Ridgeons builds employees environmental awareness

Training partnership benets construction merchant and college

mployees of a UK timber and builders merchant know more about the environment, renewable-energy systems and the code for sustainable homes, following an award-winning training partnership with a local college.

Ridgeons Ltd, the UKs largest independently owned timber and builders merchant, recognized that almost 70 of its 825 staff at 21 sites across East Anglia needed to be able to guide, advise and inform its retail and trade customers in order to ensure appropriate sales. It turned to Cambridge Regional College (CRC) for help starting a partnership that would benet both. Both organizations identied the need to enhance knowledge to meet the demands of new legislation and a rapidly changing construction industry, especially in the areas of building materials, techniques and renewable-energy systems. Ridgeons had a strong understanding of the code for sustainable homes, while CRC had experience of modern methods of construction and renewable-energy systems. By joining forces, both organizations realized they could improve staff skills and knowledge. Ridgeons approached the partnership with the aim of increasing sales, differentiating itself from the competition and enhancing customer service through improved advice and guidance. CRC focused on adapting its construction curriculum to meet local and regional needs and providing staff with better knowledge of sustainable and renewable energy systems. This two-way knowledge and skill transfer was achieved through courses at CRC for Ridgeons staff and events for CRC tutors organized by Ridgeons. The initial concept was to train staff in environmental awareness, renewable energy products and systems. In addition, it became apparent that emerging legislation and the introduction of the new code for sustainable homes needed to be incorporated into the program. The program was delivered by a combination of CRC tutors, awarding-body and supplier trainers and Ridgeons managers. The individual courses were mainly delivered over half a day or a full day at both Ridgeons and CRC venues.

Enthusiastic and committed staff

Among the topics the program covered were energy efciency, photovoltaic and solar hot-water panels and heat-loss calculations and design. There was input from such suppliers and manufacturers of renewable-energy products as Viessman UK, Worcester Bosch-Buderus, Grant UK, Smith Environmental, Heatrae Sadia and Calorex.

DOI 10.1108/09670731111101552

VOL. 19 NO. 1 2011, pp. 17-19, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0967-0734

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Ridgeons chose 68 of its most enthusiastic and committed staff those who were the rst point of customer contact to take part in the program. They included plumbing, heating and showroom employees, managers, sales representatives and branch managers. The Ridgeons trainees beneted through increased condence and the ability to advise customers in the area of sustainability. Among the comments of Ridgeons participants were:
B B

I have really enjoyed this course and learned a lot about environmental issues. This course has helped me to understand the code for sustainable homes and the products that we can sell to customers.

Ridgeons sales fell by 4.6 percent during the recession, but plumbing and heating, which the program targeted, increased sales by 5.6 percent. Chris Greaves, Ridgeons HR Director, commented: We are now providing developers and designers with advice and guidance on how to meet the code for sustainable homes a service we believe to be unique. Our customer service has been enhanced, as evidenced by an increase of quotation and enquiry activity for renewable-energy products. The CRC participants were curriculum-delivery staff, the energy-systems manager, the electrical training manager, the energy-systems tutor, the curriculum leader and the associate principal responsible for sustainable development. Although qualied in their elds, they lacked skills and knowledge in the area of sustainability and renewable-energy systems.

Performance and development reviews

For CRC staff, expertise has been signicantly enhanced providing the competence to develop and deliver a range of courses related to sustainability. These new courses meet the changing needs of the construction industry in the areas of environmental awareness and renewable-energy systems. The Ofce for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has awarded the college two good-practice prizes for modernizing the curriculum and providing inspiring teaching and learning. The college has also won a beacon award for practical teaching and learning. Six employees, from Ridgeons and CRC, undertook a program of research and self-study. As part of the Investors in People process, both organizations used performance and development reviews, appraisals and one-to-one sessions in order to monitor the progress and effectiveness of the training. The partnership as a whole was evaluated through regular meetings, student-feedback sheets and joint course reviews. The program continues to be developed and updated in line with rapid changes in modern methods of construction. Joint development meetings still take place to ensure momentum is maintained and future opportunities seized. Both organizations contribute to each others corporate newsletters and promote each others services in advertising literature. It is very pleasing to see that this unique approach from a training provider and a commercial organization to jointly develop and deliver a program that had learning implications for staff from both organizations has proved so successful, said Chris Greaves. The partnership is clearly having a positive impact on both organizations. As a company,

Ridgeons approached the partnership with the aim of increasing sales, differentiating itself from the competition and enhancing customer service through improved advice and guidance.

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 Both organizations used performance and development reviews, appraisals and one-to-one sessions in order to monitor the progress and effectiveness of the training.

Ridgeons strongly believes in staff development at all levels and we feel our ongoing successful relationship with Cambridge Regional College can only lead to greater achievements in the future. Keywords: Environmental management, Construction industry, Further education, Training Both organizations are currently working together to secure funding for a much larger modern methods of construction training initiative. Chris Greaves concluded: Other organizations and further-education establishments could learn a great deal about developing an ongoing and mutually benecial partnership with two-way knowledge and skills transfer.

Note
David Pollitt, Human Resource Management International Digest Editor, wrote this article.

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