Clearview National October 2015 - Issue 167 | Page 25

INDUSTRYNEWS

Clearview’s Assistant Editor was invited to join Managing
Director Michael Connor at West Yorkshire based
Quickslide to find out more about how, after winning last
year’s G14 award for ‘Training and Development Initiative’,
the company is still honouring the awards principles.

Becoming Invincible
»»It is no big secret that the
construction industry is currently undergoing
a major skills shortage and both the
Government and related associations and
organisations are encouraging companies
within the industry to engage in training and
apprenticeship schemes.
One company which has embraced these
recommendations is one of the UK’s largest
PVCu sliding sash window manufacturers,
Quickslide.
With over 90% of Quickslide’s 120
employees either currently in or scheduled
for some form of training, Michael Connor,
Managing Director, tells Clearview about the
importance the company places on training
and developing its staff and how this has
helped the business grow and move forward.
Quickslide has forty-two staff currently
participating in the widely recognised, NVQ
level 2 training scheme for ‘Performing
Manufacturing Operations (PMO)’ and
eleven staff studying towards a ‘Lean
Manufacturing’ apprenticeship in ‘Business
Improvement Techniques (BIT)’. An
outstanding record by any stretch, but couple
this with a further sixty of its workforce due
to conduct health and safety refresher courses,
the overall enthusiasm and passion of this
business to instill an ethos of development
and motivation to encourage staff to learn, is
exceptional.

All courses are delivered by external
accredited companies and look at enhancing
staff skills in:
• Overall business performance – ensuring
employees understand the business
• Reducing costs and reduction in process
variation and waste within the business –
securing its long-term future
• Boost employee morale and motivation
– People then look forward to coming to
work and being listened to
• Improve the overall quality of the
workforce – raise skill sets and produce
more problem solvers
• Reduce workplace accidents and
incidents – raise awareness and levels of
responsibility
Michael comments: “Having a strong focus
on training is good for business; an engaged
workforce will deliver up to 20% more. We
don’t just talk about our people being our
biggest asset; we actually back it up with
decent training and employee engagement.”
Michael believes in putting profits back
in to the business and, in particular, through
its staff, noting that training is a more than
worthy investment:
“If we have a turnover of staff that is
almost zero, and we do, we have a team that
can deliver consistent quality and profit.
Constantly having to bring new people into
a business is very costly and usually means

quality standards drop for a time and the
resulting costs have a major impact on profits.
We therefore want to invest in the good people
we have working for us and put the