#19 - The importance of SQEP!
10 Jul 24
All organisations require SQEP (Suitably Qualified Experienced Personnel) resource. They cannot exist on qualifications alone, it is the experience that complements those qualifications that counts.
It is critical for an organisation to maintain an appropriate balance of SQEP versus non-SQEP.
Safeguard SQEP personnel at all costs, but also embrace the new talent coming into the organisation. Use the SQEP to bring on those new joiners but note that this is additional to their day jobs. To be able to do this effectively is a fine balancing act. Too many non-SQEP personnel will quickly overwhelm the SQEP who are left, and they may leave if the workload becomes untenable.
Protect your SQEP resource. Get the balance wrong at your peril!
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#19 - The importance of SQEP!
What?
I agree that we should all be pushed out of our comfort zones. However, the extent to which we can do this before it becomes painfully obvious that we are far outside our zones can vary.
SQEP (Suitably Qualified Experienced Personnel) are required to ensure that we employ people who know what they are doing.
A person may well have certificates coming out of their ears stating that they have completed this course and that.
But the key missing component is, have they implemented, practiced and gained experience of what they have learnt in a real environment? Have they actually done it for real?
Ensuring the Company has sufficient SQEP therefore becomes of prime importance.
If you get it wrong, if there are too many non-SQEP personnel, the workload will fall unfairly onto those left who are SQEP.
And they will leave, exacerbating the problem. This will then make it an existential issue for the Company!
Why?
An organisation is always going to be composed of a range of personnel with varying levels of experience.
But here's the important bit. The organisation needs to ensure that it has sufficient SQEP to ensure its operational activities are able to continue without the entire system collapsing.
Ensuring adequate SQEP allows for a training margin. The training margin cannot be set too high otherwise it will overwhelm the organisation. People only have a finite capacity to coach and mentor and also do their day job
Equally, the right level and range of SQEP is required to be able to coach and mentor those who need to learn and grow within the organisation.
The balance of SQEP becomes particularly important if your organisation has a safety component built within it either for products or services which your Company produces.
Reduce the SQEP = increase the chances something bad will happen!
This is why SQEP is so vitally important.
How?
Setting and maintaining the balance of SQEP all starts within the recruitment process:
- What skills do you require now? What skills do you require in the next 5 years?
- Are any niche skills required and are they hard to source within the marketplace? Have you thought outside the box to embrace novel ideas for sourcing them?
- Make sure that the CV sifting process is thorough and conducted against the Job Description to filter out those who do not satisfy the criteria. Use the interview to probe further as required,
- If you have perishable or obsolescent skills requirements, what are you doing to safeguard your operations and ensure that those skills don't leave the Company when someone retires? What is your age demographic? Who is going to be retiring and when?
- Set your SQEP levels as appropriate to match the technical skills required and the level they are entering the Company at. How many years of experience do you require in each role?
- What is your training margin percentage? Is this at the appropriate level? (30% is typical) Is it sustainable?
- Embed a coaching/learning culture into your organisation so people feel invested in and won't want to leave,
- Ensure everyone has a Professional Development Plan (PDP) outlining how the Company is investing in their development. This will encourage them to stay!
- Implement a Training Plan to raise SQEP levels, and also to ensure skill fade does not occur.
- Value your people, but in particular value and protect your SQEP people! Once they decide to leave, their mindset changes and you have lost them!
In Summary
I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.
Maintaining the balance of SQEP is difficult. However, it is essential to the sheer existence of your Company. Qualifications must be complemented by adequate experience, especially for key roles and particularly for those that have a safety aspect to them.
Value your people resources, but in particular value and protect your SQEP people resources!
Have a great week!
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