Comment from 300 North given to TwinFM for their recent article: Heat and Buildings Strategy – Experts Reveal How to Tackle the Skills Shortage. For further information on the government strategy and the skills shortage, please visit their site.
The government’s new Heat and Buildings Strategy is highly reliant upon the installation of heat pumps to replace the traditional natural gas boiler found in most UK buildings. To reach the current net zero targets there should be 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028, requiring an estimated workforce of 12,000+ trained heat pump installers.
In the strategy the government identifies the need for engaging with further education (FE) and industry bodies to create ambitious training and reskilling plans including new and updated qualifications in F-Gas and SRAC. The CITB reiterates the need for industry bodies to work alongside FE institutions to design courses and qualifications that identify and meet the needs of the sector long term, including maintenance work and upskilling as heat pumps evolve.
Critically, this growth in the sector is an opportunity for companies to diversify their workforce by bringing in people from underrepresented groups which will attract these companies to young people entering the workforce now and in the future. Additionally, companies who support the training and development of their current employees will benefit from employee retention, not to mention that “existing heating engineers can be upskilled to install heat pumps in one week or less”. Tackling this skills shortage will require a whole of sector approach, as well as pushing the government to keep to their long term targets in order to create a lasting solution.
300 North are the Facilities Management recruitment specialists providing permanent, temporary and interim solutions to the UK Facilities Management, Mechanical & Electrical and Construction sectors. Get in touch to find out how we can help you with your recruitment needs by visiting our website home page or calling us on 0113 336 5161.
What is Company Branding?
Standing out to candidates is all about ensuring that your company is visible among many others when someone outside of the business or the FM sector is looking for a new role.
The instability of the last year has caused many candidates to stay in their roles or move during the pandemic, causing an industry wide candidate shortage. As things reopen, FM companies are greatly increasing hiring leading to a candidate driven market, where the number of job openings vastly outnumber the available talent. This has meant organisations are having to market themselves in order to be considered by prospective talent. Candidates are looking for many things from their next employer, including a more democratic approach to procurement.
The Invisible Group
International Pride month has just passed. It’s a time when people talk about and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community. This June we talked to LGBTQIA+ people about their experiences and did some research into the challenges LGBTQIA+ people face in the workplace, and how FM organisations are creating more safe and diverse spaces for them to thrive at work.
This month our CEO Paul Connolly was interviewed by the charity Mindful Employer Leeds to allow them to gain insight into how one small business has prioritised staff wellbeing during the pandemic. As a Mindful Employer, it is really important to us to be able to share our knowledge and promote healthy work practices we use to assist other companies in supporting their staff. To find out how we have kept up team morale and ensured everybody’s safety over the past 14 months, please read on.
Having robust and publicised policies on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) will attract new and younger talent to FM companies. Many young people want to work for a company with a great sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and good track record on employing people from all backgrounds. FM companies seem to be recognising this, as according to new research from Sodexo, “[o]rganisations that have inadequate policies on the environment and diversity and inclusion [are] at greatest risk”, of losing business. In fact, “92 percent of those polled said they now vet suppliers on their social values and impact, and 75 percent warn they would be put off by a prospective supplier that did not publish information about their social values”.
Poor equality and diversity in any organisation has been shown to negatively affect the bottom line. Not only can poor diversity affect customer perception and lead to boycotts and negative press or social media [presence] around your brand, it can also put off potential hires, who don’t want to be seen to be working for a homogenous company. People see diverse workplaces as being safer and more welcoming for them, and as a place where they can fit in more readily.
The benefits of AI and technological innovations in smart buildings, as well as the impact of COVID-19, is likely to push the FM sector to a global worth of £117 trillion by 2027 according to Fortune Business Insights. Smart buildings use technology to create a safer, healthier, more efficient, more cost-effective and more sustainable workplace that is more pleasant to work in. Workplace safety and environment are of paramount importance to facilities managers and can be greatly improved by the use of integrated software and hardware technologies, many of which can be used and monitored remotely.
