Job Vacancy

Quality Systems Auditor

The Role:

A Quality Systems Auditor is required by IQA Group, a fast growing Company with a solid reputation in its field of Utilities, Electrical and Building Maintenance contracting. The Company has offices in Paisley, Armadale and Liverpool and currently employs over 100 dedicated staff working throughout Scotland and NW England.

Reporting to the HSEQ Advisor the Quality Systems Auditor is responsible for controlling and carrying out all auditing functions with the Company, managing all corrective actions and ensuring timely closeout of improvements.

Responsibilities include: planning and conducting audits for all business processes; carrying out health and safety audits; making appropriate recommendations for business improvement; investigating any non-conformances and reporting findings; managing all corrective actions; collating and analysing performance data and providing recommendations for improvement initiatives; and to provide support in the development of the company management system, relating to ISO9001 and 18001.

The successful candidate will hold a system auditing qualification, have experience working within an ISO9001 environment, hold a valid UK driving licence and able to travel throughout Central Scotland and NW England.

This post is full time permanent with a salary of £17,500 - £20,000 with benefits including BUPA Healthcare.

How to Apply:

Please send your CV and covering note to jobs@IQAgroup.co.uk. Closing date is 12noon on 17th December 2010.

Recent Weather

As most of our clients and customers know, the recent weather conditions have had a lot of repercussions for businesses with regards to day to day work. Here at IQA it is no different with our Armadale branch being snowed in and road conditions affecting traffic in and out of Paisley. Our new Liverpool office is also affected with the bad weather travelling south.

However, as always, we fully understand the needs of everyone we are connected to whether that be customers, suppliers, or staff. If any work has been disrupted we will contact you where possible to keep you informed of what is happening and discuss what can be done to get around any problems. Conversely, if anything is preventing you from allowing us to carry out our work we will do our best to accommodate this and find a suitable alternative.

IQA value the relationship with our customers and strive to ensure full satisfaction for everyone and we will continue to find ways to overcome any obstacles that may affect this.

Website Updates

As part of the continued development of our website updates have been made to give a more accurate overview of our current business make up.

The home page now only shows our three main business units: Utilities, Property and Building Services. Having these three distinct business units helps give a more focussed approach to work for our clients and will also make information on our website easier to find.

The IQA Way has also been launched online and a slide show with the five points on this has been added to the home page in the short term. This will soon be replaced with new photography of current sites which will coincide with the specific case studies being updated. The slide show for the IQA Way will however be a permanent addition to this section in the ‘about’ area of the site.

Pedometer Challenge – Week 7

Week 7 of 12 is here. The home stretch is almost in sight. By now we hope that walking greater distances is part of your day to day activity and you are feeling the benefits of a healthier lifestyle. Remember to keep you going we have the second of three prize draws on the 3rd November. More on that in next weeks update.

If you would like regular updates on health initiatives for your workplace including physical activity, mental health, healthy eating to name a few Health at Work’s monthly email alert might be what you’re looking for. Health E-News goes out on the first of every month and is packed with information on health campaigns (like the Pedometer Challenge), training events and case studies from workplaces. Our aim at Health at Work is to bring as many initiatives to your attention as we can and share good practice. If you would like to start receiving Health E-News send us an email at healthatwork@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

Please keep your step totals coming in to us. As long as we have received your totals before for the next prize draw you will be in with a chance of winning prizes!

Pedometer Challenge – Week 6

This week we reach the half way stage in the pedometer challenge. The nights may be “fair drawing in” and the temperature taking a nosedive but we hope that all participants carry on increasing the already impressive step totals.

If the darker nights are not for you why not take lunchtime stroll. Walkit.com is a superb resource for planning a walk with colleagues. The Circular Walk function will allow you to plan a walk from and back to your workplace. The walk can be to your specified time and speed and Walkit.com will even have a guess at how many steps you will have taken and how many calories you will have burned. Click here to visit Walkit.com.

If walking in the Pedometer Challenge has inspired you to become more active why not visit the Active Nation website. The Active Nation programme will ensure the 2014 Commonwealth Games will have a lasting legacy on fitness levels and health in Scotland. The site has an up to date activity finder to find out what is going on in your local area. It also encourages us to set our own activity goals.

So far from our calculations many of our participants have walked as far as the border between Scotland and England on our journey to London. If 2000 steps equal approximately 1 mile…

• 185,000 steps is 94 miles across the border to Carlisle
• 250,000 steps equal approximately 125 miles heading straight towards the Lake District!
• 300,000 steps equal 150 miles approaching the Yorkshire Dales!
(Note: these estimations are made if 2000 steps cover 1 mile. Everyone’s steps will cover slightly different distances)

We hope that the challenge has encouraged you to increase your daily step totals. If it has why not try our online lifestyle check tool – Check My Lifestyle. By answering a series of questions about different aspects of your lifestyle the site will generate a personalised report just for you. You can then set goals to improve your overall health. Visit www.checkmylifestyle.com

Pedometer Challenge

Health at Work – Pedometer Challenge

Nine employees at IQA Group are taking part in the Health at Work Pedometer Challenge.

