HS2 expansion Strategic HR
and incidentally they are
already areas of skills
shortage,” he says. “The jobs
created include everything from
welders, steel fixers, project
managers, engineers, surveyors,
right through to less obvious jobs like
archaeologists and environmental
assessment specialists.”
Michael Tarrega is communications
and media relations manager for HS2
as part of the Costain Skanska joint
venture, one of the programme’s
leading contractors. He confirms that
more than 2,000 firms in the UK are
currently contracted to work on HS2,
70% of which are SMEs and 98% of
them British.
“Since Royal Assent in 2017
there have been 324 apprenticeships
within HS2 and the supply chain,”
Tarrega adds.
However, because of the scale and
scope of HS2 the question of what
skills will be created in response to
the project is about more than just
construction and engineering.
For Skanska the complex matrix structure
of the joint venture with Costain has
specifically informed some of its internal
investments in soft skills development.
EVP and chief HR officer at the company
Harvey Francis says: “We’ve invested very
heavily in trying to upskill our people in
collaborative behaviours – which means
effectively working together in the best
interest of the joint venture and the client,
but also recognising the requirements and
needs of each of the parent companies.
“From an identity perspective people work
for Skanska, but you also want them to
identify as being part of the wider team.
That’s one of the challenges that we’re always
looking to manage.”
Beyond those industries directly involved
in the project, HS2 also provides promise in
terms of boosting employee mobility.
Mark Dexter, CEO at KDR Recruitment,
suggests that in the longer term HS2 presents
the opportunity to spread areas of expertise
more evenly across England.
Using recent relocations by the BBC and
Channel 4 as examples, Dexter says: “I think
HS2 will enable businesses to set up centres
for one particular skillset. They can
potentially have a tech centre in Manchester
but if they can get to London quickly, to
where commercial might be, or where
We’ve got a
gap, which
you could
see as a
problem or
you could
see as an
opportunity
marketing might be for example,
then that’s going to be a help
to them.”
But these expansions and
relocations can’t happen until
HS2 is completed.
“I think at the moment
there’s an element of catchup
to be made,” Dexter says.
“Manchester has attracted a
number of large businesses
setting up their technical
hubs. But I don’t think the
infrastructure is necessarily
there at the moment to be
able to support that growth.
But that should change as
HS2 comes in.”
Flexible working
One of the biggest foreseeable
impacts of HS2 will be what it
contributes to flexible and
remote working.
According to the 2019
Global Workspace Survey:
Welcome to Generation
Flex – the employee power shift from the
International Workplace Group (IWG),
68% of businesses in the UK reported that
they have a flexible workspace policy.
Across the country 73% of people also
said they believe flexible working to be the
new normal.
The CIPD’s UK Working Lives survey
report for 2019 also found 54% of UK
workers work flexibly in some way. This
figure is only expected to rise as two in three
(68%) of those surveyed by the CIPD said
they would like to work flexibly in a way that
is not currently available.
Tailored to the personal needs of the
individual, flexible working can mean
working different hours, or it might mean
working from a location other than the
reporting office.
At Ricoh, for example, director of
people and CR Rebecca Wallis explains
that the company has different categories
for flexible workers dependent on their
roles. She estimates that around half of
the company’s workforce have roles
that mean they are effectively “field
based” so they work at home, but
travel directly to customers. In roles
like this, with dispersed teams, reliable
high-speed rail infrastructure could
be a valuable asset.
Figures for the HS2 network estimate that
the majority (65%) of its passengers will be
people from classic rail lines. Eight per cent
of the network’s passengers will be people
converted from travelling by car. At
forecasted annual capacity (85 million)
car travellers using the network equate to
6.8 million people.
Wallis says: “Our view is that, certainly with
a multigenerational workforce, flexibility is
becoming more important. And people are
moving away from the traditional nine to
five to wanting more flexible roles. It is going
to be almost essential for employers to offer
that agility.”
According to Skanska’s Francis, the company
often uses its projects as micro environments
to trial new working practices before rolling
out to other areas of the company.
The company is currently conducting a
flexible work trial for workers on HS2, which
is unusual for construction work. Named Flex
40, Skanska’s flexible work programme was
started as a pilot in the HS2 project last year
and has since been extended. The two aspects
of construction work that the programme
aims to tackle are a long-hours culture
(presenteeism included), and a lack of
diversity, particularly in terms of gender.
Arranging construction work around the
school run, for example, has historically been
difficult for working parents. But Flex 40 aims
to change this.
“Programmes like Flex 40 and a few other
things we have in place are about looking for
the opportunity to be more,” Francis explains.
“By doing that we can create a different
offer in the employment space and hopefully
attract people with different skills and
different backgrounds to join us that
ordinarily would have discounted themselves
because they’d see the organisation and the
industry as unattractive.”
Now the company is looking at ways to take
key learnings from the trial and apply them
more widely.
hrmagazine.co.uk April 2020 HR 23
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