Machinery Operator Recruitment and Retention - CONFOR
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Machinery Operator Recruitment and Retention
CONFOR
7Th October 2020
Simon Coleman
www.euroforest.co.uk
Introduction
• Simon Coleman– Director at Euroforest.
• At school I did my work experience with Forestry Commission
at Westonbirt Arboretum.
• I studied forestry at Newton Rigg and graduated with a BSC in
Forestry.
• I undertook a pre college work placement as part of this
qualification with the Forestry Commission in Southern
England in 1995.
• I received training as part of this placement and achieved my
chainsaw, pesticide and brusher cutter tickets.
• I completed a mid year placement on a private estate in
Northern Ireland in 1997.
• I started with Euroforest in 2007 as a trainee manager.
www.euroforest.co.uk
Why am I talking about the issue of machine operator
recruitment and retention ???
1. Personal Reason.
2. Euroforest Ltd.
3. The Timber Industry.
4. Blacklock Harvesting.
www.euroforest.co.uk
Personal Reason.
➢Before Euroforest I was a machine
operator for nearly 5 years driving
mainly forwarders and occasionally
harvesters.
➢I learnt to drive machines in first
thinning's in Ireland and often got
stuck !.
➢I cleared windblown timber in
Sweden after storm Gudron in
2005.
➢I also worked in Denmark doing
clearfell and final thinning’s.
➢I am still very passionate about
machinery and have fond memories
of my time driving machines.
www.euroforest.co.uk
Euroforest Ltd :
➢I work in an industry, and for a
business that at its core exists to
purchase, harvest and market timber.
➢The business was established in 1991
and has grown steadily over the last
29 years as the timber industry has
matured.
➢In 1991 the business sold 480k
tonnes and this has grown to 2.2
Million tonnes traded in the group
business in the UK and ROI in 2019.
➢We employ 110 people directly and
as group of business will have 800
sub contractors working for us.
➢At anyone time we will have 85
harvesters working in the UK and
ROI.
www.euroforest.co.uk
The Timber Industry.
➢ The UK timber industry harvests and
processes roughly 10-11 million
tonnes of timber per annum.
➢ This figure climbs in the short term
but stays relatively consistent for the
next 20yrs; the softwood availability
forecast doesn’t show a significant
decline until 2040.
➢ The timber industry employees
roughly 20k people in Scotland, and
more than 3 times that across the UK.
➢ The industry is worth approximately
£2.5 billion to the UK economy.
➢ We need roughly 380 harvesters
working full time to achieve this
assuming production of 600t / wk.
www.euroforest.co.ukBlacklock Harvesting
In 2019 Euroforest started timber harvesting
directly with the purchase of a business based
in Northern England with 7 forestry machines.
Prior to that point we had been completely
reliant on sub contractors to deliver the
services we offered.
We had concerns about the available resource
in the medium to long term.
We could see a shrinking number of harvesting
business owners with the average age of these
owners in their late 50’s
For this reason we realized we needed to
secure resource and start to develop our own
timber harvesting service.
We are now operating 15 harvesters and 18
forwarders.
We have just employed 2 trainee operators,
and plan to recruit 3 more in 2021.
www.euroforest.co.ukThe Machine Operator Resource.
We have an ageing machine operator resource.
Average age of machine operators in the mid 50’s.
Only 1/3 of machine operators are under 40.
As the industry has matured so has our expectation on operators. We expect them
to be professional and operate to the highest levels H&S and Environmental
legislation.
We also expect very high levels of volume output, cutting multiple product lengths for
productive sawmills who have become larger and more efficient in the last decade.
This puts increased demands and pressure on operators who are often working long
hours and away from home.
Fortunately, modern machines are now far more reliable and have higher output. This
has bought us some time, but soon the operators who are in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s will
retire.
So who is going to drive them ???
www.euroforest.co.ukCould we look abroad ?
Covid : Restrictions around travel.
Brexit : Uncertainty especially around free movement of people post Brexit.
We also have a weaker pound ££.
Increasing economic growth and increasing wages in the countries the UK
would traditionally recruit lower skilled workers.
language barriers can also make recruiting foreign operators more difficult
without fluent English..
We have to recruit the next generation of machine operators in the UK.
www.euroforest.co.ukWhat are harvesting contractors doing to recruit operators ?
• Training Programmes : Large harvesting contractors are offering some training programmes both formally and
informal.
➢ Jim Wilmer has just taken on 6 new trainee operators.
➢ Blacklock harvesting has taken on 2 trainees with a further 3 planned for 2021, these trainees will receive
external training from Bob Forsyth.
➢ Other larger contractors are doing the same informally and offering opportunities to people with some
forestry experience.
➢ This is often in an employed position rather than self employed, this gives new operators some wage
security while they learn.
➢ This does mean contractors have to invest considerable time, money and resource into training new
operators.
➢ Smaller contractors don’t always have the time and resource to do this.
• Employed / self employed : Harvesting contractors are also increasingly offering existing operators the option
to be employed with roughly 25-30% of operators now employed by harvesting contractors.
• Social Media : Forestry companies at all levels are increasingly using social media to engage internally and
externally, promote their business and the larger industry.
• Welfare Provision : The industry is also improving working conditions for all personnel in the forest with
improving welfare provision.
www.euroforest.co.ukWhat do we need ?
• At a high level we need organisations to promote and attract new people to the
industry.
• We need to raise the profile and awareness of forestry as an industry especially
among young people.
• We need to be actively engaging with schools especially in rural areas adjacent to
forestry cover.
• We need organisations like Skills Development Scotland and careers advice in
schools to promote the forest industry and especially machinery operation as a
career.
• We need to try and draw young people away from agriculture and construction.
• We should be promoting working in Green Sector and try and change the
perception that cutting down trees is bad !
• We need to give young people pathways into forestry through properly funded
college placements.
• Colleges and learning centres need to offer courses that are suitable with training
provided by high quality trainers.
• We need a college like the Barony to offer courses that give young people a
broad range of practical skills in forestry.
• We need more high quality trainers, perhaps using good quality machine
operators coaching young students ?
• Talking about the highs and lows of harvesting but also the considerable
financial rewards.
• We need mentors who continue to coach, inspire and support students as they
enter the work place.
www.euroforest.co.ukHow can contractors be part of this ?
• Harvesting Contractors should be able to access educational funding
to recruit and train local people interested in the industry.
• Contractors should be offered financial assistance if they recruit,
train and employ local operators.
• New operators should be employed rather than self employed
where possible to allow them to develop their skills properly with
mentoring and support.
• We need to try minimise the amount of time operators are staying
away from home.
• We all need to accept that forestry is only an attractive career if it
can be flexible to the demands of young working families especially
with children.
www.euroforest.co.ukHow do we retain ?
• Retention of staff is a problem at all levels in forestry.
• We need to be able to offer good quality training at all levels and
encourage more people into the industry.
• With more people in the industry there comes greater machine
efficiencies and there is less requirement for long working hours.
• We need to try and keep young people working close to home and
minimising the amount of time operators are spending driving long
distance or staying in caravans.
• We need more long term contracts and working agreements both in
the state and private sector to allow continued investment in
machinery, security of employment for operators and staff at all levels.
Thank you for listening !
www.euroforest.co.ukYou can also read
