ACS Industry Insights – Collaboration Is Key In A Changing Sector

Building a Safer Future

I’m what they call a “day oner’ here at McCrory, having started as a bricklayer in the original gang many years ago. I then spent almost 30 years as a Project Manager before occupying my current position of Contracts Manager. You could say I’m fairly well placed to comment on how things have changed for the industry over the years, and right now those changes are more apparent than ever. 

With the Gateway systems and building safety regulation, we’re in a time of unprecedented change, and until these new systems have been approved, we’re at something of a standstill.

Take for example, one of our largest clients in Manchester; they have four sites on hold which they would have been well into was it not for the new regulations. I support the changes full heartedly, but the hold up in getting them through is having a huge – and negative impact on us all. 

We’ve had to reduce our workforce – mainly on the labour side – as have many of our clients. There’s only so long you can carry the economic burden before it’s not viable any longer. This alongside the bigger nationwide issue of retaining a skilled workforce is a worry but we’ll get through it. We’re not alone though, and everyone we speak to is in the same situation. 

Collaborative working 

A lot of my job is about maintaining relationships with our partners and orchestrating new projects and that’s where ACS come in. Our relationship with ACS is outstanding, the whole business operates with a ‘can do’ attitude which means things move fluidly. Like us, they are solutions orientated, and very approachable and such a partnership is crucial in helping us deliver to our clients and we foresee this continuing and gaining momentum in the coming years.

Things are monumentally different from when I started my career in the 90’s, mainly with accountability and the QA process. QA used to be a person that popped up from time to time on site, now it’s a full-time responsibility at the heart of every decision we make. It’s a different world to what it was. 

What’s interesting is seeing the reverse of that in action – we’re re-cladding jobs that were done years ago and finding lots of errors – not done by us I might add, but it’s reflective of the industry at that time – things got missed. Now, that just can’t happen, the new gateways will have fire safety measures infused into the initial design proposal and everything at every stage will be documented. 

Whilst we are waiting for new projects to start, we are also involved in some remedial works to some completed projects that were originally built by others. Some of these are nearly 19 years old, but we are retrofitting and fixing issues to make them fit for purpose.

Again, this retrofit work will continue as older buildings will all need looking at – it’s a never-ending task. There is a sense of trepidation I think across the industry, while the changes are supported it means a lot of infrastructural change for many businesses and that can take time to integrate. 

A positive future

Although we’re in challenging times, I’m confident for the future. It will take a while for the dust to settle but once the systems are in place, it will create a much safer, procedure driven environment. You’ll be able to find out who did what and when at every juncture – there will be no room or tolerance for error. It brings a new level of quality assurance that we’re keen to get behind. 

Skills wise, we need to attract new people into the industry. As a company we’re keen to welcome apprentices, we have a minimum of six to eight new apprentices starting every year thanks to our relationship with Salford College. It’s a great entry point into the industry as they get to experience various aspects of it from bricklaying to site supervision. One of our project managers who’s been here for 16 years started as an apprentice – it’s a fantastic initiative which we’re enthusiastic to support. 

Overall, I’m still happy to be here. I love the industry and the people in it. Have I got another 31 years in me? We’ll see!