Challenges
Talent attraction and retention are two of Lanes Group’s biggest challenges. This is seen first hand by Cathy Dyos, Talent Acquisition Specialist, who says, “The main challenge when it comes to our staff is the attraction and retention of the people that we're bringing on board. There's a war out there for talent, especially in the field.”
It’s a challenge backed up by Andy Brierly, Technical Director, “We recognised about two years ago. We had lots of problems around retention. People just weren't staying.”
Cathy went on to continue, “The impact that these challenges have on the organisation is the fact that we weren't able to necessarily provide the customer service that we need to our customers and to Thames Water. The workload they have, especially in the winter is excessive. So it means that we're forever having to sort of scramble around to get people to be able to do the work and the jobs that are necessary.”
On top of this, Lanes Group found a direct correlation between the employee experience and the health and safety of staff and customers. Andy noted, “We did some really interesting analysis where we start to link health and safety incidents, customer service and wellbeing, and we actually found that happier people have fewer incidents and deliver better customer service. Recognition is everything.”