But today the quietly-spoken chairman and managing director of Shepherd Building Group is ready to talk. Sitting at the meeting table of his sparsly furnished office in York, Shepherd says: "We are learning to breathe again."
Shepherd is painting the picture of a difficult presidency in which the council structure of the Institute has been overhauled and a new chief executive – Chris Blythe who is sitting opposite Shepherd in the office – has been installed.
"The problem was that the Institute was controlled by restrictive standing orders – meetings became rather an exercise in rubber stamping," says Shepherd explaining the kind of organisation he faced when becoming president.
"Now the standing orders have been suspended pending revision, and dialogue has been re-established with the members," Shepherd adds.
Council meetings have been revolutionised. "Loyal members were travelling for hundreds of miles to take part in council meetings. They would stay overnight and go through the agenda in two-and-a-half hours," he says. "The meetings covered domestic matters and there was no spontaneity," adds Shepherd with a sigh.
But the last council meeting, held on 29 March, heralded a new era, says Shepherd. "We did the business in two hours and then had an address by construction minister Beverley Hughes. John Hobson of the construction directorate took over after her and then we split into workshops for debate on matters like key performance indicators," says Shepherd relishing the memory. "The council now knows that we have an external agenda and that our own internal affairs are just a means to an end," he adds sternly.
Now Shepherd and Blythe are taking the results of the workshops out to the regions. Blythe enthuses: "We had a healthy review, everyone talked openly and freely. And I'm set to publish the results on the net."
One of the key areas Shepherd and Blythe want to push is how to attract more high quality youngsters into the industry. Shepherd says: "We have to be serious about attracting young people. That means getting 8-10-year-olds on a construction site for half a day. And a big construction site like a hospital, not a housebuilding site. Every company could do it at least once a year right across the country."
"And we must send schoolchildren around the sites with people close to their own generation. That means 18-22-year-olds who have just left school or college," he adds. "Those who say that sites are dangerous are coming up with reasons to be careful, not excuses for not taking part," warns Shepherd.
We have to be serious about attracting young people. That means getting 8-10-year-olds on a site for a day
Paul Shepherd, CIOB president
Blythe adds that companies can make the visit part of the national curriculum and therefore a valuable teaching tool. "It is possible to provide teaching materials [in a curriculum pack] in construction that cover history, geography, arithmetic and statistics," he says. "All you have to do is go and talk to the local authority education department or teachers to get an idea of what might be needed," adds Blythe enthusiastically.
"But it is up to the industry to take the initiative. It is the industry that is screaming out for bright, young people and those people are being actively courted by other industries," he adds.
Blythe adds: "At my last job, companies were queuing up to get people on site for work experience. They realised that it is a way for a firm to showcase its credentials."
When asked about Shepherd Construction's record of taking youngsters to site, Shepherd is refreshingly frank. "We do not do it as much as we should. We do better than most – that's for sure. We were the first construction company to gain Investors in People accreditation."
Blythe has strong views about what the Institute's future holds: "We should be focusing even more on management. Some of the members still think you have to build a brick wall or do something physical in terms of construction. I don't necessarily think that that's the case having those artisan skills."
"But the Institute has potential. The problem is that it has not been realised. In the past two years we appear to have marked time," warns Blythe.
"I can see a few threats [from other prof-essional bodies] on the horizon and we need to question our strategies," he adds.
Shepherd agrees that the Institute has not quite been on the ball: "We would have done more if we hadn't been diverted by the name change issue. We could have helped dissemination of best practice earlier – we are on the case now though."
Source
Construction Manager
