Dr Graham Honeyman, Chief Executive
Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd
Championing apprentice training and succession planning
Dr Graham Honeyman returned Sheffield Forgemasters International
Ltd to profit in just six months when he took over the loss-making
company in 2002. Within less than three years turnover increased
from £35m to £100m, rising from £83,000 to £150,000 per employee.
The subject of a successful but complex management buy-out led by
Graham, today the company is an internationally competitive
business with investment in people at its core.
Graham gained a BSc and MSc in materials technology from
the University of Aston in Birmingham and completed a PhD at
Teesside Polytechnic. He then spent ten years working for Parsons
in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, rising to principal engineer. After nine
months spent studying super-critical steam turbines in the US,
Europe and Japan, in 1987 he was awarded a Winston Churchill medal.
A Royal Academy of Engineering silver medal for outstanding
contributions to British engineering followed in 1998. His career
at Sheffield Forgemasters began as technical director in 1988,
rising to managing director for the whole group. After a three-year
gap, he returned in 2002 to drive forward his own technical and
people strategies which set the company on the road to success. It
has operated as a management buy-out team since September 2005,
with Graham as chief executive.
Workforce investment
Sheffield Forgemasters manufactures large-scale bespoke steel
components for diverse industries, including offshore components
for power generation and components for the Astute nuclear
submarine build. Exports account for 80% of its business.
Operations include melting, forging, casting and machining.
Boosting apprentice training is something on which the company
leads by example as a supporter of Semta, the Sector Skills Council
for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies. The
company employs 680 people, of whom 42 are apprentices,
representing 9% of the shopfloor workforce. “We’re very committed
to all types of training but to apprentice training in
particular,” Graham says. “I recognised there had been little
investment in people here but since I’ve come back we’ve been
putting a lot of effort into taking on apprentices and it’s paying
dividends. I think we must have one of the highest levels in the
country.”
Value of Apprenticeships
Apprentice training forms a key part of Sheffield Forgemasters’
succession planning strategy to ensure it has the skills it needs
for the future. “We don’t poach people from other companies, we
grow our own,” Graham comments. “Each of the operations
directors on the site is involved in planning apprentice intake for
the future to replace skills lost through retirement and other
reasons,” he says. “We had to move pretty fast so that our older,
experienced workers can teach their skills to young people before
they retire.” Apprentices are trained at different levels, in the
workplace and at college, in a variety of skill areas to meet
identified needs and take up positions at Forgemasters when they
complete their apprenticeship. Bringing in apprentices has had a
significant impact on the age structure, reducing the average age
of the workforce from 49 to 41.
Workforce mix
Graham has every faith in the abilities of young people and
believes it is important that employers identify and nurture their
potential to succeed in engineering. Several of the company’s
apprentices have won awards. “Schools don’t always teach pupils in
the ways of engineering, but many young people have a lot of latent
talent and they need to be given an opportunity,” he says. “Young
people need to be motivated and the large majority of them are: if
you give them a chance they will shine. Apprentices don’t need to
have A* passes in Latin and geography - some people are good at
reading drawings and have skills of a different type and those are
the ones who need the opportunity. We don’t want them stacking
shelves in supermarkets, we want them to be using their skills in
engineering and we’re doing a lot at Sheffield Forgemasters to
develop those skills.”
It is not just young people who the company looks to in meeting
its skill needs. For Graham the skills, qualities and attitude
of the individual are important, not age. “We have a policy of
taking on people of all ages - even well into their 60s. If there
are people out there with ability, their age doesn’t matter to me.
As long as they have what it takes, I’m happy to take them on.”
Whilst the company has brought in people to build its strength in
key areas, investing in the training and development of existing
employees is its chief strategy. “I’m very keen to train in all
aspects of the company from the shopfloor through to supporting
staff on degrees and developing them for promotion,” Graham
stresses. “The majority of positions are filled by promoting people
from within rather than recruiting from outside.”
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