The challenge is for us to virtually walk the 400 miles from Glasgow to London over a 12 week period. The aim of the challenge is to help participants increase their daily step totals and in doing so gain the health benefits from higher levels of physical activity.

• Glasgow to London covers an approximate distance of 400 miles.
• Given that an average persons’ step covers 2.5 feet then there are just under 2000 steps in a mile.
• Therefore the target of walking the distance from Glasgow to London will be between 798,000 and 800,000 steps over the 12 weeks of the Pedometer Challenge.
• This equates to 266,000 steps every 4 weeks
• Which would require 66,500 steps a week
• And would mean that your average daily step target should be around 9500 steps.

We know that some participants in the challenge will meet this target and some will have to gradually increase their walking distances in order to get their 9500 – 10,000 steps a day, which is why it’s called the Pedometer Challenge!

We start our journey today, visit again soon to find out how we’re getting on!

Operative Training - August Overview

*Blogger – David McKinlay (Electrical Compliance and Training Manager)*

Instruction Room Attendees

A total of 30 personnel passed through the instruction room in August 2010, this included 2 new employees. The topics covered were refresher prep, final interview prep, authorisation prep and metering instruction.

1 operative passed WI1 final interview. 4 operatives passed their WI1 initial safety induction.

3 operatives successfully passed their OP3 refresher training. With a further 3 operatives successfully passing their OP3 final interview. The 3 operatives who attended the EN1 course have successfully completed, and 2 were booked for final interview and passed.

Operative Training - July Overview

Blogger – David McKinlay (Electrical Compliance and Training Manager)

This will be a monthly blog that will discuss in house training of our electrical staff and how this helps them progress with outside authorisations.




Instruction Room Attendees
A total of 17 personnel passed through the instruction room in July covering topics such as the SP live working manual, metering practice and preparation for refreshers, final interviews and authorisations. In this time one operative passed his OP3 initial course while a further three passed OP3 refreshers. Five more operatives successfully passed their WI1 refresher training and three passed the M0008 five day service position courses and will now be booked in for their OP3 final interviews.

Apprentice/ Trainee Quarterly Reviews
July also saw the quarterly apprentice/ trainee reviews being carried out. There were no concerns in terms of college work or onsite training with everyone producing very good project work which has been confirmed by training officers and class lecturers alike.

Safety Stand Down
SP safety stand downs were carried out on a number of our operatives over seven dates in July. These presentations included general safety and trade competence while highlighting the link between trade and safety competence.

Advertising

IQA has recently had advertising boards placed at a prominent roundabout in Paisley. This gives us a lot more exposure in our local area and allows us to develop our business even further.

More importantly, it allows our customers to see what we are capable of and give them even more confidence in us whether we are working on behalf of a local housing authority or on a private contract.

We will be looking at other ways of increasing brand awareness and reaching out to our customers in the coming months so all of our clients old and new should look out for this.

For more images of how this looks check our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/iqablogs

Website and property Updates

Our website has been updated with new downloads.

These PDF files give a brief overview of each of our business unit’s capabilities. All of our clients old and new should be reminded that each unit is able to work separately or as a team in order to provide a total service to suit your needs.

The IQA Property website is also updated with two properties that have recently become available. Details on the garage in Glasgow’s west end and the flat in Paisley can be found on the website http://www.iqaproperty.co.uk/

As always, we can be contacted by phone, email or through the contact section of our main website if you have any queries or comments.

Job Opportunities

IQA has roles available for the following:

Network Authorised Electricians

The Role:

IQA is the leading contractor working on the LV distribution of internal mains and services in the central belt of Scotland from our bases in Paisley and Armadale.

Continually looking to expand to meet our clients needs we are looking for electricians who have network experience and authorisation level OP3 and WI1 to complement our existing team that exceeds more than 60 operatives.

The company offers attractive rates of pay and many benefits including BUPA healthcare.

How to Apply:

Send your CV and covering letter to jobs@IQAgroup.co.uk or contact our office on 0141 840 5256.

Service Awards

Thirteen of our employees received a service award at a ceremony in our head office in Paisley today. They received £100 worth of vouchers and a certificate to mark five years of continuous service given to the company.

The award shows out commitment to our staff and also the fact that we are a good company to work for due to the length of time people have been working with us. As a relatively young and fast growing company we look forward to more of these ceremonies to celebrate even longer durations.

Everyone at the company would like to congratulate the people below and we all look forward to at least another five year working with them.

