thinking approach and provided four examples to assist attendees in focusing their efforts:
1 HVAC systems design and operation;
2 Building design;
3 Occupant behaviour;
4 Manufacturing, supply chain and end of life.
With the majority of attendees consisting of representatives from the company’s hard service providers and consultants, the event provided the platform for a collaborative, fast-paced day of activities, with the overall focus placed on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems and the challenges involved in reducing global carbon emissions.
There is increasing urgency to address the issue of built environment carbon emissions, which have been determined as being responsible for 39% of energyrelated emissions around the world. More than 70% of these are described as ‘operational’ and generated by the requirements of heating, cooling and power supply.
Considerable expense and effort had been devoted by CBRE to the organisation and presentation of the day and the various events included. After dividing attendees into a total of 17 teams, each group was encouraged to share ideas on the best ways to deliver carbon emission reductions.
The company reports that many of the ideas resulting from the workshops mentioned the importance of educating people, with the intention of allowing them to make more informed decisions and assist in reducing energy consumption. Behavioural change was referred to on a frequent basis as a means of reducing consumption in the most effective manner.
However, for people to want to change their behaviour, it was determined that they need a better understanding of how and why this is important. CBRE reports that there were many ideas proposed to address this issue. The most popular was to develop a software program to assist in identifying measures that can be taken to make buildings more efficient. Other ideas proposed on the day included the consideration of carbon emissions as part of the decision-making process for contract proposals, with the intention of making the carbon costs of choices visible.
Overall, the main issues identified were the lack of understanding that many people have of the issue of reducing carbon emissions and how to address this. Several of the ideas resulting from group discussions looked to data for the answer.
One of the reasons for this was adhering to the old adage that ‘you can only manage what you can measure’, with data collection considered to be the best means of measuring carbon emissions. It was further stated that for effective behaviour change to be enabled, data must be provided in a manner easy to understand and clearly state the benefits that will be provided.
Each team was asked to write its best solution, with the final session of the day seeing these laid out for all attendees to consider and place their vote for their preferred option. The winning entry was provided by group B and entitled Smart buildings, smart choices.
It suggested that the creation of an app, supported by sophisticated software, could be provided to commercial and residential property owners, service providers and occupiers and include a digital twin of the site. Additional factors, such as weather conditions, would be combined with data from BMS systems and sensor information.
This would then present information in a simple and clear illustration to enable the best decisions to be made on how to decarbonise through the inclusion of a list of recommendations for improvements.
Following closely behind this was the Whole life carbon assessment entry from group A, which suggested integrating carbon emissions into project decisions, including return on investment figures, and integrating smart FM solutions to increase efficiency. It stated that whole life carbon assessment should be conducted on existing facilities to establish a baseline and guide decision-making for the next steps in the process of reducing carbon emissions.
The third most popular entry with attendees was Make carbon emissions visible to get buy-in, presented by group C. This advised that making the effects of different choices clearly visible would incentivise stakeholders to reduce energy consumption through behavioural change.
“Being able to quantify the carbon consequences of every decision is an excellent way to educate people on the impacts of decisions,” said the group.
Following the event, attendees were invited to continue to make the most of the day by remaining on site and enjoying the food and drink provided by CBRE. The day was well attended and received positive feedback from attendees, with more supply chain Hackathons planned for the future.
The company states that reducing the carbon emissions of HVAC systems is essential if the global community is to reduce global carbon emissions in line with restricting warming to 1.5°C. To do this successfully, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that emissions will have to drop by 43% by 2030, and that zero net emissions must be reached by 2050 at the latest.
Furthermore, 80% of the building stock that will be present in 2050 is already in existence today, making efforts heavily focused on retrofits essential. These issues present huge challenges for the HVAC industry but also opportunities to innovate.
There is increasing urgency to address the issue of built environment carbon emissions, which have been determined as being responsible for 39% of energy-related emissions around the world
Adam Brindle explains why the race to the bottom in grounds maintenance is bad for sites and bad for business
Adam Brindle explains why the race to the bottom in grounds maintenance is bad for sites and bad for business.
Time for a dirty secret. Quite a few years ago, when I was coming into the grounds maintenance business, I was told: “You make your money doing the work you don’t do”. The message was that you price the work into your contract and then work your hardest to avoid delivering it. From an ethical perspective, this never sat well with me or for many of us in the profession who work hard every day to deliver on our promises. But that cynical view is sadly still out there – particularly when contractors are racing to the bottom on pricing grounds maintenance as a commodity rather than a skilled and valuable service.
This month we saw just this when pitching to a prospective client in the care sector. Until recently their grounds maintenance was being handled by two major contractors, but the experience had proved disappointing, with unfulfilled promises and even failures to turn up on site for weeks on end. As a result, they had decided to reboot and rewrite their tender to be more focused on quality and horticultural best practice. The client had realised that the commodity approach on pricing and services, which at best delivered a bare-bones “mow, blow and go” service, needed to be replaced by a more specialised approach that could combine a commercial offering with a more horticultural focus. This change in emphasis reflected a realisation that their sites were more than a problem to be held at bay, but rather, could become an asset to support their business. Within care homes, gardens could play an active role in supporting their service users, for example, by providing sensory spaces for Alzheimer’s sufferers.
