QUICKSLIDE WORKFORCE TAKE THE PLAUDITS IN COMPANY’S G AWARDS WIN
6th January 2015

When Quickslide Chairman Adrian Barraclough mounted the stage with a handful of colleagues at the recent G Awards to collect the winner’s trophy for the Best Training & Development Initiative, his joy was tempered by not being able to share the moment with the whole workforce. For the entry was signed by every one of Quickslide’s 100-plus employees because they had all played an important part in the training scheme which has resulted in huge financial savings, improved product quality and significant increases in output at the market leading VS fabricator.

Adrian therefore set out to correct that by staging his own re-enactment of the ceremony for the G Awards where winners were presented with their trophies at the lavish event that took place at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane recently. So with numbers limited at the official event, Adrian presented everyone at Quickslide’s Brighouse factory with their own mini ‘G Award’, to recognise their crucial part in the company’s success.

“I know it’s a cliché,” explained Adrian, “but quite literally we could not have won this award without all of our people. I wanted them all to be up on the stage with us when we were called up at the original awards but it wasn’t possible. So now we have been able to include everyone and they can look at their own trophy with pride, knowing that they played a real part in winning it.”

Quickslide’s entry was based upon the company recognising a number of negative issues in its World Class Manufacturing System – similar to that used at Toyota – and creating training strategies to correct them. As a result Quickslide has enjoyed annual cost benefits in excess of £500,000 and more importantly, says Adrian, empowerment of its employees: “The result now is that every member of the workforce is fully aware of being accountable problem-solvers, each one understanding that this is their business as much as it is anyone else’s and that they can work together to shape its future so that they all benefit from its success. That is why every one of them signed the G14 Award submission and why every one of them has an equal right to be proud of our win”.

The training schemes have helped consolidate Quickslide’s position as the UK’s leading manufacturer of vertical sliding replacement windows, the company having made this style of window affordable for millions of homeowners with period-style properties and thereby helping to create what is now a key niche sector.