The teamwork vibe
RAIL finds out how greater collaboration with clients and the supply chain is helping Kier deliver projects more effectively, and how the company is attracting more people into the industry
How Kier is collaborating with the supply chain and attracting more people into the industry.
Kier has big ambitions for Control Period 6 (April 2019-March 2024), with its rail business currently bidding for large parts of the £10 billion renewals portfolio being tendered by Network Rail (NR) in signalling, civil engineering, power supply and other disciplines.
Having already established itself as a major player in the sector with an annual turnover in excess of £ 50 million, the rail business has set an ambitious target to double this revenue over the next five years.
But it is also well aware of the significant challenges ahead, should it be awarded any of the framework contracts that are being procured to work in partnership with NR. Not least is the infrastructure operator’s desire for the supply chain to deliver increased volumes of work more cost-efficiently, and with less disruption to passengers.
Following close behind is also the urgent need to close a gap in the supply of skilled workers, predicted by the Department for Transport to be as high as 55,000 by 2020.
According to Kier Senior Operations Manager Duncan Hall, greater collaboration within the supply chain will be key to driving the further improvement, innovation and development that is needed, while also helping change perceptions of the sector to attract potential new recruits.
He says: “It’s important that CP6 is delivered effectively, and in the coming years I think the industry will see a number of challenges it needs to overcome in order to do this. For it to be a success we need to ensure we continue to work collaboratively as a sector, that we’re delivering more efficiently and we’re closing the skills gap.
“When working collaboratively, we need to make sure all decisions are taken together, ensuring the project is a success from start to finish.”
Kier works with a diverse range of subcontractors of varying sizes and is leading the industry by example, in terms of the support it provides and the barriers it is removing to closer co-operation.
This includes collaborating with the three largest accreditation companies in the UK to make it much easier for subcontractors to prequalify to work with Kier.
Mark Ramessa, Commercial Director for Kier, explains: “We’ve asked our subcontractors what we can do to improve and they told us to reduce the amount of paperwork involved in pre-qualification and to improve consistency across the business. We listened and have standardised prequalification across the business and are now the first UK contractor to offer multiple pre-qualification with Construction Line – Gold (Level 3), CHAS – Premium Plus, and Building Confidence (Achilles).
“This has just gone live and reduces bureaucracy, making it easier for SMEs which struggle with pre-qualification and Kier more open for business.”
Kier also collaborates with its supply chain on projects in a number of ways, including co-locating key staff and encouraging all team members to get involved in various community and social impact projects ( RAIL 861). The benefits of taking this approach have included more effective decision-making and improved safety.
Hall says: “We put a lot of effort in to ensure we work as a team with our supply chain. Having shared offices allows us to be more efficient and to build relationships - we’ve
When working collaboratively, we need to make sure all decisions are taken together, ensuring the project is a success from start to finish. Duncan Hall, Senior Operations Manager, Kier
established a modern way of working which enables us to share ideas, discuss risks and costs. You wouldn’t recognise it against the traditional adversarial office arrangement!
“I’m very proud to say that for the past 24 months we haven’t had any RIDDORs [Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations], proving that since changing our ways of working we’ve not only seen cost benefits, we’ve also improved safety for our workforce.”
Kier also runs annual supplier conferences across its Group, including its rail business. This is where best practice is shared and feedback is gathered on how supply chain relationships can be improved further.
The events are kept deliberately informal and conversational in order to provoke constructive debate, while innovative methods of participation are used to increase engagement, such as the use of Kier’s own board game. Called the Balanced Business
Network Game, it throws up scenarios related to various topics for discussion that suppliers may not be familiar with, and challenges them to think differently.
Ramessa says: “To the Rail Suppliers Day we invite the top 50 companies we work with. It started off with quite a traditional format, but it soon developed into more of a workshop
scenario where we support them and show them how we can work together to improve best practice for our clients. There’s lots of networking and the engagement has been really useful for us.
“We’ve had some good discussions around safety and quality, and continuity of work through peaks and troughs. We’re strengthening relationships but it’s very much a two-way street and the feedback from suppliers is that they get a lot of added value, people have fun and they will remember it.”
Hall adds: “In my experience, I’ve found that the supply chain is often forgotten, but it is more important than ever to share lessons with them. There is such a focus on delivering more for less and reducing costs, and sharing this with them is a great way to add value and strengthen relationships.”
Another Kier initiative to benefit its whole business, including rail, is the Shaping Your
World campaign, which was launched in September 2017 to help attract new talent to the construction industry. It followed the publication of a report commissioned by Kier into the views of 2,000 parents, teachers and career advisors, which confirmed a widely held perception that the industry was ‘muddy, manual, male-dominated and poorly paid’.
Designed to complement other ambassador
initiatives such as STEM, Shaping Your
World aims to dispel these myths by arming Kier employees with a wide range of ageappropriate resources to undertake volunteer school visits.
Kier made a pledge that 1% of its workforce from all grades (approximately 200 employees) would visit one or two schools each year, but with the scheme now celebrating its first anniversary that target has been comfortably exceeded with 360 ambassadors.
Each ambassador is supplied with a range of creative materials to help convey their message, often based on ‘gamification’ and social media centred around a dedicated website called VIBE ( Virtual Interactive Built Environment). The VIBE website now receives around 10,000 visitors per month and visitors have created more than 8,000 avatars.
The website also features profiles and blogs from serving employees, and lots of other multimedia content, including short animated ‘pride and passion’ testimonials.
Printed pocket guides to careers in construction can also be downloaded, for those looking to take the next step.
The VIBE website also acts as an eye-catching showcase of all the projects Kier and its partners have worked on together, pinpointed on an interactive map. Each ‘pin’ links off to a subsection of the site that presents information about the project in an eye-catching, consumerfriendly way. Partners can then display these ‘mini-presentations’ at their own premises, and use it as a recruitment tool.
Ramessa says: “This campaign represents industry-leading engagement which has reached more than 15,000 kids in the last year. Views of the industry can be quite negative, but we’ve tried to combat that by putting real people into the classroom where kids will have a much better response to an apprentice talking to them, as opposed to a man in a suit.”
Hall adds: “There are lots of areas of construction, and it’s not only about laying bricks. There’s a huge variety of exciting careers people can consider; we know we need to reach out to students when they’re making educational decisions that will have an impact on their future, and that’s why we reach out to schools and educate kids to what we can offer them.
“The industry is facing this issue together, and for us, it isn’t about convincing the next generation to come to Kier, it’s about convincing them to join the built environment - it is important to work collaboratively as an industry to overcome this crisis.”
Views of the industry can be quite negative, but we’ ve tried to combat that by putting real people into the classroom where kids will have a much better response to an apprentice talking to them. Mark Ramessa, Commercial Director for Kier