There will of course be limits to how much can be done within a given budget and grounds maintenance has always been concerned with balancing aesthetic demands with cost control. Yet for many clients, the focus on quality and horticulture is proving a better way to reconcile these objectives. At several of the larger sites we manage, we have worked with clients to move away from excessive mowing and are now allowing grassy areas to go longer between mowing. This takes a more considered, proactive approach: not quite rewilding but finding a happy medium that cuts costs while allowing wildflowers to flourish. It also reduces the environmental impact and the emissions produced when mowing lawns to within an inch of their life.
In other instances, having skilled staff who can care for plants through best horticultural practice helps those plants stay looking at their best for longer periods. By contrast, the commodity approach of ‘box it all up, square it all off and get rid of the leaves’, can result in plants dying off and require costly replanting down the line. As an aside, housing developments can often start with poor landscape architecture, where gardens are strewn with plants that often outgrow their space and/or are hard to maintain. Taking a considered horticultural approach from the outset can help to deliver longevity.
For many clients, there is a growing realisation that letting the pendulum swing too far towards a cheap tender can result in poor overall return on investment - especially when it results in higher downstream costs to rectify poor practices. By contrast, working with a horticultural specialist and investing a little more upfront can produce better outcomes and greater longterm ROI. What does this mean in practice? It means that contractors engage with stakeholders throughout the client’s business to understand needs, auditing their portfolio to help them understand the status of their sites and then identify what work can be done to align to those needs. This process is key to defining ROI in a more meaningful way. Thinking again about our care home example shows how value can be defined. Say you’re considering a home for your elderly mother and turn up to see the gardens in a state of neglect. Would you trust a business to care for your mum if they can’t look after their grounds? Whether it’s retail or property management, this need to preserve kerb appeal can be seen across numerous businesses.
Of course, horticultural best practice must be reconciled with practical factors such as safety. Even if it’s the wrong time to cut back a hedge, if it’s growing across a path and causing a trip hazard it needs addressing. Likewise, piles of leaves on paths can cause trips and slips, and site visits by grounds teams need to allow for sufficient vigilance and care to ensure issues are caught early and proactively addressed. This is easier to achieve if grounds staff aren’t being incentivised to deliver the minimum. Conversely, things like this can be missed if contractors have no sense of partnership or accountability.
Ironically, in the digital age when smart devices are allowing for far more live reporting and supposedly better accountability, much of the old-school TLC that helps keep sites at their best is being left behind. I’d argue that clients can and should expect both –and indeed many organisations have already started to change the way they engage grounds maintenance contractors to focus on value rather than cost.
Adam Brindle is managing director of The Grounds Care Group
Having skilled staff who can care for plants through best horticultural practice helps those plants stay looking at their best for longer periods
Recruitment potential shown for those taking early retirement at the start of the pandemic to address long-term skills shortage issues, write 300 North co-founder and director
Michelle Connolly and marketing manager Emma Thornton
In the last 2 years, around 700,000 workers aged 50+ have left the jobs market. This is of particular significance to the FM sector as it has an ageing workforce which has suffered from a loss of labour over the past two years due to Brexit, the pandemic, early retirement, and other factors. This means we have lost some of the expertise
needed to productively bring the next generation of FM professionals into the sector. More experienced professionals are a boon to any sector as they can take on a mentoring role for young people who will do their work in the future.
Added to this, the UK recruitment market is still seeing record numbers of vacancies, and record shortages of candidates. The over-50s cohort is a
talent pool that many are not directly advertising to, meaning that they are missing out on some specialised and valuable candidates. Broadbean saw 59 million job applications in 2022 and sees no sign of the market slowing in 2023. REC UK’s Labour Market Tracker found “184,335 new job adverts in the first week of January (a 24.5% increase on 2022’s figures), suggesting that demand remains very high.”
A report from Phoenix Insights stated: “57% of those in their late 50s [who have left the workforce since 2019] say they are not looking for work because they are retired or looking after family. This rises to 68% among those in their early 60s.” The same study looked at the reasons over 50s had left employment since 2020:
26% did not like the number of hours they worked;
25% felt they lacked a work-life balance;
25% disliked their commute;
20% did not like their levels of pay.
But of those still looking for work, many are facing these barriers to re-entering the workforce.
That this cohort is facing barriers to returning to work highlights a more general need for companies to better serve the needs of all their employees. Hiring skilled candidates is always an issue, but the three years of a candidate-favoured market exacerbates this. The market is as candidate-led as ever with the number of current vacancies far outstripping the number of people available. Whilst some of the barriers to work experienced by the over 50s will need more systematic change and government intervention, there are some things companies can be doing now to attract and retain the senior members of their workforce. These include:
Job roles being flexible around the needs of over-50s, including flexibility around working hours, and allowing part-time work to facilitate a better work-life balance;
Allowing senior workers to adapt their job role to their current needs, including reducing manual labour needs and passing on tasks;
Changing a job role to allow time for mentoring and handover work to support knowledge retention and exchange within the business and providing senior workers with a more fulfilling and essential business role;
Phased retirement schemes can provide much needed support for people looking to stay in work, whilst allowing time for more work-life balance; Careers gaps and sabbaticals can also give over 50s a much-needed break before a more positive return to work;
Ensuring that caring and family crisis leave policies are fair and up to date so that people feel able to remain in work whilst caring for relatives and dealing with personal matters;
Providing current training for various skills and supporting development in all employees, regardless of age;
Providing training for line managers to understand the different issues that over-50s may face; Conduct mid-life career reviews to improve retention of over-50s employees. This cohort is larger and more likely to be loyal employees than the younger generation of workers, so putting effort into understanding their needs can improve retention and save costs;
Consider an “alumni” programme that invites retired or semi-retired workers to come back and share knowledge;
Be mindful of the length and difficulty of their recruitment processes, and how accessible they are to all. Many recruitment processes are now extremely reliant on technology, including video submissions and AI CV screening, which may put people off from applying;
Eradicate age bias from your recruitment process. There is evidence that some employers still view taking on a candidate over 50 as a business risk as they are seen as “heading for retirement”, though many want to work and just need a flexible model; Invest in retention planning, and understand that the average tenure of workers is decreasing, especially amongst younger professionals who are more likely to change jobs if they do not like the work or workplace culture. Older professionals still stay in jobs for longer, and companies could see a decade or more of work from employing a 50-year-old.
