Employer of the Year 2017 InTandem share their story

Initially we believed that these Awards were for other people, however, InTandem was encouraged to apply for Employer of the Year by a number of customers after working in partnership with them to raise the level of BEMS knowledge among their mechanical and electrical engineers. We are extremely pleased we did get involved with the Awards as the recognition and connection with Young Engineers has been terrific.

Once we got started with the application (an easy process via the on-line form), we realised that the intiatives we implement to develop our own staff’s knowledge and skills were not being as widely adopted by the industry as we had assumed. Most of these methods (industrial placements/internships/mentoring/work experience) are readily accessible to all businesses all over the UK. However, maybe there is little knowledge of such schemes or lack of confidence to engage with them.

From our experience over a number of years, we have found that these College/University placements and mentoring bring huge benefits to businesses not only for the duration of the schemes but also in the long run in terms of recruitment and employee engagement and retention.

There are many quoted statistics regarding the ‘shortage of engineers’ and the ‘skills gap’ and these can be seen as such big numbers that they only make sense to Politicians. For us there is a very strong business case and social responsibility to get new talent connected with our business and with multiples of these small connections, the big statistics will take care of themselves.

At a time when engineering has the 4^th highest talent shortage globally (Source: Manpower Group), it has never been more important to attract a diversity of new engineers into our industry while continuing to upskill our existing engineers to keep up with demand.

Increased commitment to apprenticeships (especially in their new enhanced form ; Trailblazer Standards) and young engineers particularly, is critical to demonstrate that a career in our industry has many exciting prospects. This will also reinforce the fact that engineering as a profession can be creative, prosperous and rewarding and the Awards showcase this in the most inspirational way.

InTandem’s experienced engineers, many of them once apprentices themselves, offer day-to-day mentoring to those new recruits coming through – by ‘paying forward’ they ‘pay back’ the help that they were given just a few years ago.

This involves exposing young engineers to every aspect of the business (design & engineering/panel build/installation/problem solving/commissioning/strategy/graphics) to give individuals the opportunity to engage with the whole range of disciplines. A popular experience is live BMS monitoring via remote connection. This is a growing area and it’s often inspirational to view real time data, control process and alarms. This broad exposure to the industry helps both our new recruits and us to identify their aptitudes, interests and motivations for further development along the path of becoming a controls engineer.

Winning Employer of the Year 2017 has given InTandem staff some recognition and shared pride of the value of mentoring and the development of engineers on their career path. It has reinforced our beliefs in the importance of all engineers developing themselves and others. This whole process then ensures that the vast array of skills and knowledge is passed on and continually enhanced to benefit the engineer’s organisation and the wider building controls industry.

The increased exposure that InTandem received in the press after winning the award has raised our professional status in the industry, helped us consolidate existing customer confidence, enhanced our reputation and exposed us to new customer opportunities. We’ve also consolidated our relationships with our local university and colleges leading to even more young engineers applying to join us. Entering Employer of the Year has been hugely beneficial and we highly recommend you apply this year !

Interested in entering? For more information visit the Young Engineers Awards website.