The clients' war on waste wants new recruits... - Will they second you?

Peace brings a chance to hang out with your old enemies, and construction is no exception. With major clients and the industry shuffling forward together to make peace and rebuild construction, the new era of co-operation is giving birth to a different kind of exchange student. As the barriers fall, opportunities rise.

Egged on by Egan, the grand collaboration will begin with the 'bring a project' party in October and also offers an unusual move for individual contracting staff: join the client - your client wants you!

Next week, talks are to begin between the big boys on both the client and contracting sides on a number of concerns. As they smoke the peace pipes, the negotiations will turn to how to better understand each others' culture.

With history as a precedent, they know that understanding someone else or another country can only come from living with them. To that end the Major Contractors Group will debate with the big clients' forum, the Construction Round Table, on how their staff - from junior project managers upwards - can be seconded to major clients.

"It's an excellent idea", Martin Reynolds, new CRT chairman and director of Railtrack Development, tells CJ. Railtrack will support the secondment initiative, he says, and he plans to check it out with the other 11 CRT members. Reynolds adds that Railtrack has seconded staff internally between technical disciplines and general managers between business disciplines, "so why don't we take the same philosophy with the supply side?"

Kvaerner Construction's chief executive Keith Clarke welcomes Reynolds' efforts to push secondment, stressing the "need for more tolerance" between different disciplines in construction. He believes that the secondment initiative would help both sides' "understanding of how difficult the other persons' jobs are, and what drives their decisions".

tolerance

Clarke says that the benefits of putting people in more business environments are clear. "We found in our own business, in PFI, when we have people with experience of another sphere, the level of tolerance is higher and there is a better sense of humour."

He says that greater appreciation of others' business needs could come from construction staff being put into general management positions as well as being seconded to a client's construction procurement division.

However, he says that a number of issues have to be sorted before the new scheme gets underway - commercial confidentiality and employment security, ensuring that secondees have good positions to return to and, equally important, they do not get poached.

But, says Clarke, confidentiality is less of an issue "if you go the 'Egan' route, which is about sharing information." He believes that the secondment move would help people be more productive, effective and enjoy their professions. Instead of clusters of special disciplines believing noone else understands them and the 'everyone else is an idiot' syndrome. Clarke believes that secondment will help imbue a change in construction so people "don't get stuck in corners".

Clarke would second about a half-dozen of his staff to clients at a time - three months on average, he reckons. Industry-wide, the number of opportunities for secondments to clients could run to more than a hundred at a time.

Support for the idea also comes from Mindy Wilson, director of external affairs with the Association of Consulting Engineers. She remarks: "It's an absolutely marvellous idea. I would certainly wish that if any of our members had the opportunity, they would take it.

"When you think of the secondments that have taken place between industry and Government departments and vice-versa, the benefits have been enormous - so much of the mystique is peeled away and you get to the nitty-gritty with feedback, both positive and negative criticisms. One of the problems you get under any form of contract is that there will always be a master/servant relationship but secondment should strip away some of that."

Taking a slightly different view is Nigel Keen, Tesco's construction director. He says the supermarket chain doesn't take people on secondment as such but adds "we do, as a matter of course, run familiarisation induction courses for all site managers and subcontractors."

Tesco has been running these courses for about one year and they are geared so that attendees "understand what drives Tesco".

Keen says topics include things such as "Tesco's current trading position through to what we expect from our contractors." He says that running the courses, which might last half-a-day, one day or "as long as it takes", is a "very, very fruitful exercise. We are achieving what we need although that is not to say we have got it completely right."

experience

Keen doesn't feel that there is a need for Tesco staff to be seconded to contractors or professional practices: "Most of our people are from the industry and have a broad range of experience - they are former site managers, ex-civils or quantity surveyors."

Another developer that works in close formation with its contractors is Stanhope Properties. Construction director Peter Rogers comments: "We have always worked with a close team although not on a formal secondment basis." Stanhope brings in staff from one of its three preferred construction managers both when bidding for work and also after the job has been won.

Meanwhile Jennie Price, director of the Major Contractors Group, comments; "For people to cross over is rare but, with the Egan report calling for a more mobile workforce, I think it is a good idea. The report, in particular, placed great emphasis on the need for customer focus and secondment has to be a very good way of getting inside a client's head - people could gain from what it feels like to be a client.

"Secondments between the public and private sectors have a long and honourable history and have given people the insight to what it is like to work in Government."

Price recalls that when the idea was first mentioned by Keith Clarke, chief executive of Kvaerner Construction, last December, "people thought - what a good idea, but nobody picked it up and ran with it." She adds that the reason why the suggestion wasn't pursued was not because of any fear that clients wouldn't be amenable to the idea, but that "everyone was involved in other things".

Darius Sarosh, business development director with Alfred McAlpine Construction, is another who thinks secondment is "a very good idea". He explains: "It is when people stand behind their barriers that misunderstandings occur."

As for whether clients might fear commercial confidentiality could be breached with contractors or consultants nosing around their business affairs, Sarosh thinks not. "The way the industry is going is towards a more open book approach with clients and sharing cost savings."

Clarke thinks that doors could be opened by the institutions: "I would like to see it [secondment] done via the professional institutions. It is part of their role."

David Cawthra, vice president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, says: "It [secondment] is not the kind of thing that anyone would say is not a good idea but, in reality, I think many people would only give it a passing thought. It is a good idea but it is something that cannot be formalised."

Cawthra views the two-way exchange programme involving civil servants and industry experts as having limited benefits. "It has always been a bit of a toil. In 50 per cent of the cases, it has probably been beneficial to the individual or the recipient organisation, but for the other 50 per cent it has been of quite limited benefit."

Cawthra feels the need for cross-overs is possibly not as high as some might think. "It is already happening through the mobility of people. A surprising number of people have spent time with a client organisation or have been involved in a contract where contractors have dovetailed with clients, such as BAA."

He suggests that efficiency would improve if clients took a little more time before starting projects. "The fundamental weakness is the way projects are launched, sometimes virtually the day after they have been conceived with the result that the project has not been well thought-out."