Throughout my extensive career within the Utilities sector and as I reflect on my first year at Complete Utilities, I cannot remember a time where we’ve had to overcome such barriers.
Initially, when I engaged with Steve Chaplin about joining his team as Managing Director at Complete Utilities our conversation was based around building a sustainable business with an organisational structure that supported their ambitious growth plans and creating a culture and environment that is Health, Safety and Quality focused. After spending some time understanding the business from the ground up I could see the potential of CU and the people in it plus the team were making excellent progress on fulfilling a £90m fibre project as well as delivering for a number a key clients such as Wales & West & Thames Water. I was impressed by the efforts of the crews I met on-site, how open they were & the pride they had in their work. That combined with the support of management staff at the CU HQ and Steve’s commitment to continuously reinvest in the business was enough to see me join the team. It really wasn’t a question of why would I join a smaller organisation, the question I kept asking myself was ‘why wouldn’t I join a company with so much ambition and potential’.
Having worked on projects involving gas, water, electric civils, sewage and drainage, I am not afraid to challenge someone’s work because I've done it myself. Over time comes new innovation and things move on; also, as you progress your management career within a business it’s not always easy to be at the forefront of what's happening out on the front line … that said, I still relish the opportunity to get outside and see what's happening because that's the world I came from and it’s a world I know.
Coming from a hands-on background prepares you for the corporate table and enables you to challenge some of the thinking that goes on within; time-served experience also allows you to accrue the knowledge and experience. If you've got the knowledge and experience then you will have the confidence to hold discussions at any level.
When I first came across Complete Utilities 22 years ago and made them a partner on an electric contract, they became one of our best performers so now reconnecting with them 22 years on it’s fascinating to see the journey they are taking – it’s just mind-boggling.
During my first couple of weeks at CU I met with various teams and quickly realised that we have a lot of positives and we should remind ourselves of these. We’ve got some really good teams that go above and beyond to deliver for us; and we have barriers and materials, backed up by our support functions, that turn up when requested. Obviously, we will continue to work on streamlining the process so that it’s more efficient and to help improve things we regularly review LEAN models and other systems available on the market.
Currently, there are many discussions around waste and failures. CU’s journey has been a rapid one – starting as a small firm growing to a much larger corporate Tier-1 operation only reaffirms its capability. A large part of our journey has been the development of our relationship with GigaClear, and as both organisations grow in size and maturity, our partnership has gone from strength to strength.
When I joined back in January 2020, a shift was happening from fibre cables being predominantly installed in verges to being switched to hard surfaces such as carriageways or pedestrian walkways which, of course, is a stricter managed environment. You have local authorities, there is traffic, kids, schools and pedestrians; you also have legislations to deal with – all of which we are facing challenges with. Based in Gloucester enabled us to build a good working relationship with Gloucestershire County Council - we were afforded the opportunity to check, change or amend things without incurring some heavy fines. It wasn’t always good though … as we moved into Herefordshire, I can remember myself and Steve Chaplin having a difficult call one morning with a local authority. In all my years within the industry, I have never been reprimanded as we were that morning – I can remember saying to Steve Chaplin afterwards “I’m never going to sit on the end of the phone reviewing that type of performance again!”
From there, I prepared a Paper for Steve on what I'd seen and discovered about the operations within. Together we discussed a plan and prepared ourselves to launch our revised strategy to move the business to a more sustainable place.
Then along came the pandemic … this was something that nobody really saw coming but we adapted very quickly, introduced new safety guidelines to keep our staff and colleagues safe and continued to deliver the essential services that are now more critical than ever – something the business and the people here should be proud of. Looking back, it’s phenomenal how everyone adjusted to the change and how the business and Steve put his hand in his pocket to invest in the revamping of the offices to make them covid-secure. I remember being amazed by this and found myself thinking that other organisations would probably never have acted so quickly.
During my first year at CU, I realised that, traditionally, when you make a big decision or try to implement something in a huge organisation, you tend to get tied up in red tape and bureaucracy – be that Committees, Groups or all the other Stakeholders that you need to bring on board – so it was very refreshing to work at CU because we’re a one-stop-shop and we have complete control of everything we do. If one of our vehicles, or plant & equipment, break down in the morning we can make a telephone call to our Workshop and get things resolved immediately.
I think, internally, we can be very critical of ourselves but as someone coming into the business, I believe: “Complete has been a huge success story and there are some good people here but for it to be sustainable we need to go on a journey, and I need to map that out with Steve”.
This brings me back to when Steve Chaplin asked if I would consider leading the business and become Managing Director. It was an easy decision for me - I said “yes, that’s a challenge and I'm up for it”. Little did I know I would be taking on a challenge in a world where we’d have to get used to not meeting face-to-face and use programs like Microsoft TEAMS instead.
As a business, we have invested heavily into plant and equipment but the work we do, and how we do it, has changed, and we probably could have managed the change better. We are still out there with the volumes of plant – all of which increase our project costs but we need to be constantly reminded about costs to ensure we are lean and efficient.
It's a transition and a journey - I think it's a journey that we have, in the last year, set the foundations for by embedding processes, systems and bringing new functions to the business. We now have a HR Department and people are embracing this. In terms of Health and Safety, we’ve had two improvement notices served on us and with some focus, we managed to get them lifted and achieve a result of 80% but we need to be consistent/vigilant and have the right people doing the right job and take ownership and accountability for all sites and compliance.
