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THE STANDARD Volume 15 THE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT ISSUE: THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE Page 12 PASS WITH FLYING COLOURS Page 14 PATHWAYS TO SUCCESSION Page 18 PREPPED FOR SUCCESS Page 22EPD170LGR 35L/Day27/60 R290 www.ecor-pro.com • Wheels • Compressor Protection • DuctFlange • PowerMeter • DragHandle • Humidistat • WaterPump • QRCode Manual mail@ecor-pro.com-01918162898-www.ecor-pro.com UKOffice 30DAYFREETRIAL LGR Dehumidifier03 Editorial Enquiries Paul Williamson paul.williamson@realia.co Advertising Sales Cleo Brettell cleo.brettell@realia.co Design & Production Realia Marketing paul.williamson@realia.co bdma@realia.co The Standard is published quarterly by The British Damage Management Association. The Standard is written in collaboration with our members, showcasing industry thought leaders and success stories to the wider community. We are delighted to present the opportunity for our members to broadcast their expertise to the broader insurance industry by submitting opinion pieces and case studies for inclusion in The Standard. Please feel free to submit your content for consideration. Published 16th December 2021 DISCLAIMER: The BDMA accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors within The Standard. Advertisements are accepted at the discretion of the editor and The BDMA and do not imply any endorsement of goods or services. BDMA membership Have you recently moved premises? Or have you recently moved to a different company? If so, please remember to send an update of your new details to info@bdma.org.uk Membership Update 04 Notes from the Chair 05 The BDMA’s View 06 Why skills are always a sound investment Opinions & Expertise from 8 the Executive Board Equipped for every eventuality? Generalist vs specialist skills BDMA Conference 2022 9 Learning & Development 10 BDMA Training News Corporate Associate 11 Showcase The Revival Company Guest Feature 12 Thirst for knowledge – Ayman Abu Dabat, Atlas Restoration Advertorial 13 Know your skills – David Shimwell, Revival Guest Feature 14 Pass with flying colours – Kerry Bhella, Rainbow International UK Webinar Report 16 Turning ESG aims into sustainable strategies Guest Feature 18 Pathways to succession – Peter Farrelly, Sedgwick International UK Special Feature 20 Rugby Six Nations Championship Preview Lunch – Free Prize Draw to win six tickets! Guest Feature 22 Prepped for success – By Jean Davenport, BDMA New BDMA Members 23 BDMA Enquiries & Correspondence The BDMA, Harborough Innovation Centre, Wellington Way, Airfield Business Park, Market Harborough LE16 7WB Phone: 01858 414278 | Email: info@bdma.org.uk Website: www.bdma.org.uk Keep up with us on social media… @TheBDMA @TheBDMA BDMA (British Damage Management Association) www.youtube.com/channel/ contents contact us Total Membership 98 Corporate Associates 1,098 Insurance Technicians nearly 2,70004 Membership Update Directors John Thompson (Chair) chairman@bdma.org.uk Adrian Jolly (Head of Strategic Development) strategicdevelopment@bdma.org.uk Kathryn Rodgers kathryn.rodgers@harwellrestoration.co.uk Adam Waters Specialists specialists@bdma.org.uk Chris Edwards Specialists specialists@bdma.org.uk Marie Stearn DM Practitioners (Residential) dmresidential@bdma.org.uk Executive Committee Members & Constituencies Greg French DM Practitioners (Commercial) commercial@bdma.org.uk Phil McVay Claims Technicians claimspract@bdma.org.uk James Parsons Insurance Technicians instechs@bdma.org.uk Richard Talbot-Jones Governance governance@bdma.org.uk Jean Davenport Learning and Development Manager jean.davenport@bdma.org.uk Support Personnel BDMA Administration Sophie Bennett Office Manager sophie.bennett@bdma.org.uk 01858 414278 Marketing Paul Williamson Realia Marketing paul.williamson@realia.co 01303 262101 Through partnership working and involvement in industry wide initiatives, the BDMA executive is also informed by the Association’s relationship with The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA). The BDMA Executive, Directors and Support Personnel Since our last edition in September, we have continued to witness significant membership growth, recently achieving another milestone as we reached our highest ever membership count of 2,669. This growth has been replicated in our Insurance Technician membership category, reaching 1,062 members. As the year comes to an end, we want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support. We remain strongly focused on raising industry standards and supporting the career progression of our members in 2022 and beyond. Updates to Corporate Accredited Membership (CAM) Criteria Following a comprehensive review, the Corporate Accredited Membership criteria have been updated. The first criteria is focussed on the number of accredited technicians in an organisation that are “client-facing”. Client-facing is a broad term but essentially reflects people who will directly interact with customers. It would not however include back-office staff or business development staff. This criteria reverts to our original bylaws – whereby 25% of client-facing staff need to be BDMA accredited. It’s important to note that this doesn’t just include restoration technicians. As our membership grows in diversity, we wanted our Corporate Accredited Membership to reflect this diversity. It is possible, therefore, for a wide range of organisations to approach us for corporate accreditation, and in this regard we would welcome applications from insurers, brokers, claims management companies, loss adjusters and assessors and, of course, restoration businesses. We hope that by removing some of the barriers to Corporate Accredited Membership, we can develop even greater engagement with our members, better represent their views and continue to drive standards forward. These changes should make Corporate Accredited Membership more accessible for smaller independent businesses. In addition to the above, the way we assess professionalism should be broader than simply looking at qualifications. We now also require Corporate Accredited Members to have in place documented core values, business practices, and a diversity and inclusion policy that aligns