Mind the Gap
Jun 10, 2019 • Features • Ageing Workforce Crisis • future of field service • health and safety
Knowledge retained by those retiring from the service industry is set to be one of the sector’s biggest concerns over the next five years. Mark Glover speaks to Sarah Pettigrew from Thales UK, who through investment in technology and apprenticeships – as well as a more positive approach to mental health – is hoping to plug the gap...
According to research from Service Council, put together by Sumair Dutta, over 70 per cent of service outfits expressed fears around a retiring workforce. The study, called A Sustainable Field Service Workforce – Successfully Navigating the Retirement Crisis was published in April 2017, and some two years on it seems the crisis is in full flow.
Sarah Pettigrew is Head of Delivery Service at Thales UK and in a case-study, presented at Field Service Connect in May she suggested ways in which a service team can be built and retained while operating in the challenges an ageing workforce brings.
Part of that process, she says, is to accept and understand the situation that service finds itself in. “One of the first things to do is to acknowledge that it is actually an issue and it is a challenge for our business,” she tells me as a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast.
The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employees, who were perhaps reluctant to adapt to digitization and content in paper-led processes. Citing one of her own projects, Sarah explains the sector’s failure to act on the issue despite being aware of the consequences is a reason why the industry is now chasing itself to make sure this knowledge is passed on. “One of the contracts I look after has been running for twenty years,” she says. “We’ve had staff on this for a very long time and they have key amounts of knowledge. One of the things we’ve lacked in field service is actual knowledge transfer which people have retained. They’ve gone out and done same job for a long, long time and we’ve encouraged them to do that.”
To negate the leak, Thales and other firms are making sure that internal workforce knowledge is archived digitally, transferred to worker’s smart devices. By using technology Sarah hopes that processes will become less paper-reliant. “This isn’t about writing really long documents that are going to sit on a shelf, this is about making it accessible,” she says. “We’re using wikis so the information is getting into the palm of their [the workers’] hands. That’s one of the things we’ve really taken on board and looking to grow this year.”
As well as investing in technology the company are focusing on apprenticeships in order to shake up the current demographic of employees, however with the industry also struggling to encourage new blood, I ask why should a school or college leaver view the sector as a valid vocation? “It’s about seeing field service as a career and where it can take you. We’ve seen people from apprenticeship programmes go all the way up to CEO level,” she offers.
Of course, in any company, employees differ in their attitudes to work with some wanting to grow and advance in their career with others content to come in every day and do a good job, something Sarah has identified. “You can’t forget about the individual,” she says. “All of this is about getting to you know your people and getting to understand their needs, getting them engaged in these development conversations. “It’s really important that we actually engage folks into that element of the excitement of what they do and also thinking about the customer. For me, it’s all about the customer and that interaction with the customer and how we can actually nurture that relationship.
We discuss employers’ attitudes towards their workers’ wellbeing and how attitudes around mental health, for example, have changed positively and had a positive affect on the person and also the business. “When you think about field service staff, you don’t necessarily see them sitting down and having a conversation around mental health. The big thing for me is working with people, particularly in service. My people are the heart of what we do and sitting down and having a cup of tea with them a break on their shift is really important and engaging with them and understanding what their challenges are, because if I can do something to make their lives easier, it will also benefit the business throughout.”
She continues: “It’s a cliché - happy staff means happy customers – but it’s true. They [field staff] probably touch more of our customer base than we ever will. It’s about that interaction they have and how they take it forward.”
I ask Sarah what she enjoys about her role; what potential employees could expect on a day-to-day working at somewhere like Thales. “There’s great variety in the work we do; both in London for our London-centric clients and also across the UK,” she says. “I came from a project management background and have been with Thales for seven years. I came here because of the diversity in the challenge.”
And what about the knowledge gap challenge in service, the premise of this piece. What should firms keep sight of? “It’s all about our people and the ability for our people to go and deliver that service,” she says, “They’re all key to the way we take ourselves forward.”
According to research from Service Council, put together by Sumair Dutta, over 70 per cent of service outfits expressed fears around a retiring workforce. The study, called A Sustainable Field Service Workforce – Successfully Navigating the Retirement Crisis was published in April 2017, and some two years on it seems the crisis is in full flow.
Sarah Pettigrew is Head of Delivery Service at Thales UK and in a case-study, presented at Field Service Connect in May she suggested ways in which a service team can be built and retained while operating in the challenges an ageing workforce brings.
Part of that process, she says, is to accept and understand the situation that service finds itself in. “One of the first things to do is to acknowledge that it is actually an issue and it is a challenge for our business,” she tells me as a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast.
The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employees, who were perhaps reluctant to adapt to digitization and content in paper-led processes. Citing one of her own projects, Sarah explains the sector’s failure to act on the issue despite being aware of the consequences is a reason why the industry is now chasing itself to make sure this knowledge is passed on. “One of the contracts I look after has been running for twenty years,” she says. “We’ve had staff on this for a very long time and they have key amounts of knowledge. One of the things we’ve lacked in field service is actual knowledge transfer which people have retained. They’ve gone out and done same job for a long, long time and we’ve encouraged them to do that.”
To negate the leak, Thales and other firms are making sure that internal workforce knowledge is archived digitally, transferred to worker’s smart devices. By using technology Sarah hopes that processes will become less paper-reliant. “This isn’t about writing really long documents that are going to sit on a shelf, this is about making it accessible,” she says. “We’re using wikis so the information is getting into the palm of their [the workers’] hands. That’s one of the things we’ve really taken on board and looking to grow this year.”
As well as investing in technology the company are focusing on apprenticeships in order to shake up the current demographic of employees, however with the industry also struggling to encourage new blood, I ask why should a school or college leaver view the sector as a valid vocation? “It’s about seeing field service as a career and where it can take you. We’ve seen people from apprenticeship programmes go all the way up to CEO level,” she offers.
"The challenge lies in plugging the knowledge gap, created by the retirement of long-serving employee..."
Of course, in any company, employees differ in their attitudes to work with some wanting to grow and advance in their career with others content to come in every day and do a good job, something Sarah has identified. “You can’t forget about the individual,” she says. “All of this is about getting to you know your people and getting to understand their needs, getting them engaged in these development conversations. “It’s really important that we actually engage folks into that element of the excitement of what they do and also thinking about the customer. For me, it’s all about the customer and that interaction with the customer and how we can actually nurture that relationship.
We discuss employers’ attitudes towards their workers’ wellbeing and how attitudes around mental health, for example, have changed positively and had a positive affect on the person and also the business. “When you think about field service staff, you don’t necessarily see them sitting down and having a conversation around mental health. The big thing for me is working with people, particularly in service. My people are the heart of what we do and sitting down and having a cup of tea with them a break on their shift is really important and engaging with them and understanding what their challenges are, because if I can do something to make their lives easier, it will also benefit the business throughout.”
She continues: “It’s a cliché - happy staff means happy customers – but it’s true. They [field staff] probably touch more of our customer base than we ever will. It’s about that interaction they have and how they take it forward.”
I ask Sarah what she enjoys about her role; what potential employees could expect on a day-to-day working at somewhere like Thales. “There’s great variety in the work we do; both in London for our London-centric clients and also across the UK,” she says. “I came from a project management background and have been with Thales for seven years. I came here because of the diversity in the challenge.”
And what about the knowledge gap challenge in service, the premise of this piece. What should firms keep sight of? “It’s all about our people and the ability for our people to go and deliver that service,” she says, “They’re all key to the way we take ourselves forward.”
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