Hall of fame

It’s a funny old life. One minute you’re planning for retirement with your wife in a Balearic villa, the next you’re fast-tracked to ECA presidency, dedicating around 200 days out of the following 365 to fighting for justice, honour and truth.

Justifiable grounds for divorce, you might think.

“In retrospect, it’s the best thing that could have happened to us,” insists new ECA president Bob Hall. My wife Sandra enjoys it as well. Once you’ve been retired for six months there’s a danger you’ll get bored. The presidency is a job, not a free ride, and I’m very conscious that I want to try to achieve something in my time, but it’s also very enjoyable.”

Some might say a little too enjoyable for someone who has only been actively involved in the ECA for six years. After all, most past-presidents boast an affiliation stretching back aeons, with time served on everything from the labour relations committee to the board that decides which way contractors should slice their lunchtime sarnies. What would Bob say to those who think he has jumped the queue?

“They might be right,” he laughs. “People may be surprised that I’m doing it so quickly. I was surprised as well. It wasn’t something I’d planned or thought was on the agenda. I’ve always supported the ECA, and I’ve been on the finance committee for four years. But the trouble is, when you’re running a large company, the amount of time you’ve got is not very great.”

Up until his recent retirement, Bob was chief executive of Southern Electric Contracting. Back in 1992, the firm was making a loss. Bob was part of the team that turned the loss around.

“When we set up SEC, we employed 1200 and the turnover was about £50 million,” he recalls. “By the time I retired, the turnover was £220 million. We were employing more than 2500 people, and we consistently made the highest profits out of all the electrical contractors.”

With a rescue mission of such proportions on the go, it’s hardly surprising that he didn’t play a more prominent role within the ECA. However, Bob insists he is not finding his relative newbie status a disadvantage. He believes that, as all new presidents must go through a learning curve, the most crucial thing is being able to put in the hours.

“You obviously need a fair amount of experience of the electrical industry, but you also need time. It isn’t just an honorary position, it’s a time-consuming, full-time job. You’ve got to find someone who can spare at least three days a week. So that’s my job application laid out for you.”

However, Bob admits it hasn’t been the easiest of shifts. “I do find it quite a difficult transition moving from being chief executive with hands-on management of an operation to being in a non-executive job. In this role, you guide, you have opinions, but you’ve got to be careful you don’t interfere with managing the day-to-day running. I have to resist the desire to take over.”

Bob’s hands-on industry know-how is second to none. He entered the sector as an apprentice with Southern Electric more than 40 years ago, and training issues are close to his heart in an age where apprenticeships are dwindling at an alarming rate.

“The basic business model at SEC was to grow all your engineers, managers and directors from the craft level. We’re very proud of the fact that all the directors at SEC used to be company apprentices,” he says.

“This is the area where I think we really do have a major problem. I was an apprentice for the electricity board – so were many others. Allan Littler, who’s taking over the president’s role after me, was a Manweb apprentice.

“If you go back 30 or 40 years, the electricity boards were training very large numbers of electrician and student engineer apprentices. Craftsmen could progress through industrial staff traineeship schemes and become engineers or managers. That whole infrastructure has disappeared since the electricity companies were privatised.”

Today’s major contractors don’t escape Bob’s wrath either. “If you take the top 10 contractors in the country, there are only three or four that train apprentices. Their business model has changed. At the bigger end, they tend to be project managers rather than employers of craftsmen. They rely on subcontractors or labour agencies for staff.

“The bottom line is that, because they don’t employ electricians, they can’t train apprentices as the key thing about training a craftsman is that he has to spend time with craftsmen – it’s not a paperwork exercise.”

A significant number of small- and medium-sized contractors are still pushing ahead with apprentice training, but they’re finding it increasingly difficult.

“First, there’s a skills shortage and they’re only training a small number, so there’s every danger the trainee will get poached by one of the bigger guys,” he says.

“I mean, at the moment, we’ve only got about 20% of companies training. We may not have noticed yet, because a lot of people that were trained 20 or 30 years ago are still working. But they’re like me. They’re getting long in the tooth and grey-haired and they’ll soon be coming out of the industry.”

And second? “Well, 16-year-olds are more difficult to deal with than they were 30 years ago. The work ethic was different. You didn’t get youngsters going out binge-drinking.”

