Celebrating growth & expansion in 2024

It’s a well known fact that businesses are often so busy delivering projects and services that they forget to catch their breath and shout about their good news!

So, allow me a 2-minute indulgence to do just that with two exciting announcements, both of which have a positive impact on how we are able to continue to provide exceptional customer service.

Welcome to our new Cheshire office

I'm excited to announce that iconsys?are taking a significant step with our growth strategy by opening our new northern office in April 2024.

It is?based at Sci-Tech, The Innovation Centre, Daresbury, Cheshire and is a perfect fit for an innovative, growing company like iconsys.

Having our Northern office offers greater flexibility and allows for a more engaging experience for our existing talent living in and around the region, and makes it geographically easier for others to join our growing team of “best in class” talent.?

Having this new office is also great news for our customers, as they will now have access to our talented team across our two locations of Shropshire & Cheshire. Having boots on the ground will allow for an elevated customer experience.

This exciting and innovative space offers a flexible, agile & enjoyable working environment, surrounded by nature, that will allow for effective co-working and collaboration and aids learning of our staff at all levels.

iconsys Academy Development – bolstering the UK engineering talent pool

Milissa Chesters, Head of People and Culture here at iconsys, explains why one of the UK’s fastest growing technology businesses has decided to seize the day when it comes to finding and attracting new talent, by creating its own Academy.

A lot has been written in the media about the current labour shortage and, for someone who has worked in HR for more than 20 years, I can – hand on heart – say the current situation is as severe as it has ever been for manufacturers.

We’re dealing with a complex cocktail of issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and a brain drain caused by Brexit, with many migrant workers choosing to return home.? Frustratingly, this scenario comes at a time when UK manufacturers are experiencing strong growth and a raft of new opportunities from reshoring, the lure of the ‘Made in Britain’ brand and our influence in driving emerging sectors.

iconsys is a perfect example. Our automation solutions are helping to create the factories of the future and we have seen a demand in our services increase by 54%.?Whilst we’ve invested heavily to meet this demand (with a ￡3m spend on creating our 17,500sq ft smart HQ in Shropshire and as you’ve now read above, expanding into our second location), the bricks and mortar development is the easy bit.?

Our bigger challenge comes from attracting engineers with the right skills and whilst we could wait in hope of the Government taking more comprehensive action, we have learnt that the power lies within if we want to make meaningful change in our industry. ?About 9 months ago we said that enough was enough and decided to take a different approach.

‘Best in Class’

We have involved several experts in the field of training and talent development, including Bill Drury, visiting professor of Engineering at both Bristol and Newcastle Universities.?

The aim was to understand different ways of attracting, developing, and retaining the ‘best in class’ talent for both the now and in the future.

All of this intelligence was brought back and presented to the senior management team, who swiftly took the decision to develop the iconsys Academy to enhance learning and development across the business through state-of-the-art online learning blended with classroom and on-the-job training.?

This is not a short-term solution, but a long-term commitment and we have immediately ringfenced more than ￡250,000 to not only bring it to life but to fund evolution as it expands.

Making a difference

It has only been a few months since the announcement of our Academy, but we are already seeing positive results from this proactive approach.

Seven new engineers have already been recruited over the last 9 months, with at the very least five more needed over the next twelve months, as we continue to provide bespoke automation solutions to high profile clients in the many industries in which we operate.

Ultimately, if UK manufacturing is going to take advantage of a changing industrial world order, then we need more companies to take a proactive stance and look at ways where they can grow their own engineers or attract new talent to our sector.

We look forward to developing this exciting platform and being part of ensuring the future pipeline of engineering talent.

Thank you for taking the time to read our good news, it's an exciting year of growth for #teamiconsys.

Until next time ...

Nick Darrall, Managing Director