On the 6th February 2020, we held our 3rd Annual Company Day at The Crystal Maze in Piccadilly Circus.  It gave us a chance to come together as a team, celebrate our successes over the last year, set out our plans for the next year, have fun and reinforce our core values:

• Safety First – Making sure everyone goes home safe every day.
• Teamwork – Together Everyone Achieves More.
• Our People – allowing them to be the best they can be.
• Striving to be the Best – at everything we do.
• Setting the Standards – in everything we do.

It is so important to reflect on what we have all achieved together, especially following another record-breaking year in all areas:

• More quotes produced than ever before
• Highest conversion rate of successful tenders
• Most number of Near Misses reported
• Highest scoring achieved in 2019 audits and accreditations
• Most successful Customer Satisfaction Survey results
• More people recruited than in any other year
• Highest amount invested in training than ever before
• Moe days spent training than in any other year
• More of our people promoted due to their development than in any other year
• Lowest staff turnover rate than ever before (basically, people are happy to stay)
• Largest amount of money raised for charity than in any other year
• Highest scheduling efficiency
• More Call Outs than ever before
• Highest amount of jobs completed
• More projects delivered than in any other year
• More invoices produced than ever before

And this year, each department head presented to the team their 2019 highlights and their plans for 2020 – exciting times at Power Testing with continued improvement, development and growth top of the agenda in all areas.

Special Achievement Awards

Following these exciting, insightful and sometimes humorous presentations, it was time for our Special Achievement Awards.  It seems every year we are celebrating our people for their stellar service and loyalty – dedicating their careers to Power Testing.  With an average length of service of 10 years, which also includes 16 new starters in the last 2 years, it shows that we are doing something right as a company.  That our people want to stay and be part of something special and enjoy working for Power Testing – something that the company is always striving to achieve.  After all, we are nothing without our people.  And this year we had 2 more Special Achievement Awards

The employee of the Year Winner:  Steve Gatward – Operations Manager

“Day in day out this guy delivers and always puts staff members before himself”.

The Most Improved Winner:  Andy Wilkins – Technician 

“Andy has stepped up his game over the last year & is now a good team player.”

The Rising Star Winner:  Alex Harvey – Trainee Jointer

“The kind of employee you would want 10 off. His attitude & determination are second to none.

Safety Champion:  Sean Sheehan – Supervisor  

“I enjoy every job I am on with him, safety is always his number 1 priority and I always feel safe.”

15 years’ Service in January 2020:  Pat Templeman – Technical Manager

Pat joined in 2005 as an Apprentice, studying whilst also learning his trade on one of the toughest Rail contracts under the wing of one of our cleverest and longest-serving people, Alan Ager.  Pat excelled and has consistently demonstrated a passion for learning and now teaching.  From an Apprentice to Technical Manager in little under 15 years is nothing short of phenomenal.

30 years’ Service in November 2020:  Kevin Stevens – Project Engineer

Kevin joined in 1990 from the Eastern Electricity Board as a Technician and soon worked his way up to become an Engineer.  He has been a mainstay at Power Testing ever since – calm, collected and extremely knowledgeable, delivering countless successful projects over the years.  A life long commitment to the company is a testament to Kevin’s loyalty and dedication.

The Crystal Maze

After lunch, it was time to reinforce our core value of ‘Teamwork’ – and what better way than participating in the Crystal Maze.  Whether it be in Aztec, Futuristic or Industrial and whether it be a Skill, Mental or Physical challenge, everyone worked together and had great fun – with varying success!

Congratulations to the winning Crystal Maze Team – The Power Crystals, who got 160 Golden Tickets, without cheating!

Summary

From the management presentations, the awards, the lunch to the proper Crystal Maze. It proved to be an action-packed, worthwhile and fun day with everyone leaving with an even greater understanding of the company’s direction, goals and strategy and their part to play in it.  Until next year!

Michael rejoined us in July 2018 after spending several years on the rigs.  Since his return to Power Testing, Michael has proved an invaluable Engineer, always going above and beyond on any job he was on.

So it was only right that his professionalism, diligence and client care should be rewarded – and what better way than to promote him to a Contract Engineer, dedicating his time and skills to one of our largest clients, CBRE.

With Michael working alongside Steve White, CBRE’s Client Relationship Supervisor who has over 25 years experience at Power Testing, CBRE has the best of both worlds – a dedicated person in the office for work needs and a dedicated and consistent Engineer onsite, delivering a high-quality service and offering bespoke technical assistance.

This dedicated support and expertise are key for CBRE, making it easier than ever for them across a huge array of site locations.  And since ‘Return of the Mike’, his attention to detail, knowledge, communication and customer care have been second to none, something that will be key in his new role.

This really is an exciting partnership.

At a time when many are stocking up for Christmas and buying food like an apocalypse is about to descend, it is a sad fact in today’s world there are people in our neighbourhoods that are struggling for the basic need of food.  So it made me so proud that one of our own, Lauren Tilly, came up with the idea of a food bank – for us all to donate food to people not as lucky as us so that they could feed their families over the Christmas period.

Thanks to your generous donations and Lauren’s great idea, over £150 worth of food was dropped off at the emergency food back in Chelmsford.