with the BDMA Code of Ethics. Our requirements align with many other professional accreditation bodies. The assessment team will look at various aspects of the business, including consideration around: •Criminal convictions (excluding motoring convictions), •Bankruptcies, •Outstanding CCJs (including against the Entity, if relevant), •Association with insolvent companies in the last 6 months. Criteria compliance is an ongoing requirement, with a formal review conducted every two years for those firms granted the accreditation. Full information on the criteria and details on how to apply for CAM can be found here: https://bdma.org.uk/ membership-and-accreditation/categories-criteria/ corporate-accreditation05 Notes from the Chair NOTE ABOUT SHARING ON SOCIAL Keep the photos coming! Each month we're tagged in lots of your photos on LinkedIn, sometimes they're e-learning certificates, sometimes they're photos of you celebrating your BDMA exam wins. Either way, make sure to tag us @BDMA (British Damage Management Association), so we can share on our company page and in our monthly newsletter! Hello readers, Welcome to your latest issue of The Standard. This quarter our focus is on learning and development, exploring the value of our sector’s specialist skills and knowledge in achieving the best possible outcomes for those impacted by property damage. As you will hear from those we have spoken to across the insurance supply chain, there is a clear commitment to continuous development and professional standards that runs reassuringly deep within damage management. At the BDMA, we continue to see that commitment first-hand through the growing number of members coming through our training and examinations, and it’s encouraging to see a healthy number of bookings being taken for the first quarter of 2022. In new developments this quarter, we held our first Senior Technician training course. I'm pleased to say that further courses will be available in 2022. Our congratulations also to those who recently were awarded Senior status in the Insurance and Claims Technicians categories. A major point of reference for your diaries is, of course, the BDMA Conference, which will set out ’The Roadmap For Sustainable Resilience’. Planning for this important event continues at pace behind the scenes – look out for more details soon and make sure your diaries are marked for 29th-30th June at the East Midlands Conference Centre. Thanks to the ongoing contributions of the board, staff and executive group, further progress has also been made on the changes to the association’s rules. These proposals are now with our legal advisors for finalisation, and when complete, they will be issued to members ahead of ratification at an Extraordinary General Meeting. In the meantime, you can see the changes to the member categories on the BDMA website, and anyone making an application via the site will be made aware of the new requirements. Finally, I would like to congratulate the BDMA’s Jean Davenport and Katherine Rodgers for making the shortlist in this year’s Women in Insurance Awards – recognition that is thoroughly deserved. And as I sign off on this last issue of The Standard for 2021, all that’s left for me to do is thank all our members once again for your continued support. On behalf of the BDMA, I would like to offer our best wishes for a peaceful and safe Christmas, and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the conference in June next year. Take care, John Thompson , BDMA Chair06 While the amount of time we spend indulging in cocktails on Zoom or making sourdough bread might have reduced, at least for now, there are plenty of pandemic-related changes in our behaviour that look like they are here to stay. For employers, the shifts brought on by COVID-19 have presented plenty of sustained challenges, not least the need to get to grips with the transition from a 9-to-5 office- based workforce to a hybrid model where homeworking plays a far greater role. The pandemic has also encouraged many people to reassess more fundamental decisions about where they live and what they do for a living. In a survey conducted by recruitment firm Randstad UK, around a quarter of workers said they are actively planning to change employers in the next few months, prompting talk of a forthcoming ‘Great Resignation’. Whether this event actually materialises or not, it’s clear that the strain around staff retention and recruitment will be a key feature of the 2022 business landscape. In many sectors, ours included, Brexit has compounded this issue through the departure of large swathes of overseas workers because of new immigration rules. Based on the laws of supply and demand, that means many companies are left experiencing wage inflation (in markets where claims volumes are at best stagnating or at worst reducing). These factors underline what we all know: good people are the driving force behind good businesses, but finding them and keeping them is not necessarily that easy. This also reinforces the need to support employees and staff through engaging learning and development programmes – and you will hear examples of how companies are doing just that in this issue of The Standard. At the BDMA, we responded early in the pandemic to ensure our members could still have access to training, even when working from home. Our online learning and examinations have gone from strength to strength throughout this period, providing an indication of how digital platforms are now fully embedded into a hybrid approach to continuing professional development. As the pace of change in our industry accelerates, digitally enabled platforms help support a more agile, responsive approach to training, which fits more easily with the demands of the new working model. It does not however compromise the requirement to uphold professional standards and the need to ground the sector’s workers in core damage management principles. It also enables staff to keep their knowledge base topped up at a more agile pace than before. With learning made more accessible, this introduces more opportunity to focus on subjects beyond restoration technologies and techniques. This includes the development of ‘softer’ skills in areas such as customer service, teaching