IQA Growth

Ashley Richardson, HR Advisor

IQA has celebrated the five years service of a further three employees, showing their dedication to the Company and helping in its growth. 2011 has seen the Company grow at a tremendous rate with 27 people joining us since January and a further nine employees join us on Monday 18th April, bringing the total number of employees to 141! Despite this fast growth, we strive to keep the family atmosphere at IQA making it a happy and enjoyable place to work.

More Successful Projects for IQA

Brian Ward, Operations Manager (Scotland)

Glenfinnan Rd, Glasgow
IQA has successfully completed four more MSF projects: 60, 61, 80, and 110 Glenfinnan Road, Glasgow. Each block consisted of 56 domestic dwellings and commenced in 2010 with an approximate duration of 3 months per block. The changeovers were completed over a four day period with one block completed each day, totaling 224 renewed supplies. IQA liaised with the Cube Housing Association and concierge to ensure our customer’s requirements and considerations were met throughout the projects.

Drygate, Glasgow
A further two MSF projects have been successfully completed at 24 and 36 Drygate, Glasgow. These blocks had 72 and 84 domestic dwellings respectively and each project was completed in approximately 5 months. The changeovers were completed over a two day period with one block completed each day, giving a total 156 renewed supplies. IQA liaised with GHA and the concierge to ensure our customer’s requirements and considerations were met throughout the projects.

Quality System Auditor

IQA Group has recently recruited a Quality System Auditor, who will assist with our project to gain accreditation to the internationally recognised quality standard, ISO9001:2008. The Company will be driving forward with this ambitious goal throughout 2011, and expects to gain accreditation in March 2012.

"The Towers" Changeover

Carl Rugen, Electrical Operations Manager (North West)

IQA’s Liverpool Office completed its first changeover of 41 flats at “ The Towers” multi storey block in Birkenhead. The successful changeover was completed in close consultation with ScottishPower and Wirral Housing Partnership who were both in attendance on the day. ScottishPower Engineer Billy Jones said “excellent bunch of guys who worked hard and professionally to make the changeover go so smoothly. Well done to all involved”.

IQA Property

Property Updates

Our property website has recently been updated to show the availability of several properties. If you are on the look out for a property to rent or buy please visit http://www.iqaproperty.co.uk/ for more information.

Training Report

David McKinlay

Training and Compliance Manager

A total of 33 personnel, including 2 new members of staff, passed through the instruction rooms in Paisley and Liverpool in January 2011.

The topics covered were refresher, final interview and authorisation preparation as well as reporting procedures and metering instruction.

On 14^th January a total of 6 operatives successfully completed their OP3 refresher course while one of our jointing resources successfully passed his LV live working refresher training on 25^th January. 6 operatives all attended and successfully completed the M0008 five day course between 24^th-28^th January with their final OP3 interviews being passed. A further 2 operatives successfully completed their WI1 initial safety induction course on 31 January and will now work towards their W1 final interview with SP Compliance.

Another Successful Project ahead of schedule

Edgefauld Rd, Springburn, Glasgow
Brian Ward, Electrical Operations Manager (Scotland)


IQA has completed the first multi story flat project of 2011, modernising the supply to 100 customers on Scottish Power’s Internal Mains Network. The duration of this project was 4 months beginning in October 2010. All 100 customers had their electricity supplies successfully changed over a 2 day period, with 50 properties being completed each day.

New Contract Award

An 18 month contract has been awarded to IQA by Scottish Power for the Provision of Internal Mains and Services.

The contract, covering both SP Scotland and SP Manweb, commences on 6^th January 2011 and continues until 30^th June 2012, at which point a potential 30 month contract extension may be agreed.

This very positive news for IQA is a great start to 2011 and allows the Company to grow and support our future strategic plans.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Quantity Surveyor Estimator - Job Vacancy

IQA Group is a fast growing Company specialising in Utilities, Electrical Contracting, Gas Services and Property Maintenance. IQA Group has a respected and solid reputation in its field of expertise. The Company is based in Paisley and currently employs over 80 dedicated staff working throughout Scotland.

Following a recent restructure of the Company which was required to meet the ongoing growth of the business we are now in a position to provide an excellent opportunity for a key individual with experience in Estimating and Quantity Surveying at a senior level to join the team and to work closely with the Operations Director and Managing Director.

You will be a highly motivated team player who has the ability to demonstrate business acumen in the wide-ranging activities that this role comprises. You will have proven experience in estimating and quantity surveying in multi disciplines with a contracting background. You are expected to drive through continuous improvements in financial and commercial performance and provide support to the Operations Managers. You will also be expected to provide strong business and commercial experience to assist the company to grow.

This position will see you being responsible for all commercial duties involved with existing contracts (inc. final accounts) and also handling measurement/pricing with regards to new opportunities. Responsibilities include: managing tendering process, estimating projects for all disciplines, quantity surveying on projects, applications for payment, final account submission and negotiation, raising commercial awareness throughout the company, assisting at regular financial reviews with managers, management of subcontractors and management of other commercial processes.

This role would suit a current Quantity Surveyor / Estimator who is ready to take on the extra challenge of building a team to support the business and provide commercial focus and assistance. This post offers the opportunity for growth and to build a long term career with the Company.

Based in our Paisley Head Office, this post is full time permanent with a salary circa £28,000 per annum plus the potential to earn an annual profit related bonus.

Please send your CV and covering note to jobs@IQAgroup.co.uk. Closing date is 15th January 2010.

IQA News

Good news for IQA staff - our stats are up for our isolator operatives for the second consecutive week. This is due to hard work from both our office staff and engineers so well done to all involved!!

We are still looking at ways to develop our brand image to reflect our current status in each business unit so exciting times are ahead for the company. This week has seen us making progress with our website and other literature so updates on these will follow in the next few weeks.

As well as this we recently had a team building session where everyone had to write a description of whoever they had been paired up with so the results will be interesting. This was done over lunch between staff who wouldn't normally have day to day dealing with each other so it was good to build team morale and communication.

New Staff

Since September we have taken on a total of 7 new staff including electricians, admin and an operations engineer. We are proud of this as it shows we are continuing to grow in the face of the recession and are confident enough to continue to hire staff.

Check our website or follow us on here and twitter (https://twitter.com/iqablogs) to keep up to date on any new vacancies.

Falkirk Mascot found at IQA Armadale base

The mascot of Falkirk FC was recently found outside our Armadale base after going missing from their stadium last week (see page 17 of today's Sun or Our Sherlock's not Outfoxed article on website).

Maybe he's been reading our blog and was looking for some work to be done in his house.....