Employers who do not offer flexible working to fit alongside other pressures and priorities in people’s lives will find themselves behind in the market in the next few years as this has become an expectation for candidates and a reason that they are leaving roles. Indeed, Broadbean found that companies removing flexible working practices were negatively impacted by people leaving for other companies that would support their needs.
Flexible working can be invaluable for people who have caring commitments as many over-50s do. There is a burden of care on the over-50s including looking after elderly parents, long-term sick partners, children, or grandchildren. This means that it may be more financially logical to leave the workforce and care for relatives than to juggle work and caring responsibilities.
Employers can support candidates in many ways, but for some, a return to the workplace can seem uncertain, even worrying. For those candidates considering a return to the workplace, don’t worry. Things you may have struggled with at one employer, another company will be able to provide help with and training on. It will also give you the flexibility you need to succeed in your role. More senior candidates can provide fantastic mentoring and experiential skills to a younger workforce, especially in non-senior roles, as they will have more face-to-face time to pass on their knowledge and many companies will recognise this.
Much of a professional career is seen as a ladder that employees need to climb in order to have a successful career, however, taking a step back or sideways towards the end of your career can be more fulfilling and can give you the work-life balance you want after 30 years in work. Our recruitment consultants work with candidates to give nonjudgemental advice and support in the recruitment process to ensure that they feel comfortable, no matter what stage they are at in their life or career. We aim to provide a service tailored to your needs and wants as a candidate, so you feel assured that you are making the right choice.
Employers can support candidates in many ways, but for some, a return to the workplace can seem uncertain, even worrying
e’re your forwards; we’ll do the hard yards for you, making it easier for you to focus on scoring the tries and gaining the glory.”
When discussing ESG (environmental, social and governance), Tony Underwood avoids reductive oneliners – but he’s partial to a rugby metaphor or two. Indeed, speaking to FM Director, the British Lion and former airline pilot regularly draws parallels between his professional Rugby Union career and his new role as an Achilles global ambassador.
This role will see Mr Underwood work to raise awareness around the issues of sustainability and ESG in global supply chains, promoting ‘performance through purpose.’
It’s all part of Achilles’ wider mission to help organisations to build a more sustainable, cleaner, safer, and fairer world using its global technology platform and highly qualified validators and auditors to ensure that global supply chains meet ESG, sustainability, human rights, and health and safety obligations.
But how did Mr Underwood make the transition from commercial pilot to trusted advisor for ESG and carbon management specialist Achilles? The answer lies in his varied career, which has spanned over 30 years and several sectors.
Reflecting on his professional journey, he explains: “I went from an amateur rugby player who was working as an investment banker in the city, to a professional rugby player.
“Then I went from a professional rugby player to a commercial pilot, and from a commercial pilot to an ambassador for Achilles. But one of the things that has stood me in good stead is that I’ve never defined myself in terms of my job title, which has made the transitions smoother.”
While Mr Underwood is modest about these professional achievements, he agrees that they have equipped him with the experience and insights he needs to succeed in his latest role.
Sharing one such insight from his time as a young trainee broker, he recalls: “I’d been in the city for a few years, and moved around various departments, doing ‘grunt’ work.
“There’s a lot of work that goes on to support what you see on television, with people going out and doing the selling and research. The guys in the back office are the ones that facilitate the transactions, make lines of credit available, make sure everything works like clockwork.”
Mr Underwood compares brokers to the wingers of the rugby world; they score the ‘tries’ and are hailed as heroes, while their teammates work hard to make it all possible.
He’s more qualified than most to comment on the subject, having enjoyed a career as a full-time Rugby Union player after the sport turned professional in 1995.
Reflecting on his sporting career, he says: “I was fortunate enough to be involved in rugby as both an amateur and a professional. I’d been an England and a Lions player before it went professional, and continued to be an England player and went on a Lions tour afterwards.”
Mr Underwood (who first showed promise as a rugby player at Barnard Castle School in County Durham) admits that the transition from amateur to full-time sportsperson proved challenging. Nevertheless, he enjoyed his time as a professional rugby player, quickly learning the importance of teamwork.
“One of the strongest lessons to take from sport is that you can’t succeed in that kind of elite environment unless you collaborate, operate as a team, and understand the importance of every single cog in the system,” he says.
It was a lesson Mr Underwood carried forward into the aviation industry. After retiring from international rugby in 1998, the former winger retrained as a pilot, and went on to fly for Easy Jet, Virgin Atlantic and Emirates. Like many people, he began to rethink his priorities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I’d been a commercial pilot for 20 years, and had lived abroad for about 14 years – seven years in Dubai, and around eight in France. I think we’ve all gone through some challenges over the last few years, and it was a big upheaval for us,” he remembers.