about changes to modern housebuilding techniques, sharing new thinking around resilience and sustainability, and – as per one of the new, free courses recently added to the BDMA e-Academy – “How employees can support their own mental health in these uncertain times”. Admittedly, a sustained approach to skills development requires sustained investment in time and some money. And taking a long-term view is less straightforward if you are working against a backdrop of inconsistent work volumes. But an investment in people is arguably the most important investment a business can make in our changing world. Not only are policyholders – like the rest of us – bumping along in a challenging pandemic- restricted world, but there is also plenty of research to indicate that their expectations around customer service are becoming ever higher. When customers are hit by the stress of fire or water damage, it is, therefore, important for a technician to feel that they have all the tools, knowledge, and skills they need to deal with the situation at every level. Our ability to consistently tackle these demanding situations with professional skill and good grace not only ensures policyholders are left satisfied, but it also ensures we are delivering an important reminder of our sector’s value to stakeholders across the insurance supply chain. BY adrian jolly THE BDMA'S VIEW THE BDMA'S VIEW WHY SKILLS ARE ALWAYS A SOUND INVESTMENT Investing in people is arguably the most important investment a business can make right now. A sustained approach to skills development requires sustained investment in time and some money. Adrian Jollywww.primedr.co.uk The High Net Worth Disaster Restoration Company 0708 OPINIONS AND EXPERTISE FROM THE BDMA EXECUTIVE BOARD BDMA executive BDMA Executive Generalist vs specialist: Does narrow knowledge beat being multi-skilled? As well as being a Major Loss Personal Claims Consultant at Lloyds Banking Group, James Parsons is also a BDMA Senior Technician and member of the BDMA Executive Committee. Here he provides some perspective on whether depth or breadth is best when it comes to a technician’s skillset. WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON GENERALIST VS SPECIALIST SKILLS WHEN IT COMES TO TECHNICIANS? The comprehensive nature of the training provided by the BDMA means that a general technician is well equipped to review all manner of claim peril types and provide recommendations for mitigation. That said, there is still certainly a place for specialists. With specialist training comes increased knowledge of how best to deal with specific challenges. For example, where I deal with high-value and complex claims, I will often benefit from the insight of a technician who deals solely with fires as they will know which supplier can be pulled in to help with specialist restoration. Pictures, artwork, documents, furniture, and other similar items are often of high sentimental importance to a customer, so restoration skills in this area can be invaluable. Leak detection is another area where specialist skills come to the fore. Technicians can provide an immensely valuable service in getting us quickly to the source of a moisture-related problem and stopping a wet peril situation from worsening. ARE THERE ANY EXCEPTIONS TO YOUR STATED VIEW? During a surge event, when it’s all hands to the pump, it’s perhaps less about individual specialisms and more about the collective application of fundamental restoration skills – technicians mucking in to help. In these situations, it’s always refreshing to receive a consistent, professional service across the Damage Management suppliers we work with, reflecting their excellent understanding of the science of drying a building and their ability to apply this knowledge to the varied housing stock we have here in the UK. ARE THERE ANY AREAS WHERE YOU SEE SPECIALIST SKILLS ALWAYS REMAINING OR WHERE WE CAN MIGRATE TO MORE GENERALIST SKILLS? I’m entirely open to general technicians handling all claims and recognising for themselves when value can be enhanced by referring to a specialist. However, I think that approach does also rely on a proper and thorough appreciation of the nature of some of the skills that specialists possess. I have been amazed at the skills demonstrated at some of the masterclasses put on by the BDMA. It’s almost like watching miracles be performed in front of you, with Harwell showing how they can bring pictures back after they have been retrieved from the scene of a fire – even when they have been soiled with congealed clumps of debris and bonded together through water damage. I’ve also seen furniture restorers bring back fire-damaged veneers on ornate furniture to the point that you would never know the item had sustained serious damage in the first place. WHAT ARE THE PROS/CONS OF EACH APPROACH? A general technician can be deployed to all claim types and provide an impactful, practical level of support. The specialist often works in a much more limited window in terms of focusing on one aspect of the claim problem. There is no doubt we need specialists – and particularly with the growing focus on sustainability, their talents will play an important role in helping restore more, reduce waste, and improve our carbon footprint. However, general technicians fulfil a tremendously important function in the claim cycle, often arriving before anyone else in the insurance supply chain, providing that first point of contact for a customer and delivering practical frontline support. As ever, the important thing is to get the right balance between the two to ensure the best possible outcome is achieved. James Parsonswww.bdma.org.uk the road map to sustainable resilience THE BDMA CONFERENCE IS BACK! Join us on 29th – 30th June 2022 at the East Midlands Conference Centre as we look to define ‘The roadmap for sustainable resilience’ . With capacity for over 50 exhibitors and 400 delegates, this promises to be our biggest conference yet. And with flexible pricing options for delegates, sponsors and exhibitors, we are planning to make this event truly inclusive for all. So, if you are interested in speaking, sponsoring, exhibiting or attending, please do register your interest at www.bdma.org.uk today. BDMA conferenceNext >