For this reason, many firms are more attracted to adult trainees. “They’re more committed so you get a higher level of success. The trouble is, there is no funding for it, and the requirements of a 22-year-old are greater than those of a 17-year-old. You want to buy a house by that age.”

We’ll lose our edge if we don’t react soon. It’s not too late for the industry, but we need to open our eyes to the new technology

Bob is currently chairing the ECA’s education and training committee. As well as looking at funding, the group is hoping to establish adult traineeship schemes with stopping-off points at NVQ Levels 2, 3 and 4, to provide a complete career path.

The committee also aims to develop the student apprenticeship, concentrating on college leavers. “Instead of going to university, they can come in and do a student apprenticeship, which is what I did,” Bob explains.

“The idea is that the courses will still maintain a big emphasis on craft skills, but will also fast-track able students to management skills such as estimating and contract running.” Currently, trainees must complete the craft apprentice scheme before moving on to the next level, or kiss goodbye to their allotted funding.

“Some people might be thinking, ‘I don’t want to be putting in wires for the rest of my life.’ If they discover they’ve got another two years to go, they may well jump ship.”

M&E Sustainability

Energy-efficient and sustainable systems provide a worrying example of how UK contractors might be losing out due to a lack of skilled labour.

“Recent SummitSkills research highlights that the knowledge of new technologies is very, very sparse,” says Bob. “We’re an innovative nation. We’ve got the skills. What we haven’t got is enough of them.

“If we’re not developing skills in the area of sustainability, I think the danger is that those skills will be provided by other countries. We’ll have the Germans or the Swedish coming in, supplying the technology, and the craft skills will be provided by Poland. We’ll lose our edge if we don’t react soon. It’s not too late for the industry, but we need to open our eyes a bit to the new technology.”

However, he accepts that the way firms react will be partly market driven. “With contracting, you don’t have very high margins, so you don’t have the ability to go off and investigate things as a hobby. The more the pressure’s turned on by clients driving the sustainability agenda, the more the industry will react. It’s no good training the workforce in a skill they don’t use for another two years.”

One of the areas the ECA is beginning to explore is involving the manufacturers of sustainable solutions in structured training. “The ECA has a good front end to organising training, and manufacturers have the knowledge and infrastructure for delivering. Join the two together and you’ll make some progress in getting those energy-efficiency skills into the workforce.

A greater focus on integrated systems is particularly important if the industry is to move forward. “Intelligent buildings will increasingly be geared towards energy-efficiency, necessitating a combination of mechanical and electrical systems. As the sustainability agenda gathers pace, more clients are demanding an m&e solution.”

Bob says it’s crucial trade associations take a lead in co-operating and believes the ECA and HVCA’s new joint M&E Sustainability Group, which focuses on funding, training and best practice, couldn’t have come a day too soon.

“There’s an urgent need for it, the time is right, and we need to explore that with a lot more vigour. One of the disadvantages of democratic organisations such as trade associations is, change takes a long time.”

Not all recent changes within the ECA have been welcomed. Many feel the decision to buy Part P scheme operator Elecsa was taken without widespread discussion.

“It’s a controversial subject,” admits Bob. “The prime motivation was influence. I think third party certification will increase and we want to be a part of certification, not on the outside trying to make our voices heard. Apart from that, it’s a business and will generate additional revenue to help us provide more services without pushing the subscription fees up.”

Bob sums up contractors’ doubts over the acquisition as a panic reaction. “Show me the evidence that the ECA’s acquisition of Elecsa is increasing the level of external interference that people are experiencing in running their businesses.

“It’s quite the reverse. If people were previously certified through the ECA/BRE Certification scheme there shouldn’t be any change. If they were certified through Elecsa they’ll continue doing that.

“If people are getting overwhelmed by the need for third party accreditation, I’ve got a lot of sympathy. Many prequalifications are repetitive and just go into a file and sit on a shelf. If you can get to grips with these issues and bring them into one streamlined, wider-ranging assessment process, it should benefit people.”

So, what’s on the cards for Bob during the rest of his term?

“You’re only president for a year, so your scope for making an impact is limited,” he says. “I think the only way to do it is to focus on one thing and try with monotonous persistence to keep plugging it. My mind is focused very much on training and skills. I think the sustainability agenda actually gets addressed as a spin-off. You don’t have to look specifically at measures such as wind turbines but more generally at whether we’ve enough skills and whether this industry is attractive enough for people to enter into.”