Now resettled in the UK, Mr Underwood is excited to be “carving out a new identity.” He adds that his role with Achilles has provided a new sense of purpose, enabling him to support others and make a positive difference.
“There was a real frustration about being in the piloting world,” he explains. “There was this sense of ‘what purpose am I achieving?’ What I love is that Achilles has given me a platform; I’m fulfilling my fundamental need, which is helping others and leaving, in some small way, a legacy.”
Mr Underwood will educate organisations on the importance of ESG, urging them to embrace the concept, not just because legislation demands it, but for the far-reaching benefits it offers.
As part of this, he will encourage leaders to rethink their own sense of purpose, shifting focus from profit to the ‘triple bottom line’ (which also encompasses people and the planet).
“I guess what I’m trying to do with organisations is get them away from the narrative that the only objective is to make a profit,” he explains.
“They forget that they can take a more holistic approach. If the focus is only on making money, or winning on the rugby pitch, or getting from Dubai to Manchester as quickly as possible, then you’re missing out.
“If you just embrace more of an ESG concept, thinking about all the stakeholders involved and how you do your best to satisfy their needs – and if you enshrine this higher purpose in your objective – then you’ll have a much better time. And by the way, all the evidence shows, you’ll make more profit at the end of it!”
Mr Underwood is passionate about this holistic approach, which he dubs ‘performance through purpose’. Indeed, his time in the elite worlds of sport and aviation has taught him that, to succeed, a team must define its vision.
“We need to acknowledge that for every group – be it a rugby team, a team on an aeroplane, a team in an organisation – you need to articulate a purpose, a vision,” he says. “What it is you are; what represents you, and what you’re doing this for.”
His hope is that more organisations will embrace a “higher purpose”, seeking not just to turn a profit, but to make a positive difference to people and the planet.
The next level
Mr Underwood recalls his second professional tour as a British Lion, adding that the sense of purpose he and his teammates shared was key to their success.
“As part of that tour, at the very beginning, we agreed that we needed to create an identity,” he remembers. “Who was this group of people – not just the 35 players in the squad, but the management, the support staff, the doctors, the medics, the physios, the marketing professionals. Everyone spent an important couple of days off site, defining who the 97 Lions were.”
He admits that he and his colleagues were already at an advantage as members of the esteemed British Lions team, likening this to organisations with a strong brand.
“They might start with an advantage because they’ve got a good brand and some history behind them, but the vital thing is to build on that and reach an elite level,” he explains. “So if you’re not satisfied with good or average and you want to reach optimal levels, that’s where I can offer support – because to get there, you need to create a purpose.”
All aboard
Mr Underwood adds that, if companies fail to secure the buy-in of stakeholders – particularly employees and suppliers – this sense of purpose might not translate to positive change.
He warns: “You can’t just go ‘that’s saving the planet and looking after people’. You need buy-in from the really important stakeholders, which are organisations; they need to be sustainable as well.
“If every stakeholder is abiding by your vision, you’ve got more chance of change occurring and success and high performance happening.
One of the strongest lessons to take from sport is that you can’t succeed in that kind of elite environment unless you collaborate
“That’s where success as a team occurred in rugby; you’re not going to perform as a team unless you fully embrace that mindset.”
He challenges organisations to consider whether they have articulated their purpose, whether they have communicated it to stakeholders, and finally, who has developed the messaging around it.
He adds: “Usually this last stage doesn’t involve everyone. And what is the point if the people on the frontline – those doing the grunt work, who make it possible for the flyboys to succeed – don’t buy into it? If it doesn’t speak to them, or acknowledge and validate them?
“To get the most out of everyone, rather than everyone operating as individuals, you need a collective – and for a collective to work, you need everyone to buy in. That’s when the synergy happens.”
Diversity is also key, and Mr Underwood explains that “every voice must be heard”; taking into account a range of perspectives enables teams to think “agilely and creatively”.
He goes on to explain the difference between compliance and commitment, stressing that organisations “can’t just tell everyone what to believe.”
“The reality is that most businesses are operating sub-optimally because their people are just complying,” he says.
“If you articulate your purpose and it engages all the stakeholders – gains their commitment - then that’s the Holy Grail.
“This will involve connecting and communicating with them, as well as a degree of emotional intelligence.
“Because only when you understand their needs will you be able to influence them and gain their commitment.”
The ‘G’ in ESG
As ESG edges further into contracts, organisations might be tempted to settle for compliance alone. Mr Underwood warns that ESG efforts can easily become a box-ticking exercise, and is keen to educate business leaders on the true benefits of the ‘triple bottom line’ approach.
He explains: “People now need to do it because legislation says they must; if you want new finance, investors are putting limitations and requirements on you, and stipulating that you need to tick ESG boxes. You can even lower your rates by doing so.
“I challenge people to look beyond that. There are consultancies that will make sure you’ve got the paperwork and processes in place, but the ‘secret sauce’ comes from really embracing the concept –recognising that this is good for you, because you’ll be gaining efficiencies and using your supply chain in a better way. And if you do it right, it’s going to hit your bottom line.”
Mr Underwood adds that, in today’s recruitment market, jobseekers are taking notice of organisational values.
To get the most out of everyone, rather than everyone operating as individuals, you need a collective –and for a collective to work
“Your employees are embracing this stuff whether you are or not, and they’re going to make decisions,” he says. “Attracting and retaining talent nowadays is governed by how you run your organisation. So if you’re not getting that side of things right, it could lead to brain drain.”