Another project I’ve been focussing on during my first year has been contracts of employment. Having progressed as far as I did with my previous employer, I think it’s important that people have the opportunity to progress and develop their skills. I found myself asking the question, “Do people really understand what is expected of them? Have we set them up correctly when we take them on? Do they understand contractually, commercially the various legislations required?” After delving deeper into this topic, I found that, on the whole, there were some real gaps in knowledge and, therefore, I introduced the roll-out of a structured PDR & 121 processes for all employees.
Staff are key to the success of any business and good or bad performance should never come as a surprise, therefore, during your monthly catch-up meetings, you should discuss your year-long objectives with your Line Manager and track their progress and review any issues stopping you from hitting your targets; discussions around training and development should also form part of these meetings. I truly believe that getting this insight into your staff is key because when people you employ succeed, the team succeeds too … and when the team succeeds, the business succeeds … and when the business succeeds, we all reap the benefits. We need to ensure that those revisions are effective and drive continuous improvement across the business in all areas.
Prior to the roll-out of PDR & 121 meetings, the business operated in a siloed approach, with teams managing themselves. Whilst this still exists to some extent the business is in a much better place and as we start to emerge from the grips of a pandemic, I will continue to drive this change by working with Steve Ryan and other members of the Senior Management Team.
I'm really excited about the new structure that’s taking place, but sometimes with change, you lose people along the way – they either don’t agree with the company’s new vision or they feel the grass is greener somewhere else. When people do decide to leave CU, I sincerely wish them all the best, but for me I believe, there are a lot more people joining us than leaving us - and whilst this is probably something that’s not communicated very well, it is a reality.
Sometimes I think my first year has been a slow one what with the virus and not being able to do the things you normally would, but on the flip side we have become more efficient with our time following the introduction of TEAMS. You don't need to always travel to a meeting and in a strange way, you're more face-to-face than ever, because the audience is right there on the screen! I do sometimes smile when I think about how quickly people, including myself from ‘old school’, have adapted to online meetings.
Complete Utilities is a great company and I’ve already met some really good people - the type of people who go above and beyond but never really get the recognition for it. I am pleased to say that since I've been here, I've recognised their contributions and they have been elevated within the business for that reason.
Over the last year I have looked to the business, and the people we have with us, to see what knowledge and skill sets we already have in-house. I am a firm believer in empowering people and if I see that someone has the ambition and drive to succeed we, as a business, will support that and bring them along on the journey.
There were various departments and specialist skills that we didn't have in place when I joined. These included HSEQ, HR and Marketing. We had dipped our toes in the water on all these fronts but never really in a structured way - the benefits of getting these support functions in place is that people can see it, feel it and already we're getting some great feedback. From a marketing perspective, this year we re-launched our CU brand and overhauled our website and approach to social media; this is now bringing us some great rewards such as the inquiries & calls we get. Having been allowed back in a pub recently, I even had a casual conversation with someone who said “I see you're never off that social media. I see your company up there all the time.”
When I joined, I couldn’t help but feel that we weren't really showcasing and banging the drum about who we are, what we can do, and letting people know how well we can do it.
I believe from what I have seen so far, coupled with the bureaucratic approach that I previously came from, that we're much better than that. The people we have at CU, along with the plant, traffic management and our own material wash-plant facility, we can provide the whole package. I honestly felt that if we’re doing this and supporting a whole host of Tier-2 firms, then why shouldn’t we push to become a Tier-1 company in our own right… and actually, I believe we’re well on the way to achieving this.
We have set a vision to become the employer of choice for local talent and the contractor of choice for major clients. Now, a few months on the situation with COVID-19 has changed and we’re starting to have those conversations with people - “this is who we are, this is what we can do and this is how we can help you”. Rather than saying we want them, we are now actually finding ourselves in a position where we decide who to do business with, based on whether it’ll work for us, instead of the other way around.
My other main focus over the last 12 months has been to improve the transparency of the business and to get a handle on the true performance of what we do. It’s important that when we take on any work that we do it right first time – we also need to do it in a safe way. I often say, “Safety is our license to operate” and I am a strong believer that people should come to work and go home safely. People shouldn't feel bullied or pressurised to do anything that puts their safety at risk; every employee has the right to put their hand up and stop - we should always respect that.
In the past, communications with all our teams have been very poor. People working out in the field often felt they weren’t valued and that they weren’t kept in the loop when it came to business performance. Having visited many sites and spoken to many teams I would hear “we dig, we get paid; we dig, we get paid.” - We need to change the ‘them & us’ mentality.
Previously, I’ve had great success with Village Hall meetings where we pick a date for all the gangs in the local area to come together to an open space and meet members of the SMT and share information – the sessions are often coupled with a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea! This is something that I’ve implemented at CU, along with the help of the Marketing Manager and Senior Management Team, and I’m pleased to say we’ve received some good feedback from them.
I have recently appointed Steve Ryan as Operations Performance Director who is striving for continuous improvement. His ability to lead the teams, his understanding of our processes and IT systems, and his wealth of experience will all help to unlock the real potential of the business.
Looking into the future, the headlines for my next year at CU are to continue embedding some of the functions that I've seen we're missing. I plan to strengthen and reinvigorate our HSEQ and Training Department; implement and define an HR function and process for the business under the guidance of Maria Brown, our new HR Manager; upgrade our Business Management System and also review our company policies and procedures. I also plan to further develop our IT systems to gain better reporting, transparency and to strengthen our Financial Department whilst going after growth in a structured way.
Complete Utilities’ future is exciting, and with the team, we now have in place, I truly believe we can achieve great things – exciting times ahead.