Switching gear to excel in the future

Switching gear

to excel in the future

When Sean Smith took over running his dad’s company eight years ago, he never would have thought he’d have it in the running for not one but

four categories of the Niche Business Awards WORDS BY KERRY SMITH

Michael Smith Switchgear was formed by Sean Smith’s dad in 1985 and Sean, along with Emily Smith who also runs the company, has driven the firm into the future. The company continued to recruit throughout the pandemic, never ceased manufacturing, and avoided furloughing staff.

The company is through to the semi-finals for Employer of the Year and Business Growth in the Niche Business Awards 2021, while Sean is up for Businessman of the Year, and Emily for Businesswoman of the Year. Emily, who Chairs a manufacturing committee for Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, commented: “I was really proud watching the announcement on YouTube. The calibre of the other semifinalists is really high, so to be recognised is a real accolade.”

Further proof of Sean and Emily’s achievements has come with as another award announcement. “Just yesterday we found out that we’ve won the Health and Safety Gold Medal Award by RoSPA. This is only awarded to companies that have won the Gold Award for five consecutive years, which is a great achievement for a company of our size,” Sean told me.

But the pair admit not many people understand what Michael Smith Switchgear really do. “We build fuse boxes that you have in your house, but on an industrial scale,” Emily laughed.

Sean added: “Any business with premises over the size of a football pitch generally needs one of our switchboards for electrical distribution. We’ve done work for local and national universities, we were classed as key workers for local hospitals last year, and we work with big companies such as a large crisp manufacturer in the local area.

A lot of people who work in office blocks probably have no idea that our switchboards are the reasons their computers turn on every day!”

While Sean runs the sales, operations, and technical side of the business, Emily takes care of HR, health and safety, and finance. Together, they’ve built a ‘family business mentality’ between their 50-plus employees. Employees are a business’s best asset according to Emily, and Sean says they get to know each team member and their families, with some staff having worked there more than 20 years. “No one is a payroll number here. We encourage achieving a work-life balance, promote internally, and reward overtime whilst monitoring why staff may feel they need to work extra. We also have dedicated mental health first aiders,” Sean explained.

Since Sean and Emily have run the business, it has sustainably grown by 156%, their premises doubled three years ago, and they’ve just finished an office extension making their building over 28,000sq ft. Michael Smith Switchgear hasn’t just grown physically though.

“We want to be at the forefront of all the things changing in the world,” Emily expressed. “Especially for mental health and the environment. We want to lead people into the future, not just by running our business based on our products. We’ve just replaced all lighting with LEDs, installed solar panels, and we’re looking to invest in electric vehicles, a green roof, and aiming to be carbonneutral, which would be a real achievement for a manufacturing company. Our packaging is also environmentally-friendly.”

Watch this space for the results of the Niche Business Awards 2021. Visit mssl.uk.com for more information on Michael Smith Switchgear.

WE WANT TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF ALL THE THINGS CHANGING IN THE WORLD

Wellbeing in the workplace

A wellness drive focusing on the employees of local companies WORDS BY EMILY MILLER

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines wellbeing as “a state of mind in which an individual is able to realise his or her own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her own community”.

We have heard a lot from the WHO in the last eighteen months, sure, but this statement couldn’t be more fitting to the current circumstances in many of our lives.

How we approach our wellbeing in the workplace is one of the most talked about subjects post 3x lockdowns, and rightly so. With so many of us spending so much of our week now either working full time in the office, flexi-time or entirely from home still, how we feel about our working lives has changed and it’s up to employers to ensure their team are suitably equipped to not only handle the changes but to thrive after them too.

Working from home might have initially seemed like a win-win but there are plenty of added pressures with balancing home life and work life. Recent data from the Office for National Statistics states that employees working from home did on average six hours of unpaid overtime a week. That compares to 3.6 hours for those not working from home. Whilst it might seem like a plus as an employer for your team’s productivity, burnout for each member of staff may well escalate.

The Covid pandemic may appear to be receding, but there are longer-term impacts on health and wellbeing that are only just beginning to fully emerge. Businesses and employees alike will be encountering a plethora of issues.

Businesses need to place a large emphasis on ensuring that their staff’s emotional welfare is right at the top of priorities, but with that said, they also need to feel like they are able to access the right resources and training to be able to offer that support.

Within this issue, we look at how businesses are supporting their staff with the transitions and what they are doing to ensure they are offering the right support at the right time.

For this campaign, we will be highlighting different companies that have a structure ready and available to support and guide businesses and their employees through these changes. This will see us touch on flexi working arrangements, wellbeing in the workplace, and ongoing support available to establish and maintain changes for the better.

We want to educate on signs we can look out for and recognise in behaviours, helping to take a more proactive and responsible attitude towards wellbeing in the workplace. What’s more, we want to provide signposts to companies to help employers navigate their way through these different waters.

WORKING FROM HOME MIGHT HAVE INITIALLY SEEMED LIKE A WIN-WIN BUT THERE ARE PLENTY OF ADDED PRESSURES WITH BALANCING HOME LIFE AND WORK LIFE