With new ESG regulations on the horizon, Mr Underwood suggests that organisations should seek to “get ahead.”
“You’ve got to embrace this because it might not be here now, but it will be coming,” he says. “In aviation as well as rugby, you’ve got to contingency plan. And it’s not just about avoiding pain; it’s about mitigating risk, lowering costs, and improving efficiencies – it’s good for you.”
While he stresses the importance of forwardthinking, Mr Underwood also acknowledges that CEOs, CFOs and even procurement teams may not have time to seek out and scrutinise reliable supply partners to the level of detail now required. That’s where Achilles comes in, using data-driven insights, expert data validation and, where required, in-person audits to identify and mitigate ESG risks in supply chains.
Mr Underwood explains: “It gives you more chance of achieving early wins because it takes the grunt work out of ESG, allowing you to spend time doing what you do best as an organisation.
“Why have the winger sitting in the scrum, trying to push? Let us free them up by taking on that specialised work.
“Even organisations with procurement managers or sustainability officers don’t want to trawl through a directory to find a good supplier.
“We can find these suppliers for you, and even confirm what their ESG rating is. And, when the time comes to report on ESG, let us do it for you too – let the experts support you.”
Achilles drills down into networks, helping clients to understand their Tier One, Two and even Three suppliers, before identifying the areas in which action is required. Mr Underwood states that, in today’s complex business environment, these insights are more important than ever.
“In piloting, we talk about situational awareness,” he says. “You can’t make informed, mature, highperforming decisions unless you have a full appraisal of what you’re dealing with. One of the biggest things pilots are taught is that it’s not just about responding to immediate challenges; it’s about being aware of the whole situation – what’s gone before, what’s coming up ahead – so that you can make the best decision.
“It’s apparent that a lot of the decision-making going on in organisations doesn’t have that maturity.”
Achilles is keen to help its clients identify and mitigate risks, making what Mr Underwood calls more “elite decisions.”
While this elite approach will pay dividends, he adds that – as on the rugby pitch – it’s “not all about winning”.
“Sometimes it’s about how you play and the endeavour you show,” he says. “A big thing for me is fan engagement and community outreach. Sport can connect across borders and communities.
“What Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes are doing in test cricket at the moment is, for me, the perfect example of this.
“The team played an amazing game and ended up losing by a run. And ok, they were on the wrong end of the statistic – but the way they engaged with supporters worldwide has turned the game around and secured its future.”
Mr Underwood sees this as a powerful metaphor, demonstrating that holistic thinking can lead to meaningful wins in the long term.
He feels privileged to be helping organisations secure these long terms wins, and invites any interested in ESG to reach out and start a conversation with him.
“I’m privileged to have been given the title of ambassador, but what’s more important to me is the value I can bring, not just to Achilles, but to anyone who’s interested in this whole area,” he states. “It’s about building a cleaner, fairer, more sustainable world, and how people can do that through my lens of ‘performance through purpose’.
“And back to the ‘triple bottom line’ concept –don’t just look at ESG as people and planet. It’s about prosperity as well, for every single stakeholder – including yourselves.
“My role is to spread the message, so let’s be proactive going forward. Reach out to me and have a conversation – that’s where everything starts.”
Attracting and retaining talent nowadays is governed by how you run your organisation. So if you’re not getting that side of things right, it could lead to brain drain
Paul Smerdon explains how his recent academic success is leading to better conversations with colleagues and clients and increased confidence in the workplace
uggestions on how the FM industry can improve its image and levels of respect with clients and other sectors have been proposed and discussed for a number of years.
One of the most popular has been a call for providing more formal qualifications for apprentices, general practitioners and senior managers, with the aim of improving recognition levels and encouraging more people to choose FM as a career. The efforts and achievements of Chineham Business Park Site operations manager Paul Smerdon provide an ideal example of how the gaining of professional qualifications can lead to benefits for individuals, employers, their clients and the industry in general.
“I’ve really enjoyed my career, which started around 20 years ago and led me to start working in FM in 2008,” says Mr Smerdon. “I’ve worked at some great places like BBC & Barclays as well as some great companies such as Exertis and now MAPP, which runs Chineham Business Park, but have mostly learned on the job.”
Although highly experienced, he explains that he has become increasingly keen to gain formal qualifications to support this. One of the significant benefits he has noted is the increase in confidence that his studies have provided.
He began studying for the IWFM level 4 diploma in FM in 2019 and received his official certificate at the end of last year. “There are so many areas of involvement for an FM and it’s impossible for them to be an expert in every area of their work, but I’ve found it very helpful to work on achieving my level 4 diploma,” he continues.
Mr Smerdon states that he has continued to question whether gaining more qualifications at an earlier stage would have benefited his career. “I sometimes wonder whether I stayed in some of my previous roles too long. I feel that my diploma has given me a boost in confidence and that could well have led me to be more ambitious if I’d studied earlier.
“But I’m very happy to have achieved level 4 and I feel that I’ve got a lot of years left to continue my career, so there’s plenty of time to make the most of it,” he says. “I was told I’d passed in early December, but only told my wife and senior people at MAPP and close colleagues in the same industry before the certificate arrived.”
One of the deciding factors in beginning his studies was the increased availability and ease of access to the course. “There seem to be a lot more opportunities available now than when I first started in FM and that’s combined with more awareness about the benefits of training around the industry, in my view,” he continues.
