Maintaining the flow of talent through apprenticeships

Citation

Jones, K. (2014), "Maintaining the flow of talent through apprenticeships", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 13 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-10-2013-0096

Maintaining the flow of talent through apprenticeships

Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 13, Issue 2

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR

Redrow Homes is one of the UK’s leading house builders, responsible for approximately 3,000 new homes per annum across England and Wales. Those homes include everything from first time buyer properties to city center apartments, detached family homes and large £1 million plus luxury villas. Redrow, which was established in 1974, has a reputation for innovation and quality in all areas, including the design and build of its product, customer service and the training and development of its workforce.

There is an emphasis on "home growing" talent, which is evidenced in the company’s commitment to various schemes, including apprenticeships, graduate training and management development programs. Redrow has invested heavily in its own purpose built training center, which delivered more than 2,300 training days to its staff in the last financial year.

Dealing with the downturn

House building in the UK suffered early on in the credit crunch crisis. During 2007 and 2008 Redrow, in common with its competitors, had to reduce its headcount and close a number of regional operating divisions. Trade apprenticeships are the lifeblood of the construction industry and, fortunately, Redrow was able to protect all its apprentices from redundancy and enable them to complete their qualifications; however, there were no new entrants in 2008 or 2009.

Assuming that this pattern was repeated within competitor companies, it was inevitable that this would create a skills gap when the industry started to recover. It would require a bullish management team with good foresight to reintroduce apprenticeships while the economy was still stagnating.

In 2009 the original founder of Redrow returned to the business and began refocusing its product offering towards the premium end of the market. The HR philosophy was revisited and, recognizing that any company is only as good as the people it employs, new entrant training programs at all levels were placed at the heart of the talent attraction, retention and management strategy. When the upturn came – which eventually, inevitably, it would – Redrow wanted to be ready to hit the ground running at full speed.

A review of the apprenticeship program

The training and development team took the opportunity to undertake a review of the trade apprenticeship program and identified several problem areas. Firstly, the operating divisions were taking different approaches to the target number of trainees and the training model and provider used. The retention rate varied in different parts of the business, with anywhere between 40 and 60 percent of apprentices completing their three-year program, depending on where they were based.

Based on the current and projected number of developments, the training and development team worked with the business to agree the optimum number of trainees to balance sufficient new talent with the amount of resource required to support them. The ratio was agreed and, as a result, 50 trainee places were allocated between the operating divisions.

The company introduced a single annual intake of apprentices undertaken across all the divisions in September and coordinated all recruitment activity to support this. The training and development team worked intensively with a nominated apprenticeship coordinator from each division. These individuals were given training in recruitment and selection, coaching and performance management, to ensure that each apprentice had the necessary mentoring to reach his or her full potential.

New approach to training and progression

The training and development team identified the variable quality of training providers and undertook a formal tender process, which resulted in Redrow partnering with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to provide all trade apprenticeships.

It became apparent that the previous training program had relied almost exclusively on the external college-based provision and had lacked any internal Redrow managerial content. To remedy this, a structured program was introduced ensuring that all apprentices experienced all stages of construction during their training. This results in a more rounded, better skilled apprentice who, once qualified, can move up to the next level more quickly and effectively.

It is important for young trainees in their first job to feel part of a team and have some peer support. To facilitate this, the training and development team introduced regional induction events and ongoing training events in both technical and soft skills, to enable the trainees to meet regularly and bond as a team.

Finally, and most significantly from a talent management perspective, the training team identified there was no structured pathway for trade apprentice to management, which was causing the business to lose talented youngsters. Accordingly, we created a trainee site assistant role to incorporate the higher vocational qualification to enable successful apprentices to move towards a full site management role.

Recognizing and rewarding performance

As with the wider workforce, trainees appreciate recognition and in 2010 the training and development team introduced "Apprentice of the Year" awards. The successful trainees have a presentation in front of their peers of a trophy and a financial reward and press releases are sent out to local and trade media to highlight their success.

The company also uses external recognition programs and in 2013 it entered four teams into a national apprenticeship challenge. This included both team outdoor challenges and team projects and re-enforced internal team bonding initiatives.

Apprenticeships at the heart of the talent strategy

When the program was increased and extended in 2009, we recruited 50 trade apprentices. To date over two thirds are on track to complete the program and their vocational qualification, a considerable improvement on the previous statistics.

Of these apprentices, three have already been offered permanent posts as trainee site assistants, the first candidates to come up through this route – and hopefully the first of many. It is our heartfelt wish that one day we will have a construction director, or even managing director, who has progressed from the apprenticeship scheme, through site management and area management to director level.

Redrow’s apprenticeship scheme is viewed as one of the best in the industry and in 2013 we received over 500 applications for 45 places. As well as plumbing, joinery and bricklaying trade apprentices, Redrow has gone on to introduce office based apprenticeships, following a successful trial in 2012. Combined with various other structured programs, including technical trainees and graduate training schemes, this means that over 10 percent of Redrow’s workforce consists of trainees. These people are very much at the heart of our talent management strategy.

Karen Jones
Redrow Homes Ltd, Ewloe, UK

About the author

Karen Jones is HR Director at Redrow. She joined Redrow in 1997 to manage its in-house training and became HR Director two years later. A Philosophy graduate from Nottingham University, she has previously worked for accountants Coopers and Lybrand and worldwide business services group Hays. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Karen Jones can be contacted at: http://karen.jones@redrow.co.uk