COMMENT OPINION Making scaffolding a career of choice

In this Comment piece, Robert Candy, CEO of the Scaffolding Association, talks about workforce issues…

The scaffolding and access sector has always had its fair share of challenges. Access to work, labour shortages and payment terms run through the industry like a stick of rock. The UK’s exit from the EU and the pandemic continue to impact these issues. One might take comfort that the wider construction sector feels the same pain as do many others.

In recent weeks, the UK has taken huge steps towards ‘living with Covid’ and despite the pandemic being far from over, society has – at long last – been allowed to adapt to live alongside it. The construction sector and the hundreds of trades that support it had to adapt much sooner. Two years ago, when many were closing the doors on their offices, manufacturing plants and retail outlets, the construction industry largely carried on. Construction businesses worked through the height of the pandemic and global repercussions which impacted manufacturing and supply chains, increased the costs of supplies and severely reduced the availability of labour.

Just as society has learnt to live alongside the pandemic, the construction industry is adjusting to a new normal where things cost more, take longer to arrive and good people are even harder to find than they once were. It is the latter of these points that we are perhaps most able to have a positive impact on – finding people. A new generation of workers to replace an ageing workforce and the 50,000 European union born workforce that some suggest the industry has lost in recent years. That’s over a quarter based on pre-pandemic levels. Perhaps we once relied too heavily on this migratory labour and failed to invest in our own people to grow a homegrown workforce?

There are many other factors including the poor perception of the construction industry as a career choice and the lack of available and relevant training. This is particularly relevant to scaffolding and access trades. If we are going to attract this new generation of workers, we have much work to do to resolve some of these underlying issues. The reality is that scaffolding and access is hugely diverse and offers a wide range of career opportunities with good pay and good prospects. We just need to do far more than we are doing to make that message heard.

We should also look beyond the younger generation – the current UK labour market presents an opportunity to attract those looking for a change of career and there are several other sources we can recruit from such as through ex-offender and veteran schemes which are becoming increasingly popular and well-funded. Investing in our existing workforce is also vitally important. Once we find decent people, we must work harder to keep them. In most cases it is easier to hold onto someone than its to replace them.

I come back to the point about the need to do more to demonstrate how diverse the sector is and the wide range of career opportunities with good pay and good prospects we have to offer. We need to do far more than we are doing to make this message heard and the association has some exciting plans to support this difficult task which I hope will bring our industry together. Where there are shared challenges and objectives, it is vital that we all collaborate for the good of the sector. I look forward to updating you as these plans progress.

Robert Candy CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SCAFFOLDING ASSOCIATION www.scaffolding-association.org

A proactive approach to compliance

In this Opinion piece, Gary Griffiths, Managing Director of UK System Scaffold Hire, talks about creating opportunities to improve profitability…

None of us like being told what to do, but the knee-jerk reaction of feeling victimised by the seemingly never-ending increase in legal and social responsibilities – the belief that more and more regulations are symptomatic of a world that is determined to make our businesses ever harder to manage – may blind us to the positive opportunities that they create.

A more positive response is to take a strategic view of the core principles of statutory and social responsibility and to appreciate that a proactive approach to compliance can actually create opportunities and make the work environment both happier and more profitable. The secret is to avoid the impulse to do the bare minimum to “scrape through” compliance requirements and instead to adopt a mindset that “the world is changing – what can we do to keep one step ahead of our competitors.”

How we have responded to legislation is a case in point.

Over the last twenty years the impact of legislation on man-hours for scaffolders using traditional tube and fittings has been remarkable – double handrails added 8% to man-hours, SG4 and SG4:10 added 25%, manual handling another 5%, direct employment (with the need to pay for NI and holidays) added another 10%. Bit by bit, profitability has been eroded – even before you build in inflation and wage rises labour costs have increased by at least 50%.

Savvy scaffold contractors that have built their business on tube and fittings – because the initial outlay is significantly less than system scaffold – now realise that they’re missing out on the 60% saving on labour costs that can be delivered by system scaffold. This has dramatically changed the “return on investment” calculations on their next purchase. Labour is such a massive cost factor that key players are now investing in a combination of both tube and fittings and system scaffold as a means of being competitive.

System scaffold is not the be all and end all. It isn’t a panacea to every challenge faced by the industry, but using system scaffold alongside tube and fittings can be a strategic response to legislation, delivering both the safety benefits that regulations are designed to introduce and –at the same time – driving-up profitability.

Placing statutory and social compliance at the heart of what you do – knowing in your heart that you do the right things for the right reasons – also means you can sleep soundly at night: It’s not often that quote Oscar Wilde, but his comment about a cynic being someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing springs to mind.

It is never worth being a cynic when it comes to compliance and safety.

When I launched UKSSH ten years ago, there were a number of reasons why I decided to place an over-riding emphasis on value and quality – and first among them was peace of mind. I decided to stock only genuine products, which were manufactured with a proven reputation for quality control and safety, and that provided a clear audit trail to date and place of manufacture. Why? I wanted a clear conscience, knowing that I had done everything possible to ensure that I would never supply a substandard component that may fail and result in a scaffold collapse. That peace of mind didn’t come cheaply – the best components never do, but the investment has reaped long-term financial rewards: the extra cost of buying high quality, high tensile steel components has delivered long term durability and an impressive return on investment.

Legislation is getting increasingly proscriptive. The CDM Regulations 2007 place an emphasis on planning and managing risk throughout the construction process. Combine that with corporate manslaughter legislation and buying substandard equipment is never worth the risk.

Taking a positive, proactive approach to your statutory and social responsibilities is a winwin strategy: First, compliance becomes part of your company’s DNA; Second, constantly reviewing best practice can help to drive up profitability; Last – but by no means least –it creates a culture where employees feel valued and staff turnover is greatly reduced.

Gary Griffiths MANAGING DIRECTOR, UK SYSTEM SCAFFOLD HIRE www.ukssh.co.uk