“I wouldn’t describe the course as all plain sailing, especially as it’s a good 20 years since I last did any studying, so it was difficult to write assignments of 4,000 words initially. But this became easier after a while, as I completed more assignments and I was really proud of the fact that I was able to complete each one in two drafts and never went on to a third,” he says.
When Mr Smerdon began his studies, he was employed by electronic goods distributor Exertis as its Southern FM. The company has established in-house teams to manage all aspects of its facilities and does not use external providers.
“Exertis are a great company and provide a lot of support to their people. They’re really good at supporting apprentices and all other staff and I found it extremely helpful to compare their method of managing their offices and warehouses with the in-house teams to outsourcing to an FM service provider company,” he continues.
His studies were completed with TSP Learn, based in Reading, Berkshire, and Mr Smerdon states that his FM experience allowed him to take the level 4 diploma without completing the previous levels. “This meant I had to do a lot more work in a condensed period of time and all the face-to-face meetings and studying had to stop during the pandemic, of course.”
With increasing recognition for the benefits of engaging with experienced mentors emerging within many business sectors in recent years, Mr Smerdon states that he also recommends having someone with whom to discuss all aspects of any course being studied.
“I was really lucky in that I could speak to my former manager Karen Farnan at Exertis, even after we had both left, and also my current manager Richard Hawkes, as well. You really need to be able to speak to someone, as there will always be times when you find it difficult for any reason, or just to get reassurance that you’re on the right path and understand everything correctly.
Exertis are a great company and provide a lot of support to their people. They’re really good at supporting apprentices and all other staff
“With face-to-face classes halted during the pandemic, it became even more important to be able to speak to my current and previous senior colleagues and their support was amazing,” he states.
Mr Smerdon also appreciated the use of textbooks during the course, stating that the information they provided proved very helpful and boosted his understanding of the topics. “I found that my industry experience fitted well with the large majority of the subjects within the course and also found that it helped to extend it in some areas, too,” he continues.
“Taking the course has also given me more confidence when speaking to colleagues and the occupiers on the estate and has helped to explain things more clearly and in more detail. I’ve always been a big believer in the benefits of health and safety, and compliance in general, and find that it’s much easier to explain exactly why we need to do things to get everyone on board,” he says.
He provides the examples of water testing and fire safety, both of which require regular examination to ensure that facilities are safe for everyone to use. “I’ve found that it really helps to explain the bigger picture to everyone about why we need to do the tests, or similar tasks, and have all the documentation to prove that the work has been done to the correct standards,” he continues.
“There’s a lot of responsibility within these areas and we have to make sure we follow up on the reports and complete the work required, so you need everyone on board to make sure this happens.”
In addition to helping him explain the details of essential legislation, Mr Smerdon further states that completing the course is proving useful in working towards the Chineham Business Park sustainability goals. Areas such as reducing energy usage, consideration of renewable energy technology and improved building management practices are now frequent topics of discussion.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to both MAPP and Exertis for all their support, they’ve been so supportive. MAPP gives everyone five training days a year and I’ve taken full advantage of those over the last couple of years, and my colleagues have been very supportive,” he states.
Having completed his level 4 diploma course, Mr Smerdon is now considering continuing his studies to gain more professional qualifications, providing further proof of the benefits of increased confidence and expertise. In addition to the advantages appreciated on a personal level, these aspects are continuing to provide benefits to the Chineham Business Park, its occupiers and MAPP colleagues.
He continues: “Although I’m a big supporter of training and development, I also believe it’s essential to have as much practical experience as possible to progress in any role. As an FM, you need to be honest and trustworthy in order to build relationships and help people to believe in you and trust that when you say you’ll do something, you’ll be doing your best to make sure that happens.”
“I’ve always conducted myself in a professional manner – and I’m sure that most other FMs do that, too – and put a lot of effort into building relationships with everyone around me. There will always be people that are difficult to get along with, but FMs need to rise above any issues and make sure they are always approachable.
“FMs are known for being jacks of all trades and masters of none; maybe it is time to change that with training and understanding these different trades. For example, do a legionella awareness course to help you understand managing water, or alternatively, in this diploma there is an element of finance which helped me understand the importance of budgeting as a business.
“I’ve always tried very hard to form positive relationships with all my colleagues, managers and clients. This shows them that I can be trusted to deliver and that’s a very important part of the job, in my view.”
With the benefit of hindsight, Mr Smerdon says he now believes he could have completed his level 3 diploma earlier in his career, which would have helped in studying for level 4. “It was a lot of hard work but definitely worth the effort and I’m going to enjoy the benefits. I’m also sure that these will continue to grow and develop further,” he concludes.
FMs are known for being jacks of all trades and masters of none; maybe it is time to change that with training and understanding these different trade
FM Director will publish an overview of the industry’s latest senior new starters and details of their roles in each of its monthly publications
Mechanical and electrical services specialist J S Wright has appointed Dean Burgess as IT manager.
Based at the company’s Birmingham headquarters, Dean has more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry.
He was previously head of IT for national children’s charity NYAS (National Youth Advisory Service), where he was instrumental in gaining the charity Cyber Essentials accreditation vital for securing government contracts.
Dean will be responsible for developing and maintaining the electronic network systems for both J S Wright and its sister company Wright Maintenance, which includes ensuring that all their systems remain secure and compliant.
Chief executive of the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), Michael Brodie, was presented with a CBE in recognition of his services to health.