Thank you also to Catrin and Brendan for delivering the bundles of food that many of you so kindly donated – the food bank was thrilled and thanked us for our generosity.

It is with great pleasure we can announce that Charlie Brown has been promoted to a Senior Technician as of 17th December 2019.  Charlie initially joined Power Testing in September 2011 as an Apprentice and quickly excelled in his theory and practical, passing his Level 3 NVQ in Engineering Maintenance in October 2015 and shortly after becoming a Technician.

Over the last year, Charlie has proved himself more than capable to undertake the Senior Technician role.  With a wide skill set ranging from excellent maintenance skills, a great understanding of protection testing, superb commissioning support and top notch RFQ’s and reporting, he has excelled on site and always takes responsibility, making him easy to schedule – as well as still being Charlie of course.

A truly flexible and supportive team member, the sky is the limit for Charlie and we all look forward to seeing his continued progression and development over the forthcoming years.  Well done Charlie, a thoroughly deserved promotion.

Ellie has gone from strength to strength ever since she joined in September 2015. Initially brought on as a Reports Administrator, Ellie has progressed and taken on more responsibility through her Thames Water role.

It is through her diligent work, endless enthusiasm and great client relationships that we are pleased to announce that she has been promoted to Operations Supervisor.

As well as continuing her Thames Water Client Relationship Supervisor role, Ellie will also act as Steve Gatward’s right-hand woman in Operations, bringing invaluable support to Steve when looking after the schedule.

Well Done Ellie – a great achievement and thoroughly well deserved.

Last year’s Macmillan Coffee morning was so popular, we decided to do 2 this year!

The official coffee morning was Friday 27th September, but we also decided to do one on Friday 20th September, to celebrate Josh Irons’ 5 year work anniversary and make sure he was able to scoff his face before he leaves to join his family business!

Throughout the 2 x Friday’s, some serious cakes were baked – thank you to everyone that made or bought a cake in particular:

• John for his Peanut Butter cheesecake – pretty special, the boy is gifted.
• Adam for his mum’s efforts on a fantastic chocolate cake – professional.
• Leanne for her Victoria sponge cake and many, many cupcakes.
• Catrin for her vast assortment of goodies – too many to mention individually!
• Jacqui for her chocolate cake (and her first baking episode in 15 years).
• Brendan for his chocolate orange cake (massively helped by his niece!).
• Lauren for her cornflake cakes.
• Pat for his very healthy chocolate cake (which he ate virtually all of).
• Michael Powell for his pancakes.

In total over £150 was raised for this fantastic charity – thank you to everyone for your contributions.

It is with great pleasure we can announce that our longest serving Trainee, Harvey Burke, has been promoted to a Technician as of 23rd September 2019.

As soon as he passed his driving test, it was just a matter of time as Harvey has continually demonstrated over the last year his technical skills on site, assisting many a successful install project and being a key part in the install team as well as consistently delivering a high level of maintenance.

It has certainly been a long journey, guided by many of his colleagues, especially Mick Shortis – who is owed quite a few lifts may I add.

Well done Harvey, we are all really pleased for you in your achievements and look forward to you continuing to develop, learn and push on further.

PS – Please keep your hands on the wheel Harvey!!!!

It is with great pleasure we can announce that our very own Johnny Bailey has been promoted from an LV Jointer to a fully competent Cable Jointer as of 23rd September 2019.  It was only a little over 2 and a half years ago that Johnny was assisting pretty much full time in the Civils division.

With jointing works being in demand and Johnny wanting to try something new, he was switched to the jointing division, under the mentorship of Rich and has not looked back.  Through Rich’s teaching and stewardship, Johnny has grasped the art of Jointing, the Power Testing way.

His craftsmanship and pride in his work is exceptional and recent assessments has also demonstrated he has grasped the permitry and safe system of working side of things.  Well done Johnny, a great achievement and keep up the great work to push on further.

As part of our ongoing charity partnership with Havens, we undertook our second volunteering day at Little Havens Hospice on Monday 12th August 2019.

The team was Mike Westley, Glen Ross, Josh Irons, Olivia Johnson Tom Hughes, Kevin Smith, Sean Sheehan, Catrin Jenkins, Jim Randall and Stephanie Grau.

Even though it absolutely pelted it down with rain (after they had watered the plants and gardens!), spirits were high and they achieved everything that was set out for them – and more!

Well done team – and hope you have dried off now.

As part of our charity partnership with Havens, we undertook our first volunteering day at Little Havens Hospice on Monday 1st July 2019.

Barry Gray, Paul Wright, Nick Pennock, Ellie Graves, Johnny Bailey, Tony Churchill, Chris Williamson, Brad Manning and Lauren Tilly swapped their normal site and office duties for some gardening, sheering, hedge trimming, weeding and plant watering in Little Havens beautiful grounds.

This place is amazing and offers special one-on-one care for children with life shortening illnesses and respite to the whole family. The place is tranquil and magical, as are the people who work there. What really hit home was that the children go there to LIVE, making everyday count.

Not only was it a humbling experience in a peaceful setting, it really does remind us that life is about creating those special moments with our loved ones – and Little Havens do an amazing job doing exactly that for these special and brave children.

Thank you to everyone at the Hospice for your hospitality and we look forward to continue to help out, which is an absolute privilege.