Protecting people, property and the environment

Labour Market Intelligence Report

May 2014

Labour Market Intelligence Report

Specific aims included:

1. Analysis of the sector in terms of number and type of employers, size and composition of the workforce and economic contribution;

2. Assessment of the demographics of the workforce, including the size and occupational breakdown;

3. Assessment of the current skills and labour market needs of employers, as well as how well the current workforce meets the needs of employers; and

4. Assessment of how the demand for skills and labour are likely to change over the course of the next decade.

Methodology

1. Desk Research

2. Employer Survey – 32 companies

3. In-depth Stakeholder Interviews – 5

stakeholders

BAFSA Membership

•Approximately 150+ businesses

•Estimates 5000 employees within the fire

sprinkler sector

• No single SIC code for the sector

•Expectations of continuing growth

• Driven by: Legislation, new construction and Awareness/lobbying

campaigns

Employer Survey

Main business activity of organisations

63%

19%

9%

9%Design, installation and maintenance of Mechanical Fire Protection Systems

Manufacturing

Supplier of Mechanical Fire Protection equipment

Other

13%

16%

19%25%

13%

9%

6%

1-4

5-9

10-19

20-49

50-99

100-249

250+

Size of the Workforce in the UK

Age of the Workforce

16-24 25-39 40-54 55+0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

12%

34%

38%

16%

12%

35%

33%

19%

15%

35%33%

17%

Fire Sprinkler Private Security General UK Workforce

Workforce Occupations

16%

8%

9%

8%

28%

12%

11%

7%

Contracts Managers, Design Managers and other Senior Offi-cials

Professional Occupations

Technical Occupations

Administrative and Secretarial Occupations

Skilled Trade Occupations

Sales and Customer Service Oc-cupations

Service Engineers, including weekly testers

Factory based

Performance

•Effects of the recent recession• Varied effects across the industry

• 25% stated it had no effect at all• 16% stated it had a ‘large’ effect

•Biggest challenges facing the industry• Managing cash flows, competition (41% each)• Finding new business, recruiting and retaining staff

(34% each)

Future Performance

•Organisations were hopeful about the future

• 91% actively seeking to grow in the next 12 months

• Same proportion expect workforce to grow

•Positive expectations for the industry• Next 3-5 years, 97% expect growth, no

companies expect it to shrink.

Recruitment

• 4/5 have recruited new staff in the past 12 months

• Most commonly recruited occupations• Admin and secretarial,

trainees 34%• Technical occupations

31%• Only 22% recruited for

skilled trade occupations

Numbers recruited

19%

9%

44%

13%

16%

No

1

2-4

5-9

10-30

Hard-To-Fill Vacancies

Majority (53%) of organisations had HTFs• 41% of these have more than half of

vacancies as HTFs

•Most common causes for HTFs• Few applicants with required skills (65%) • Few applicants with required attitude,

motivation or personality (53%)

Skills Needs

•Two-thirds of employers felt they had employees who were not fully proficient in their roles

• Need for additional training• Of these, 43% felt less than 10% of their workforce

has gaps, highest proportion was 25-49%• Most common skills gaps were ‘technical, practical or

job specific skills’ (57%) much higher than PSI (43%) • Impact of skills gaps – increased workload for other

staff (62%)

Nationally Recognised Qualifications

•Less than half have funded or arranged training for a recognised qualification

• Mean average 24% of workforce trained for qualification

• 5-9% most commonly trained (40%)

Training Providers

•Overall, organisations were very positive• 81% ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’• 19% ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’• ‘Supplier and Mechanical Fire Protection

equipment’ and ‘Other’ most likely to be ‘ neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ (33%)

•Unable to source desired training (13%)

Young People and Apprenticeships

Taken on anyone aged under 24 to their first job on leaving full-time education in the last 12 months

38%

3%

59%

YesUnsureNo

Young People and Apprenticeships

•92% felt that young people were ‘fairly well prepared’

• Only one organisation felt young people were ‘poorly prepared’ – time keeping, attendance and reliability issues.

•Only 22% of all organisations provided apprenticeships

• 58% of those who hired young people

Apprenticeships

• Only 28% offered adult employees apprenticeships

• Main reasons to persuade organisations to offer apprenticeships:

• Financial assistance (35%)• 61% would use apprentices if they had the

right kinds of external support

• Demand for higher level apprenticeships 44%

44%

25%

31% YesNoUnsure

Sub-contractors

•66% used sub-contractors in the past 12 months

• Larger organisations more likely to use them• ‘Design, Installation and Maintenance of Mechanical

Fire Protection Systems’ (80%)

•Sub-contractors most likely used for:• Site Installation (71%)• Design Engineering 48%) • Project Management (24%)

Sub-contractors

•Sub-contractors account for an average of 28% of work completed by organisations

14%

10%

38%

24%

5%10%

1-4%5-9%10-24%25-49%50-74%75%+

•No technological developments

•Knowledge being lost•Industry standards for sub-contractors

•Focus on residential fire sprinkler systems

Research, Development and Other Concerns

•Overall the state of the Fire Sprinkler industry is positive

• Expected growth, increase in workforce

• New recruits, vital role of training recognised

•Aging nature of the workforce

•Skills issues relating to ‘technical, practical or job specific skills’

•Sub-contractors need basic qualfications or certification

Conclusions

Protecting people, property and the environment

Presented by Ruth Oliver

Thank you