nmcn turns two

As nmcn celebrates its second birthday today (26 November) since our rebrand in 2018, we’re using the opportunity to reflect on the past two years and look at what’s to come.

It’s safe to say that 2020 hasn’t been the year that any of us expected. As a business operating since 1946, we’ve witnessed global events, recessions, moon landings, the introduction of the internet and everything in between. But even in our long history, we haven’t seen anything quite like this pandemic. It has been a challenging year for everyone, including us.

Helping keep the country moving

Despite the impact of COVID-19, 2020 has brought us lots of positives. We’re so proud that our people have been able to continue to deliver essential services to help keep the country moving throughout the pandemic. From our water business unit working to keep the taps flowing in homes and businesses, to our telecoms team keeping the country connected as the demand for working at home soared, our people have played important roles.

We are adapting the way we do things to reflect the ‘new normal’ and our vision for the future remains strong. Like previous years, we are committed to having a positive impact in everything we do through our Positive Impact Plan.  The Plan is key for achieving our vision of being the best performing company in our chosen markets.

Inspiring the next generation

One of our passions as a company is inspiring the next generation. Back in March we launched our award-winning children’s book When I grow up and our team had ambitious plans to visit schools and read the book to pupils. Unfortunately, COVID had other plans, so we switched to a more virtual approach, creating online activities for children to complete around key dates including Child Safety Week, Drowning Prevention Week and Road Safety Week.  Our animated version of the story has now been viewed over 10,000 times.

The characters from our book have also been used on safety hoarding around an nmcn site, with the messaging: ‘Save Energy, Save Water, Save the Environment, Together we can have a Positive Impact’ to inspire and encourage young people to think about the environment.

We’re also hosting virtual work experience to give young people a flavour of the opportunities working in our industry can bring. Our Warrington office is currently hosting a 12-week programme for students at UTC Warrington, who are working towards their BTEC qualifications.

We’re active in playing our part to protect the environment for the next generation, and this year we introduced a diesel-free welfare unit to our fleet – the twin axle FC500 Fusion Pulse – a sustainable alternative to diesel generated welfare units.

Celebrating the achievements of our people

Our people are critical to the success of nmcn and are always at the heart of everything we do. We actively empower our people to drive and shape our business success.

This year we’ve had a number of successes including Will Hooper, Gareth Burr and Luke Drake, who all achieved Chartered Civil Engineer status and became members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Cliff Francis, Project manager for our water business unit, has also been announced as an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Future Leader.

Meanwhile, Kay Denham, head of design for our water team in the South, has been elected as a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) – the highest level of membership within the institution.

Jamie Thums, Chief Operating Officer for Lintott – a part of nmcn Plc – was recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 for his ‘Service to Manufacturing in East Anglia’ – an incredible achievement and a well-deserved honour.

Supporting our communities

As a business, we recognise the importance of supporting our people in their own charity work. It has a significant impact on our communities, both locally and further afield, and something we feel reflects our values as a business and as individuals. This year, our people have found new ways to raise vital funds.

Despite being physically apart, our employees joined forces along with their family and friends to participate in the ‘Tour de nmcn – mini challenge’, cycling a combined distance of 2020 miles and raising money for our charity partner Mind.

Our Highways Operations Manager, Chris West, took 1 million steps in August to raise funds for Dementia UK, a charity close to his heart. Walking an average of 20 miles a day, Chris smashed his initial fundraising target of £750, raising a total of £3,660.

Climbing Mount Snowdon to raise money for The Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract, our fabrications team raised £1,473, nearly five times their original target.

To help during the pandemic, a number of our employees signed up to the NHS volunteering scheme, including our site manager Andy Spraggett. Alongside his day job, Andy was collecting prescriptions from pharmacies and delivering them to people in isolation.

We also ensure that we support our people’s mental and physical health as wellbeing is a big priority to us. We continue to work hard to improve the mental health strategy at nmcn, to build awareness and support so people know how to spot the signs of declining mental health and where to go for help.

Building our profile

Award success

Despite the majority of award ceremonies being cancelled this year, we’ve also celebrated a number of (virtual) award successes. Our achievements include:

• Water Industry Contractor of the Year for the third consecutive year at the at the Water Industry Awards
• Health & Safety Initiative of the Year for our Mental Health Risk Assessment Plus (MHRA+) initiative at the Water Industry Awards
• The Woman in Water award at the Water Industry Awards for our work with Severn Trent, CiM6 (Costain and Stantec) and MMB for the ‘The Golden Thread’ of women delivering the ASP Batch
• Our highways unit won ‘Infrastructure’ and ‘Project of the Year’ for the £22m Anlaby and East Ella Flood Alleviation Scheme at the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (RICS)Social Impact Awards, Yorkshire & Humber.
• Our asset security team won security ‘Installer of the Year’ at the British Security Awards
• For the second year running we won the Procurement Skills Accord from Energy and Utility Skills, which recognises our efforts to sustain a skilled workforce
• Our children’s book When I Grow Up won a duo of international awards – a platinum winner at the MUSE Creative Awards and winner of the design and print category at the NYX Marcom Awards

Strong project pipeline

Despite the uncertainty of 2020, we secured our place on Yorkshire Water’s (YWS) £400m Infrastructure framework for the delivery of infrastructure pipeline projects for both clean and wastewater assets.

Our telecoms division has also seen significant growth, with new projects from Virgin Media, Openreach and, most recently, City Fibre, which is part of a £1.5bn investment into full fibre broadband.

Building our brand

We are proud to have extended and enhanced our partnership with Crewe Alexandra FC for the 2020/2021 season, becoming the club’s exclusive digital partner.

Since our rebrand from North Midland Construction to nmcn in 2018, we have nearly doubled our LinkedIn followers and have been able to spread our messages further and faster than ever before.

By actively engaging with our people, customers and the wider business community, we have steadily increased brand awareness to achieve the highest engagement rate against our industry competitors.

So, as we head towards the end of 2020, we want to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported us as a business, and a big thank you to all key workers keeping the country going through the pandemic. As 2021 draws closer, we’re looking forward to building many more positive memories as nmcn.