A day in the life… with Matthew Lee, Senior Installations Supervisor

1st March 2022

In the words of Matthew Lee, “there’s never a dull day” as a Senior Installations Supervisor!

His role requires him to be on site most of the week, and despite being based at the Liverpool depot, he often travels the length of the UK, from Southend-on-Sea to the Lake District and Scotland.

“On a typical day I’m out on site, project managing with the Solutions Managers and Solutions Project Managers. We’ve got to make sure any pumping solution is compliant and satisfies the client needs.

“My role is also about keeping everyone on site safe, especially on large jobs, we need to assess the environment and make sure it’s low risk.”

The Selwood community

Matthew explains there is a big sense of community working at Selwood, and all the teams help each other out, particularly on the more complicated projects.

“From myself, to operatives, managers, branch managers and hire control, everyone is happy to help each other.

“When my team goes to a job, we are provided with a job pack, which contains the site survey from the Solutions Managers. They’ll generally come out to site with us, walk us through the job requirements and give us all the information of the planned works such as where the pumps are and pipework route is. They’ll also let us know about any special considerations such as public access ways for example.

“I’ll then work with the Solutions Managers if we need to adjust any part of the installation or on more innovative ideas to create the best possible solution for the customer.”

But when he’s called to assist on an emergency job, there isn’t as much time to make plans.

“When this happens, we get to site and it will be a blank canvas. It’s a challenge, but I love challenges! It’s up to my team to assess the site and get a safe system in place. We also need to communicate this to everyone involved, whether that is just the Selwood team or subcontractors like crane operators.”

It’s important to Matthew that each person involved in the project is on the same page and knows how things are expected to be carried out.

“I’m a stickler for standards! I’m often coaching people on the Selwood way of doing things. It’s a reason why we are the best at what we do.”

Training

Matthew has extensive experience in his role and the industry, so often helps train new starters.

“Information is power”, he says. From all the training he has done, and the qualifications he’s earned (CSCS Gold Card, IOSH and Level 3 NVQ Site Supervisor to name a few) he’s able to offer that expertise – on the job!

“On a recent job, we had some new starters join us where I helped train and coach them. We’re able to do the jobs that we do, because of the training provided by Selwood.”

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