He has been awarded the highest ranking British Empire Order from HRH the Princess Royal for his work, particularly during the pandemic.
Mr Brodie not only carried out the role of chief executive at NHSBSA but also and stepped in to become interim chief executive at the former Public Health England (PHE), following the announcement of its closure in August 2020.
Julius Rutherfoord & Co has boosted its senior team with the appointment of a new sales and marketing director.
Nick Gaskin brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience to the company, having worked in a number of senior positions with a host of blue chip brands, including Autoglym, Whyte & Mackay and Carlsberg.
Managing director Chris Jarvis said: “Nick is a highly experienced marketeer, and one who has worked to promote an array of global brands.
“Nick brings with him a wealth of skills, including securing growth opportunities, negotiating contracts and developing and implementing new commercial policies.
“He is our second senior hire of the year and shares our vision for continued growth whilst continuing to deliver a premium service to our customers.”
Bidvest Noonan has strengthened its senior leadership team in Ireland with the appointment of Mark Holligan as chief financial officer (CFO) for its business.
It follows a period of very strong growth for the business which saw it solidify its leadership position for services such as cleaning, security, and M&E maintenance services. The group, which employs over 27,000 people, has doubled in size in recent years.
A qualified chartered accountant and tax advisor, Mr Holligan brings with him more than 12 years of experience to the role, with expertise in financial planning and analysis, taxation, risk management and compliance, and more recently acquisition integrations.
Zoë Watts will take the helm at Bennett Hay at the start of April and will be responsible for the independent hospitality business’ bold growth plans and continued operational excellence. She joined Bennett Hay as business development director in the summer of 2021 and has secured new clients, retained existing business and led on marketing and innovation across the company’s portfolio of workplace catering and reception contracts.
Ms Watts was instrumental in securing the appointment of director of operations Leo Coates and culinary director Candice Webber to the leadership team of owner directors Robin Hay and Anthony Bennett
This month sees a change of leadership at the Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP). Current ASFP CEO Steve Davies is handing the reins to business manager Mike Ward, who will serve as managing director.
Mr Davies has led the association through a period of development and growth over the last two years, putting down strong foundations for the future, and presiding over the largest growth in membership in its history.
“I am proud to have led the ASFP through such a period of rapid change. Having had the opportunity to be involved in developing the Association’s strategy for 2023-25, I am confident that the Association will continue to meet the growing expectations of ASFP Members and the wider passive fire sector,” he said.
Johnathon Dale has been appointed as the new manager of Abloy UK’s Digital Access Solutions Academy, a purpose-built facility to educate, install and test the company’s range of products, with a particular focus on new digital solutions and ecosystems portfolio.
The academy provides free training courses for a range of Abloy solutions including Cliq, Incedo Business, Aperio and Smartair.
Mr Dale brings a wealth of experience to the role, after spending 13 years in the Royal Air Force in various positions, including engineer and training manager. He is looking to adapt the academy to also provide internal training to broaden the expertise of company staff, as well as continuing to build upon and grow the education provision for external parties.
Avison Young has announced the appointment of Dominic Amey as managing director of its London Markets team to spearhead the growth of capability across the capital.
The firm will be targeting new hires to join the existing London Investment, Leasing, Occupier Advisory and Flexible Workspace teams, to support clients across the capital. These teams will work closely with the wider business, offering clients an enhanced level of expert advice.
In leading the London Markets team, Mr Amey will focus on driving growth in the key areas of brand presence, revenue and personnel, as well as an emphasis on cross-selling with other UK business groups and with the wider global business, to continue strengthening client relationships.
Mechanical and electrical services specialist J S Wright has appointed Dean Burgess as IT manager.
Based at the company’s Birmingham headquarters, Dean has more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry.
He was previously head of IT for national children’s charity NYAS (National Youth Advisory Service), where he was instrumental in gaining the charity Cyber Essentials accreditation vital for securing government contracts.
Dean will be responsible for developing and maintaining the electronic network systems for both J S Wright and its sister company Wright Maintenance, which includes ensuring that all their systems remain secure and compliant.
ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions UK & Ireland has announced the appointment of Mariam Tabarik as product innovation engineer within the Door Group.
She began her journey with the business in 2022 as a research and development intern. Originally from Pakistan, she had been studying for her master’s degree in Italy, before becoming aware of the internship in Lisburn.
Ms Tabarik successfully applied, and in a short period, she had made such an impression that she was made a full-time employee.
Edwin James Group has beaten its target of expanding apprenticeships to 15 % of the workforce and has announced new commitments to supporting young people in their career choices.
In 2021, apprentices accounted for 10 % of the workforce, and the organisation committed to increasing this to 15 % within two years. Following the expansion of the programme, the figure now stands at 16 % of the Edwin James Group workforce across Musk Process Services, Parker Technical Services and Peak Technology Solutions.
Following the success, the company is now building on its existing programme to support more young people into engineering careers. Working with local schools, the company is planning to introduce Foundation Level apprenticeships for 15 – 18-year-olds and to increase the number of graduate apprenticeships.
300 North is a team of Facilities Management (FM) recruitment experts who source permanent, temporary and fixed term contract solutions for the UK Facilities Management, Mechanical & Electrical and Construction sectors.
