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Floorspan - Investing in People
- Dave Myers
- February 24, 2020
- 10:18 am
Taken from a question and answer session with Floorspan Estimating Team Leader Ian Belton on 21/02/2020
As ‘Estimating Team Leader’ at Floorspan Contracts, Ian is responsible for processing and allocating incoming enquiries and for generally managing the staff within the estimating team. A big part of Ian’s role is to assess a job’s requirements and to then offer technical support and advice to the estimator. We have a large, efficient team of estimators at Floorspan and, as team leader, helping staff to grow and fulfil their full potential through training is very high on the agenda. Ian is one of the company’s mentors. As such, he has had an input in the training of nearly all the staff currently working at Floorspan.
Ian’s service at Floorspan covers more than a decade and since he joined us in 2005 he has gained a broad yet in-depth experience through working in nearly every department. Since starting out as a Production Operator, he has witnessed the massive changes and growth within the company. This experience is particularly vital when training new employees and for setting the foundations for the ‘future of Floorspan’.
Floorspan is excellent at making sure that individuals have the skills in place so they can do their job to a high standard, they offer a lot of training to ensure that nobody gets left behind with new tech or new ways of doing things.
We asked Ian to talk about his time at Floorspan, how it has changed and how Floorspan invests in its staff
I joined the Floorspan team almost 15 years ago on the 25th of April 2005 as a yardie (Production Operator). When I first started all that time ago there was around 20-30 staff in total, including lorry drivers, installers, management/office staff and the production operators. The entire company was on a much smaller scale back then with only a small yard for production and just one office for the few that were in there.
It wasn’t long before we started to expand as a company, within 5 years of me joining Floorspan the number of staff had easily doubled, I was out of the yard and into the warm office working as a designer/estimator. We also got our own concrete plant in the yard as opposed to it being delivered by a mixer lorry like it used to be when I first joined.
How staff development is linked to growth...
Fast forward a few years and we had continued to grow at the same rapid rate, we had new office buildings and a new staffing structure. 10 lorries as opposed to 3 when I first joined. Manufacturing infrastructure also changed massively, we had more sheds for casting, and we extruded hollow-core manufacturing as opposed to the tricky wet cast method. We were developing extremely rapidly and it was clear that we were getting busier and busier.
With this, we needed to increase our staff within the office and that’s exactly what we did, we trained up and developed more estimators and designers, so we could keep up with the high demand of jobs coming in. We even had to create a department for the larger development jobs that were coming in. Due to the increase in our production capability, we were able to cater for much larger jobs so we decided to have a specific department for those jobs.
All this growth and development around the company meant that the staff needed to grow and develop at the same rate and I think the management team have been excellent at making sure the staff are always growing and developing themselves. I have been sent on a part-time CAD course to develop my skills and be able to transfer those skills on to new members of the team. Also at the time of changing roles to Team Leader, I undertook an NVQ in Team Leading. Floorspan is excellent at making sure that individuals have the skills in place so they can do their job to a high standard, they offer a lot of training to ensure that nobody gets left behind with new tech or new ways of doing things.
We asked Ian what the biggest difference is from when he started and what he predicts for the future
For me personally from production operative to Team Leader, it has been a huge change, when I first started in the yard I never thought 5 years later that I’d be in the office working on CAD drawings working within the estimating and design team.
At the time, switching to our own concrete was another huge change to the way we worked and to what we were then capable of. We have also recently launched our new eFloor EPS flooring system which is really exciting and already we can see that it is becoming more and more popular.
The future is exciting, things have changed so much in the time I’ve been here. The Ian who started 15 years ago would not recognise the place it is now so who knows what the next 15 years will bring? Onwards and Upwards.
Thanks to Ian for providing this information. Ian is very passionate about this job at Floorspan and does excellent work on a daily basis. We hope this has offered an insight into how we invest in our staff and how we have grown and developed to what we are today.