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TRAINING FEATURE THE LAWS OF TALENT ATTRACTION


Vicky Ordish, apprenticeship programme manager, at Rexel, discusses how the business is responding to the need for new talent, and the form which apprentices should take


I


n a fast paced and ever changing market place such as the electrical


industry, talent acquisition is an important consideration. Who is the face of the industry tomorrow and how can businesses make sure they are at the table when it comes to shaping this future talent? For most businesses the answer to this question has long been apprentices and the spotlight remains focused on young, new talent, alongside developing existing talent and continuing to upskill the workforce. It goes without saying that apprenticeships are highly valued within the wider economy and specifically in our industry, and we continue to see importance placed on them in the government agenda. At Rexel, we’ve always invested in apprentices and seen their value, and as an electrical distribution business, now more than ever we are looking to the younger generation as the workforce who will take on a digital first environment. Apprenticeships give us this opportunity to diversify our workforce and develop that next generation of talent for Rexel. These are the millennial workers who are digitally driven, which is very welcome in our industry. This digital mindset and focus on apprentices, however, brings new challenges – not only are we competing for the best talent, but we must consider how to best educate and inspire our future stars.


ATTRACTING TOMORROW’S TALENT For us at Rexel, these developments in our industry and the wider landscape has led to some changes in our own apprenticeship programme, and forced us to look at how we educate, support and attract talent in the future. Initially we have made a change in our apprenticeship scheme, moving away from using third party training plans. As a result this year sees our first apprentices coming through as direct Rexel employees in a new scheme launched late in 2018. It was a conscious decision for us to


make this move as we want to nurture our own talent pool, who are embedded within the Rexel organisation and brought onboard


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which state a minimum amount to be paid to all apprentices, and we tend to pay slightly more so our offer is attractive. However offering a salary doesn’t seem to be an issue for the apprentice market at this stage. This kind of thinking though is another great benefit of our new offer, as all our Rexel apprentices receive holiday and other benefits of an employee, something that didn’t happen when we worked with a third party. In order to continue to increase the


early in their journey, whilst offering these newcomers all the support and benefits received by an employee. Currently we offer 70-80 entry level apprenticeship positions a year and ultimately aim to offer more each year, as well as progressing to offering apprenticeships to people already within the business as a development opportunity. Due to the number of places we offer, currently across the board demand outweighs placements – but we know that is because of what we can offer apprentices and not because there are too many people clamouring to be part of our industry.


SHOULD WE OFFER SALARIES? This leads us to some interesting questions around attracting talent and how businesses will set themselves apart from their competition. For example there is often a question around salaries and whether we need to offer them as an incentive to apprentices. Currently at Rexel we follow government guidelines,


number of young people interested in an electrical distribution apprenticeship there is also a need to consider online training. We already have in place an online portal for training and development as well as an online portfolio location and app for our new apprentices. This is accessible to me so that I can ensure the correct progress is being made.


What are the benefits of online training in comparison to face-to- face learning?


ONLINE ONLY TRAINING We also hear a lot now about online only training, where apprentices can learn remotely with no face-to-face learning. I see why this is a discussion point as that is the way much interaction is moving. Within Rexel we now have a robust e-commerce option for customers including same and next day delivery. However unless our business moves to completely online interaction only, developing and retaining strong customer relationships is still essential and therefore we do still need to do face-to-face training and learning with our apprentices. As our industry continues to develop I


believe our apprenticeships programmes will also move on to keep up with the times – and this is something we intend to do at Rexel. There is also a need though for the whole industry to support each other in attracting new talent. The EDA has done a really good job of bringing that to people’s attention, but it’s also up to all the wholesalers to do their bit. We must remember not only are we competing for the best talent within our industry but also within the wider job market place.


Rexel rexel.co.uk ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING | MARCH 2019 27


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