Words: Tina Riley

When asked by kbbreview to offer my opinion on how retailers can grow their business by taking on installers full-time instead of just sub-contracting, my initial reaction was to reply: “it’s not the most riveting topic to discuss but I’ll give it a go”. However, on further reflection, I have to say it is one of the most challenging questions, and does cause a lot of issues within our industry.

The pros and cons of either employing your own installers or using sub-contractors is an argument as old as time, and over the last nearly 60 years in business we have done both. 

We currently have one full-time bathroom installer who is a fabulous asset to us and is (as of the time of writing this) booked until June, we have recently also employed a new apprentice who, hopefully under his expert tutelage, will eventually become an excellent installer. 

Whilst this team is working well for us, we still need on their projects further sub-contracted labour to fulfil our turn key installations (e.g  electricians, plasterers, decorators, etc)

Employing your own contracted installers has many advantages. For instance, peace of mind for the client – some clients often feel more secure knowing the person in their home is an accountable employee of the business they paid.

We have also have total control over their diary which can reduce delays on a project. It can also be easier to send an employee back to fix ‘snags’ or minor remedial issues.

However by using the right sub-contracted labour we can avoid  the fixed costs of salaries, taxes, insurance, and vehicle maintenance, paying only for the work performed.

We also have the freedom to bring them in during peak times and scale them back during slower periods without the legal complexities of layoffs. 

It also gives us immediate access to qualified tradespeople where they are only needed for a small time on each project like the plasterer, or electricians or gas man.

We are incredibly lucky with the sub-contracted labour we work with who are fully on board with the quality of work we commit to, happy to work with us as part of our ‘team’.

However how each retailer chooses to run their business hence the term ‘independent retailer’ is not the most thorny issue to address – this has to be the general workforce shortage we must all be struggling with.

A quick google reveals that the UK construction industry as a whole needs an estimated 266,000 additional workers to keep up with current demand. 

For years now we’ve had a shrinking pool of skilled tradespeople in our industry, with approximately one-third of sole traders working in our industry expected to retire within the next decade.

Are the next generation of young professionals really looking to enter our trade? I attended the InstallerSHOW last year, which was very busy, but when a snap poll of people were asked, they were mainly looking at going into renewable energy or solar not our industry. Do large scale build projects take tradespeople away from private installations? 

Plus, in our experience, there is a vast gulf in the quality of tradespeople, from site installation to domestic installation work.

Maybe the answer lies in managing client expectations regarding timelines? In the past we have been happy with a order lead time in the region of 3-4 months ahead. Do we need to start preparing clients to expect a more normal lead time of 6 months for a good quality installation? 

If you were having a large build project, for example, a client would be happy to wait perhaps 12-18 months for the builder they were recommended to fulfil the project, so maybe our industry is no different and this is the answer?