Norman Jamieson
David Gowans
Christopher Fergus
David McKinlay
Karen Reid
Matthew Selfridge
Alan Kennedy
James Farrell
Iain Watt
Brian McCluskey
Michael Donnelly
Brian Ward
John Donlon

More pictures can be seen on our facebook page www.facebook.com/iqablogs

Staff Development

As a people based company there is a lot of time being invested in training here at IQA.

All of our office based staff are currently undertaking a personal development programme that will develop leadership skills and improve the business as a whole.

We have also introduced a new online help desk that all staff can use to have queries answered. This allows anyone to ask questions from anywhere at anytime on IT, Health and Safety and Electrical matters. Along with our in house development this gives even more support to our staff and ensures they are the best they can be for our customers.

IQA Group Development Programme

IQA has recently entered into a partnership with a niche consultancy called The Leadership Centre (TLC) and in particular it’s principal Alan Horton, who specialise in maximising organisational productivity through maximising the potential of the people of the business.

This will help ensure that everyone in the company is given the opportunity to develop the personal capacity to become the best we can be and therefore provide the best possible service to our customers.

IQA Sponsorship

IQA is pleased to sponsor Glasgow Caledonian
University’s Events and Entertainment Management’s
ceilidh and have donated a prize for the raffle with the
proceeds going to Yorkhill Children’s Hospital.

Health and Safety

IQA take the Health and Safety of our staff and customers seriously with this being reflected in our customer charter.

Our Compliance Manager David McKinlay and our Health, Safety and Quality Advisor Heidi Campbell make sure that everyone is aware of this and the steps we must take to ensure compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:

"It shall be the duty of every employee while at work to take reasonable care of the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work."

Sports Relief

The IQA staff and their families who took part in the Sports Relief Mile mentioned on previous blogs completed this on Sunday in Glasgow along with thousands of others. Everyone involved thouroughly enjoyed their day and would like to thank those who sponsored them for their donations and support. The target for donations was exceeded and you can still donate through www.mysportrelief.com/iqagroup

Pictures of this event will soon be shown on our facebook page www.facebook.com/iqablogs

Christopher Watson - Reid Kerr Recognition

Christopher Watson, an apprentice joiner at the IQA Group, has recently received an SQA/SATT National Carpentry and Joinery award from Reid Kerr College in a ceremony held in Paisley Town Hall. Having worked at IQA since May 2007, Christopher has shown a positive attitude and high standard of work and it is easy to see why he has received such plaudits. Everyone at IQA would like to congratulate Christopher on his recent achievements.

Christopher's achievements mirror IQA's ethos of continuous improvement and highlights our commitment to staff training. We continue to do this with our in house training centre as well as employing several apprentices and supporting electricians though Scottish Power authorisation.

Good start to the year for IQA

IQA have continued our good start to 2010 with our team planning the work for over 20 tower upgrades that we have been awarded recently. As usual, the Quality of Work should always be kept to our high standard with Health & Safety being paramount on all sites.

We have also introduced a vehicle tracking system that will help us give our customers a more accurate time for our engineers arrival on each job. This will also help our office staff when planning reactive, on the day jobs and therefore further improve our service.

Sport Relief Mile 21 March 2010

Some of IQA's staff will be taking part in the upcoming Sports Relief Mile. This is part of our Healthy Working Lives organised by Heidi, our HSQ Advisor.

Details are as follows:

The Sport Relief Mile will take place on Sunday 21st March 2010. There are venues at Finnieston Quay, Glasgow; The Sweetie Brae, Strathaven; and Dean Road, Kilmarnock. There are 3 distances to choose from to suit whatever your age or ability!

Available Start Times
1 mile event 10.30, 12.00, 12.30
3 mile event 10.30, 11.30
6 mile event 10.30

IQA would like to encourage anyone else interested to take part in this as it is for a good cause as well as keeping you fit!

IQA Update - towers

Our Utilities department will soon be starting work on upgrading the internal mains in over 10 tower blocks on behalf of Scottish Power with our Property Maintenance team supporting them on this with joinery work.

This is extremely positive news for the whole of the IQA Group and shows that our customers place a great deal of trust in us.

Work Exp Blog

Guest Blogger
Dean Walker 14

This week from the 18th of January to the 22nd of January I have been doing work experience with IQA. I’ve been working with lots of different people including David McKinley, Richard O’Dowd, Allan Feeney, Garry Walsh, Paula and Heidi Campbell. I’ve learned a lot in my time here and had a good time and got a lot of ideas that I could do possibly in the future.

I currently go to Gleniffer High School and I am in fourth year and I learned at lot this week that I could take into consideration for the future. I’ve also learned what its like to work in many different departments including the office, IT, Audits, EPC, and Health and Safety and its all been very enjoyable and I would like to thank everyone at IQA for being so friendly and hospitable.