United Industrial Supplies distribute workshop consumables to the automotive market across the UK and have 35 employees.

Fiona Lovell, Director of Finance and Operations, and Roslyn Eckford, Director of Sales and Marketing, have run the firm since company director Chris Howe sadly passed away in 2020. His wife, Marta is the Chief Operating Officer and remains involved in everyday operations.

Roslyn said: “It has been a period of change for us and the business. Despite the changes the team has shown great loyalty and resilience.”

Fiona added: “The business was stable, but to enable us to grow we knew we needed help with changing the culture of the business and like many other businesses, we needed to adapt our plan for the future.

Roslyn continued: “As a company with a number of long serving employees, we knew we needed to identify skill gaps, focus on staff training and get support with succession planning so we contacted Fife College, and they put us in touch with Skills Development Scotland.”

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) Employer Engagement Executive Kathryn Hill explained the Skills for Growth process to Fiona and Roslyn.

Skills for Growth is a fully-funded service for companies with between five and 250 employees and helps employers identify and understand their skills needs. A detailed Employer Action Plan is developed with guidance towards the most relevant training, funding and local business support which is based on their identified skills needs.

Fiona said: “Kathryn met with all employees to check tat everyone understood their job role and responsibilities and how they fitted in to the wider organisation, how they felt about working for UIS and what prospects they saw for themselves for career progression within the company. After that, she drew up an action plan with a series of recommendations.”

Actions identified included updating job descriptions, having regular one-to-one meetings and creating an employee handbook for all staff.

Kathryn also put them in touch with Scottish Enterprise team, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS), who helped the firm identify areas of waste and to develop eight improvement projects to streamline business processes.

Roslyn said: “SMAS have been amazing in supporting us. All our employees are part of a project team and it has been one of the biggest successes as it has brought people together, they are all connected and engaged. It’s amazing to witness and see employees shine.”

Fiona continued: “We’re now looking into how we bring apprentices into the workforce and identifying which areas to place them into. This will help bring fresh talent and ideas into the business. SDS has been supporting us with this.

“Kathryn still keeps in touch, sending us info on things like funding and research that she thinks would be useful to us.”

Kathryn said: “Over the last year I’ve seen the company grow and change the culture within the business. Staff have been keen to take on new training and new ways of working as they can see the benefit. Roslyn and Fiona have made the difference as they’ve engaged with our recommendations and see the potential to grow the business further.”

Find out how Skills for Growth can help your business. Call 0800 783 6000 or visit employers.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk