Rok: still recruiting at full steam

Rok is recruiting 60-80 tradespeople every month says chief executive Garvis Snook.

He believes that while lay-offs will happen elsewhere in the contracting sector in the coming downturn, Rok will remain free of such problems.

He said: “At Rok we have a policy of ‘looking after the family’. At the moment we are actively driving recruitment internally, especially in management and leadership. Also, we want a higher percentage of Rok’s sales delivered by our own people.”

The downturn in the housebuilding sector is bringing a surge of interest in working for Rok.

“The phone doesn’t stop ringing,” said Snook. “The calls are basically from subcontractors currently working for housebuilders but who are looking for new work. It’s happening everywhere though less so in Scotland – but that will change.

“Are these people bitter about their situation? No, not at all. They recognise that they’ve had a damn good run; that it’s gone on for longer than anyone can remember and the housing market will eventually come back.

“Some calls are from subcontractors looking to sign up their entire workforce, others are from one-man players looking for employment within Rok.

“We believe in self-delivery and that means we should build a workforce to match demand at the low-point in the cycle as it is important that we look after people in the bad times as well as the good.”

Richardson Projects was one of the 19 acquisitions that Rok has made in recent times.

One of the attractions of Richardson was that it undertakes new-build social housing using its own labour force.

Snook said: “Richardson is so good at working that way that we want to learn now it manages the process and to then spread it through the group. Prior to buying Richardson, Rok was involved in £150m-a-year new build and this was mostly delivered by non-Rok employees. We want to change that.”

Rok is adjusting the relative size of the divisions within its £1bn-a-year turnover.

There will be a down-scaling of operations involved in larger industrial and commercial projects, reduce the overall contribution from this operation from 20% of the total to 15% this year, and further to 8%-10% in 2009.

By contrast, social housing (now 28% of group total turnover) and education (13%) will grow, and together will soon account for more than half of group turnover.

Response maintenance is also set to climb from today’s 10% figure to 12%-15% in 2008 and beyond.

“We’ve had a good time in the industry,” said Snook, “and the Rok model is positioned to protect the business in a downturn.”