Small company “champions” IiP: disaster restoration firm finds training pays off

The managing director of a small Essex company specialising in fire and flood restoration believes that education and training are the key to providing a top‐quality operation in the service industries. He describes how, in the absence of any other nationally‐recognised standards for this relatively new sector within the cleaning industry, his company initially introduced its own internal standards before looking to Investors in People accreditation for the external recognition it needed. With assistance and funding from the local Training and Enterprise Council, the company’s highly successful involvement with the IiP programme has helped it achieve not only high performance standards from its technical, administrative and managerial staff but also greater recognition within its potential client base in the insurance and premises and facilities management industries.