Hercules was a member of the Integrated Labour Team (ILT) for the UK’s largest infrastructure project to date on the A14, working in collaboration with three other Labour Suppliers. We set out to create a ‘World Class Labour Desk’ and take real ownership on how we deliver labour to major projects and support the project on its demanding programme and ambitions for the community.
The ILT held responsibility for all CSR, SEE initiatives and Community Work, and Hercules was fully involved in this work, sitting on and chairing the ILT working groups. As part of our work on the A14 we worked closely with the Prince’s Trust, offering apprenticeships to disadvantaged individuals, one of whom we nominated for the YouthBuild UK Awards. As a result of this we were invited to the awards presentation at the Houses of Parliament, where the individual concerned won a commendation for all his hard work and effort.
The ILT strategy had the benefits of:
- Trust and transparency between all parties
- Accountability, whereby the ILT took ownership and
- responsibility, not simply being led by the client
- Legacy achievements with apprenticeships, skill building, education and community engagement
- Fair equal pay culture, creating loyal long-lasting workforce on project, with 100% of our workforce on this project employed on a PAYE basis
Successes achieved
- As a result of our work on the A14, the ILT have hundreds of operatives working across the project, which includes 78 apprentices, 15% under 25s and 42% BAME.
- Worked with local council to source, train and supply labour from the local unemployed workforce, leaving a positive community legacy
- Planned meeting programmes and constant communication which led to more focused results, reduced revision cycles and client needs being met
- Maintained team motivation and created ownership through the workforce knowing ‘what’ they were working on and ‘why’
- Numerous ILT FIR and STEM initiatives rolled out with a network of FIR Ambassadors and STEM Ambassadors to help the A14 meet their ambitious legacy targets.
- Hercules achieved 75%+ local employment on the project • Supported local businesses
Throughout the A14 project, the ILT achieved, and were recognised as, ‘World Class’status through our joint leadership and contribution to the success of the project, winning awards such as the A14 IDT and Highways England’s “Innovation of the Year” Award in 2017 and “Improving Employee Engagement & Behavioural Change” Award in 2019.The A14 project won the “Ultra Site of the Year Award”, which is the highest honour from the Considerate Constructors Scheme Awards.As a result, Hercules’ contribution throughout this period, we were awarded Costain’s “Exceptional Contribution” Award for “Demonstrating Exceptional Performance” every quarter for several years running and was shortlisted as “Supply Chain Partner of the Year” in 2018 and 2019.
