Building resilience and capability: Shaping the future of Morgan Sindall Construction

As a result of the relationships built on the programme, we have had colleagues phone us asking us to visit a manufacturing plant in Wales because it is closer for us than them. We’ve also got a job in Bristol that we are doing at the moment which is similar to another that the team in Liverpool has completed, so we’ve ended up having some useful conversations about that. So, not only are there 18 more people in the business that I now know, but I’m getting to know their colleagues and expanding my network in that way too. Our group project is looking at what opportunities there are for Morgan Sindall in the carbon neutral space in future, and how we can best position ourselves now to maximise those opportunities. In Wales, carbon considerations have been the law in new constructions for a couple of years now, so we are in a slightly different place in our office from the rest of the business and that’s meant I’ve felt able to contribute a lot to the group discussions. What’s great is that the work we’re doing isn’t a project for the sake of a project – it is something that needs to be done for the benefit of the company. It’s a big thing for a business like Morgan Sindall to give such responsibility to a group of individual employees to direct the business but actually, we have proved ourselves in a way through the work that we do and because of our position within the business. Sometimes you think: ‘why are they trusting me or us with this?’, but then you get into discussions as a group and everyone starts contributing and you look around the room and think: ‘well, actually, who better to ask how to drive this business forward than the people working in it?’ When budgets are stretched, training is one of the easiest things to cut down on and you see it so many times with businesses that learning and development is where they reduce spend. But when we’re trying to recruit people, it’s often the question that is asked. The next generation especially want to know about our graduate programme, our future development programmes, and hear about the pathways for them to develop in their roles or move up the ladder. Saying ‘just do your job well and you’ll get there’ doesn’t cut it. So, what Morgan Sindall is doing in investing in not just this course but all the learning and development initiatives it is running across the board is a massive sell for us as a company. And it is recognised internally. With the commercial pressures on the company at the moment, having gone through Covid-19 and with the energy crisis, to still have a big training push shows we truly are investors in people.

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