Kier welcomes students to help expand environmental initiatives

Repairs and maintenance provider Kier welcomed two university students to further extend the work its team does to be environmentally conscious, while carrying out work for social housing tenants across Lincolnshire.

The new recruits, Freddie Bell and William Green, both aged 20 and from the Boston area, are working with the Kier team to help develop a strategy of environmentally friendly work practices and cultural change while gaining invaluable on-site experience.

By carrying out home visits alongside Kier employees, meeting with work schedulers and analysing data including fuel costs, mileage and productivity, Freddie and William have begun to understand the nature and implications of working within such a large team. Both have been working with Kier management to develop strategies to enhance the behaviour of team members, for example how to plan the most efficient routes between jobs in order to reduce fuel consumption.

Freddie, who is currently studying at Brunel University London, commented: “With the job market being in its current state, it has never been more important for students to enhance our understanding of the work environment and to gather valuable experience. This placement allows me to put into practice the analytical skills my degree has taught me, and to apply what I’m learning into a busy work environment.”

William, who studies at the University of Birmingham, expressed: “I wanted to do the work placement as it gave me the opportunity to work on a live project with Kier. This has allowed me to not only develop my project management skills, but has taught me how to collate and learn new information quickly."

Kier senior operations manager in Boston, Heidi Thompson, said: “At Kier we strive to provide valuable work experience placements for young people to help them find a way in to what is currently a very competitive job market. The ideas and initiatives William and Freddie have already devised are really strong and we feel their fresh outlook on the challenges our business faces and will support our drive to reduce carbon and be a more environmentally friendly business.”

In the first year of the five-plus-five-year contract in Boston, Kier carried out more than 15,000 repairs on local homes, over 2,000 of which were emergencies. The company, which employs 80 staff from within the Boston, Lincoln, Grimsby and Nottingham areas, is also providing benefits to the local community.

Earlier this year, four Kier employees in Boston embarked on a 33-mile sponsored cycle ride from Lincoln to Boston for the company’s nominated charity, The Butterfly Hospice, to help raise enough money for the hospice to achieve its goal of opening to patients by September 2012.

Despite the bad weather, the team (joiner Pete Booth, team leader Dean Brookes, customer services team leader Trisha Sweeney, and operations manager Bob McMath) raised an impressive total of £770 for the charity.