Q Who are Bureau Veritas?
Bureau Veritas is a global leader in Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) services and we ensure businesses meet statutory, regulatory and exemplar standards for quality, health and safety, social responsibility and the environment.
We are a multi-sector independent provider, bringing value and knowledge to our clients across various industries. We do this by focusing on providing technical leadership and excellence in client service through our network of highly skilled and experienced engineers.
Engineers for mechanical inspection is a particular focus for the business and represents a significant portion of Bureau Veritas turnover in the UK (30 per cent). The continued growth in this area means we are committed to investing in recruiting and retaining the very best candidates.
Q How do you foster career development?
Bureau Veritas is a people business and we rely on our people to provide a first class service to our customers. As such, we have a focused people strategy in place as a foundation to create what we call “a sound organisation” and ensure we identify, develop and retain highly talented individuals. The strategy is built around five key pillars: the talent agenda, resourcing, engagement, learning and development, plus efficiency and effectiveness. The talent agenda is particularly important to identify emerging talent and inform a strong succession programme for the business, as well as to promote cultural diversity and women in leadership.
The PATH programme for engineers has recently been introduced as part of our career development initiative to support our team leaders and technical experts and allow them to continuously develop skills and harness opportunities within their field. It is also an opportunity for engineers joining the business to have access to a structured pathway to become team leaders themselves.
Q What inspired the PATH programme?
We take career development extremely seriously and believe it is essential to retain skilled colleagues at all levels. Feedback from our engineers in particular was for Bureau Veritas to offer more structured and consistent development opportunities.
PATH now provides new and existing engineers a bespoke career development programme in either a management or technical capacity. The initiative will also support our engineering team leaders and technical experts and allow them to continuously develop skills and harness opportunities within their field. It is also an opportunity for engineers joining the business to have access to a structured pathway to become team leaders themselves.
Q What does the programme represent?
PATH represents: P: production delivery and efficiency; A: attitude for client excellence when onsite; T: technical and acting as a trainer for others; H: higher skills and becoming multi/duel skilled.
Each of these areas have been incorporated into each stage of the programme.
Q How many employees will take part and what does it involve?
All Bureau Veritas engineers have been enrolled onto the PATH programme.
The programme runs over a two year period and consists of a balance between face-to-face and flexible e-learning carried out by the PATH team of in-house training managers, technical team and line managers and is also supported by the Bureau Veritas HR team. Our clients have also been incredibly supportive and can see the value in the initiative. They have offered support by sharing in-house technical competency and customer training when relevant, as well as access to training facilities where multiple types of assets may be in one location.
As part of the annual appraisal process we will identify the next phase of engineers to enter into PATH training, to ensure that the programme continues to progress and participants are promoted through every stage.
Q What feedback have you had?
We have received very positive feedback internally from our engineers and line managers since PATH launched and continue to welcome comments as the programme progresses. The enrolment information shared with us has been extremely clear, so we have a sense of clarity as to where each engineer currently identifies with the programme and how they can progress to the next stage.
Q What next?
We are integrating additional leader support and coaching for the programme via our line managers, senior management and technical leaders, and will also be encouraging engagement in and awareness of PATH throughout the wider business during the coming months. We will also utilise the programme in our recruitment strategy to ensure engineers looking for career opportunities are aware of the development and support that PATH can provide. We will provide a further update on the progress of PATH from an engineer’s.
To learn more about BV and the opportunities we can offer, call 03456001828 or click here
