At Power Testing Ltd, continuous professional development is something we actively promote by investing in our people to always strive to be better. Many of our people hold professional qualifications in their area of expertise, gained through Power Testing Ltd’s development programme. We encourage our people to be innovative to lead the company forward using their knowledge, understanding and experience.
When someone joins Power Testing Ltd, the induction process takes them through all areas of the company to fully understand what we do, where we have come from and what we are striving to achieve. We find that by understanding the company’s goals and all the cogs that make up the machine, people appreciate their colleagues much more, making Power Testing a more productive and collaborative environment.
To illustrate our ‘Safety First’ culture, the company makes a commitment to ensure all of our people are First Aid trained and certified, whether they are out in the field or based in one of our offices. We also ensure our First Aid training courses cover major electric shocks, burns and flash-overs. This is crucial for operations but also assists in our office based people to truly understand the environment our Engineers, Technicians and Jointers operate in. We also run annual workshops to re-enforce our ‘Speak Up’ message, concentrating on safety but also encouraging everyone to air their voice where they believe improvements can be made. These are delivered through a variety of team activities, role plays and exercises and have proved extremely popular within the company.
All our operational people are put through rigorous and industry leading health and safety courses before being allowed on site, such as:
- IOSH Managing Safely (for Engineers and Supervisors)
- IOSH Working Safely (for all other operatives)
- CCNSG
Furthermore, we have links with many training suppliers and manufacturers to test and assess our operatives on our wide variety of services and the equipment with which we are dealing.
We have a dedicated training facility at our main offices in Chelmsford, consisting of a workshop filled with an array of different switchgear and relays for practical exercises as well as a designated training room for more theory-based learning. This facility is also used to undertake internal trade tests to ensure our people have the right skills for the right job.
To assist our operatives, we have a mentoring programme, whereby our Trainee’s are paired with experienced site people. This is supported by a development plan to assist in broadening their skill sets. Our people are provided with a bespoke training folder consisting of specific training packs for the skills they are looking to learn and develop in, aided by their on-site mentor who coaches them and assesses their understanding and feeds back their observations. Once confident of any newly acquired skills, the mentor then puts their mentee forward for an internal practical and theory based assessment to gain sign off. We very much promote the saying, ‘Knowledge is power, only if shared’.
The vast majority of our operations people have completed their ONC, with many going on to complete their HNC, giving them a sound grounding in the principles of electrical engineering. Power Testing have funded 12 people through this process in the last 10 years. Furthermore, we have previously successfully sponsored several of our people through a BEng (Hons) degree, further strengthening our expertise within the engineering industry.
We not only strive to be the best out in the field, but also in the support functions. That means offering the same level of training and development to our office-based staff as we offer for our site operatives. In the last 5 years alone, we have invested in the following higher education courses for our office based people:
- Finance: ACCA qualified accountants
- HR: CIPD Level 3 and Level 5 Diploma’s
- Fleet: FTA Level 3 Diploma
- HSEQ: Internal & Lead Auditor training
- Business: Including PRINCE2 & Business Management Diploma’s
By investing in our people in their chosen fields, we have developed a core of specialist and qualified people that understand the Power Testing culture and who will continue to drive us toward further success.
A key ingredient to achieving success in an SME is getting your people to understand what it takes to make it work. Power Testing have been working with Ray Moore, a business coach that specialises in SMEs’ growing pains, something he calls ‘The Levels’, for over 10 years. His unique style and understanding, as well as the way he simplifies business principles, has been instrumental in both educating and focusing the team on what it takes to succeed. After a session with Ray, you will feel like you can take on the world with new vigour and clear direction!!