Marketing@300nr.co.uk
https://www.300northrecruit.co.uk
0113 336 5161
360 Sport Finance and Mentoring is dedicated to helping professional and semi-professional sporting clubs and venues with sustainable financial growth, including non-event day business. help@360accountants.co.uk www.360accountants.co.uk
01482 427360
Specialist contractor Composites Construction UK operates throughout the UK and Europe. Using innovative methods, we carry out structural strengthening and repairs to concrete, timber, and masonry structures. contact@fibrwrap-ccuk.com
www.fibrwrap-ccuk.com
01482 425250
When it comes to pest control in London, Dyno-Pest understands how to handle your problems. We offer a simple solution, using the latest methods to deal with pests effectively and responsibly. info@dynopest.co.uk
www.dynopest.co.uk
0800 802 1246
FASET is the established trade association and training body for the safety netting and temporary safety systems industry. We support members with guidance, training, and exclusive benefit schemes. enquiries@faset.org.uk
www.faset.org.uk
01948 780652
GIND UK delivers ambitious projects in challenging environments. Our London-based engineering and design team specialises in bespoke access system maintenance for the world’s most iconic buildings.
info@gind.uk
www.gind.uk
0800 448 8884
A service provider for the future, Advance Facilities Solutions Ltd delivers complete building solutions to customers in the industrial, commercial, and domestic sectors.
helpdesk@advance.fm
www.advance.fm
01622 720 888
We create, maintain, and monitor healthy spaces –using pioneering online and apps-based technology. This includes working with suppliers and products in the marketplace to deliver long lasting and scientifically tested air and surface protection. info@envelo.solutions
https://envelo.solutions
020 7096 1941
Integral Cradles Ltd. delivers permanent façade access solutions across the UK, specialising in high buildings with unique specifications and demands. A whole life-cycle solution.
kevin@i-cradles.com
www.i-cradles.com
0845 074 2758
For almost 30 years Julius Rutherfoord has been passionate about providing professional cleaning services to some of the most prestigious organisations in the London area.
info@juliusrutherfoord.co.uk
https://www.juliusrutherfoord.co.uk/
020 7819 6700
Keytracker Ltd is the most prominent provider of both mechanical and electronic key and equipment control systems for the workplace. sales@keytracker.com
https://www.keytracker.com/ +44 (0)121 559 9000
Launched in 2008 following the merger of two 50-year-old companies, Magicccote provides a range of expert commercial cleaning solutions to customers across the UK.
info@magiccoteuk.com
www.magiccoteuk.co.uk 01482 211033
neutral carbon zone (NCZ) is a full-service platform that gives you the tools your company needs to make the transition to a carbon neutral business and beyond. gozero@neutralcarbonzone.com www.neutralcarbonzone.com 0845 094 5976
Established over 70 years ago, KCS has rapidly grown from its roots as a respected local window cleaning business, to a nationwide commercial cleaning company.
info@kingstoncleaningservices.co.uk
www.kingstoncleaningservices.co.uk
01482 648 737
Pace Security is a London-based privately owned company managed by some of the UK security industries’ most experienced and respected security industry professionals.
Lindsay@pacesecurity.co.uk
https://pacesecurity.co.uk/ 0208 529 3888
PPSPower (PPS) is one of the industry’s largest and most respected providers of generator and UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) installation, maintenance and repair solutions. sales@ppspower.com
https://www.ppspower.com/ 0345 200 9888
Premier Technical Services Group Ltd (PTSG) is the UK’s leading provider of specialist services to the construction and facilities management sectors. info@ptsg.co.uk
https://www.ptsg.co.uk/ +44 (0) 1977 668 771
Working with globally recognised organisations, we are specialists in creating Online Induction Systems, Turnkey and Bespoke Software Solutions, Websites, Mobile Apps and a lot more.
hello@res.digital
https://res.digital 01724 376002
With over a decade of experience in safety solutions for working at height, we are the ideal partner for solving your roof safety problems, and we pride ourselves on having the highest level of commitment to ensuring safety at work.
info@roofsafetysupplies.co.uk
https://www.roofsafetysupplies.co.uk
07889 572315
SAEMA has a long history in delivering the best training and guidance in the temporary and permanent suspended access industry. We are committed to advancing safety through raising the standards in best practice. info@saema.org
https://www.saema.org/ 01948 838616
At Safety Inspection Solutions Ltd (SIS Ltd) we’ve been helping companies to stay legal for over ten years. Our qualified engineers provide fair, efficient, and flexible onsite inspection services, working closely with clients to understand their needs. enquiries@sis-ltd.org.uk
https://sis-ltd.org.uk/
0800 6696 018
Seddon Management Services strives to offer the best solutions for trade associations to keep their members safe and compliant. becky@managementandauditing.co.uk www.seddonmanagementservices.co.uk 07854 226251
Safe Electric is an NICEIC-approved Electrical Contractor, serving Peterborough, Milton Keynes, and Cambridge. With 48 years of industry experience, our electricians and compliance experts can undertake any project. sales@safe-electric.com
https://www.safe-electric.com/ 01487 813 600
SLM can provide all types of waste management tailored to meet the customers’ requirements. We deal in all types of recycling; electrical, hazardous, clinical. Anything you need disposing of, SLM can help.
lucy@slm-waste.com
https://slm-waste.com/ 01304 775000
As the UK’s leading provider of specialist services to the construction and FM sectors, PTSG’s engineers enjoy views from some of the nation’s finest buildings as they go about their work in five independent divisions.
This ‘view from the top’ was a project in which our engineers from PTSG Water Treatment Ltd provided a variety of services to ensure the water systems at Motel One Edinburgh remain safe and clean.
