James Fisher Nuclear ROI Case Study

James Fisher Nuclear ROI Case Study - May 2014 V1_Layout 1 10/06/2014 11:48 Page 1
Return on Investment for Skills for Nuclear
This case study demonstrates the benefits of membership to the National Skills Academy for Nuclear, the lead
strategic skills body for the Nuclear industry in the UK.
James Fisher Nuclear:
Costs of Membership
Pictured (l-r):
Steve Ellison, Head of Technical and Dr Paul Read, Managing Director
James Fisher Nuclear (JFN) is an established, niche
supplier of specialist services and equipment,
including design, manufacture, testing, and
inspection to a diverse range of nuclear customers
who operate across the nuclear sector in new build,
decommissioning, fuel manufacturing, and
generation.
JFN make a significant investment in membership of
the Skills Academy, both in terms of cash (investment
of which this year will be approximately £11,000
including VAT), and in terms of officer time attending
meetings both with Skills Academy staff and with
other Skills Academy member organisations. The
investment of time made by JFN’s staff in this
relationship through conversations with Regional
Manager Alli Hunt is valued at an estimated £500,
and factoring in quarterly regional meetings could be
a further £1,000. Finally the purchase of Triple Bar
training brings with it a small cost.
In total, JFN’s investment in the Skills Academy
currently runs at approximately £13,500 per annum.
JFN employs approximately 400 full-time equivalent
workers in the UK nuclear sector, which Managing
Director Dr Paul Read estimates accounts for
approximately 60% of their total business turnover.
His initial motivations for getting involved in the Skills
Academy were commercial, as he describes:
Per Annum
Cost : Membership
Cost : Officer Time 1
Cost : Triple Bar Training 2
Total Costs
£11,000
£1,500
£1,080
£13,580
Benefits in 2014
Benefit : Sales 3
Benefit : Sector Insight
Benefit : Triple Bar productivity benefits 4
Total Benefit
“Initially it was all about increased visibility, leading
to us doing more business – it seemed to be
important to a number of our key customers.”
In addition to this commercial motivation, MB Faber (a
company which was subsequently incorporated into
JFN) was involved in the first and second years of the
Community Apprenticeship Scheme and keen to see
how the Skills Academy could support them.
James Fisher Nuclear
£54,000
£3,000
£12,240
£69,240
Return on Investment Ratio
for James Fisher Nuclear
£1 invested : £5.10 return
1
Estimated cost of officer time spent getting the most out of Membership
The estimated cost of the time for 18 workers to complete Triple Bar (Existing Sites)
Training
3
Attribution of 0.5% of nuclear turnover to the National Skills Academy for Nuclear –
based on at least one major client scoring 1% of their Pre-qualification Questionnaires
for Skills Academy membership.
2
JFN are now involved in the Skills Academy through a
number of routes, including the Employer Ownership
Funded Give2Gain project, Triple Bar training, the
Nuclear Skills Passport, and regional meetings in Wales.
4
Based on increased speed to access of nuclear sites
Led by over 120 Nuclear organisations
James Fisher Nuclear ROI Case Study - May 2014 V1
Copyright © National Skills Academy for Nuclear 2014
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Skills Benefits
Membership of the National Skills
Academy for Nuclear appears to be
associated with real commercial
benefits for its members which can
exceed the costs of membership
substantially.
Every aspect of Skills
Academy membership
used by this business
appears to pay back more
than the investment they
make in it.
The Benefits of Membership
JFN received approximately £40,000 of CAS funding
for seven Apprentices starting in 2008 and 2009. As
the Community Apprenticeship Scheme is now closed,
this benefit has not been factored in to the Return on
Investment calculations, but we note that this funding
on its own equates to over three years of James Fisher
Nuclear’s membership.
Commercial Benefits
It is possible to identify direct commercial benefits
from membership of the Skills Academy; at least one
of JFN’s major Site Licence Company clients scores 1%
of their Pre-Qualification Questionnaires to Skills
Academy membership, and based on this proxy we
estimate 0.5% of their nuclear turnover could be
attributable to that relationship. Based on the value of
that one relationship, Skills Academy membership
appears to have contributed approximately £54,000 to
JFN’s turnover over the last 12 months.
Productivity Benefits
In the last 12 months JFN have put 18 members of
staff through the Triple Bar (Existing Sites). This has
cost approximately £60 per employee. However, it has
led to significant cost benefits in the view of Rob
Watson of JFN, who believes that the increased
efficiency of induction through this programme
enables each of these members of staff to access the
site one day quicker than they were previously able to.
This increases the amount of billable work they can do,
and as this work is valued at £680 per day brings about
total benefits across this cohort in excess of £12,000.
Paul also believes that the Skills Academy has helped
JFN to understand and correct skills gaps.
“We have a formal process in place now to identify
skills gaps and then identify appropriate training
for individuals which could be technical training or
personal skills; the Skills Academy adds weight to
that programme and gives us an awareness of the
training opportunities out there to deal with gaps.”
Insight Benefits
JFN supports aspiring engineers through work
placements and sponsorship through university, and
has an extensive programme of recruitment of new
blood as apprentices and new graduates to support
the company’s business growth ambitions.
Developing these new recruits requires additional
training. Paul and Steve agree that the relationship
they have with the Skills Academy, and specifically
with their Regional Manager, provides value in terms
of helping them to formulate their views around
training requirements for the industry which otherwise
they would have to invest time and resource
informing.
“She gives us a focal point in terms of thinking
about our skills and development needs…we do a
reasonable job of training but in recent years we’ve
decided that we need to increase our level of
training quite substantially and Alli has acted as a
sounding board around that. Looking to the future
we are recruiting a new training co-ordinator and
we imagine they will have quite a lot of interaction
with her.”
In total, Paul estimates that the value of the insight
they get from the relationship with the Skills Academy
is equivalent to approximately 5% of a director-level
individual’s working year. He estimates the value to
the business of this time at approximately £3,000
(based on the costs to the business of that individual
rather than the opportunity cost).
For more information:
T 01900 898120
E [email protected]
W nuclear.nsacademy.co.uk

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