PSIMay2019

INTERVIEW
Phil West
This month we talk to
Phil West of fire and
security recruitment
agency Zitko
Consulting and
discuss the trends in
the installer
employment sector
Job satisfaction and security
“We're not necessarily
seeing fewer
candidates; I think it's
more that the demand
for the right people to
fill job roles has
increased”
hil West has been at Zitko Consulting for
Paround four and a half years and was the
company’s second hire, after the Director.
He is the Managing Consultant within the
business now, having gone through the roles of
Recruitment Consultant and Senior Consultant.
Phil sat down with PSI to talk about security and
fire recruitment and offered advice for engineers
and employers.
Is the shortage of installers the main
issue for you?
I think it's the same across any technologybased
industry at the moment; there's a
shortage of skilled labour. We're part of a
recruitment group that covers various different
industries and this shortage is certainly
something that has been seen in the research
that has been carried out - it's not only a
problem for the UK, it's a problem
internationally. The fire and security sector is
definitely suffering as a result of this and over
the four and a half years that I've been doing
this job it does seem to be getting harder and
harder to have people available to fill the roles.
We're not necessarily seeing fewer candidates; I
think it's more that the demand for the right
people to fill job roles has increased. So it's
potentially just the mismatch in the number of
candidates versus vacancies. Thinking about it, I
would say we're now seeing the greatest
increase in vacancies for skilled engineers.
Is Brexit a worry?
There is currently an impact due to the
uncertainty about Brexit, particularly with the
better candidates hedging their bets a little bit
and staying where they are, maybe scouting the
market but not fully committing to making
moves.
How have employer requirements
changed?
I think some of the employer expectations are
changing in that we're seeing a greater increase
for more technical positions and a shift into
more IT work as there is an increased
convergence with cybersecurity. People are also
asking for more software skills particularly for
commissioning and application type roles. This
approach is gathering pace compared to the one
that is just aimed at hardware installation and
maintenance. It's been a steady change over
time towards the more PC-based engineer so
there is more of a demand for computer science
graduates; if you look at those that have been in
the industry a long time versus those that are
new to the sector I think it's a different set of
skills.
Are employer expectancies too high?
They can be, many want a multi-skilled engineer
that can do everything, but the employer does
have a big role to play in whether or not a
candidate works out. It can be tricky because all
employers wants the "finished article" when it
comes to engineers and even though we get told
that the right candidate will be trained, which is
the right route to go down, whether it happens
or not is another matter entirely. Over-promising
is not a good way to get the most out of
employees. I can understand it from the
employer's perspective because there is so
much work around, they often can't afford to put
someone on a training course for a week and
cover their work during that time. The
alternative is to pay more to have an engineer
with qualifications than spend time to train
someone up.
In my opinion, training is a brilliant thing to
offer employees and it is certainly sought after
by the engineers and it's beneficial for
companies to have that person with certification
because they know what they are doing, can
solve more problems and generally be better at
their job for having gone on the course. In some
circumstances having more qualified engineers
means that you're more likely to win certain
tenders, so I think it is possible to gain back any
expenses of training quite easily.
What is a typical mistake that employers
make?
Business owners and employer can often
assume their company is well-known so they
shouldn't have a problem filling a vacancy.
Unfortunately apart from a handful of larger
installers, this is not the case, so you can't rely
on your reputation to bring in the engineers.
Employers need to consider why somebody
would want to work for them and why the
people they already employ stay with them.
They need to tap into what that is and if
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