Hedley Purvis ltd
In the language of oil and gas, "joint integrity" means ensuring stress-free, leak-free joints in pipelines. And Morpeth-based Hedley Purvis Ltd, UK arm of the Hedley Purvis Group, has made itself the industry watchword for joint integrity.
But 20 years of trading (and with a North East Business of the Year Award among its accolades), have taught the company that there are other words and other languages that are equally as important.
Hedley Purvis needs to speak not only fluent Pipeline, but a variety of other tongues, essential now as the Group follows a strategy of expansion into new markets, through acquisition, joint ventures and setting up subsidiaries.
The group, which now employs 200 personnel around the world and turns over more than £10 million, has bases in Norway, Paris, the Far East, the USA and South America.
Now the group is being used as an example of good practice by the Regional Language Network North-East, a joint initiative by ONE NorthEast and CILT, the National Centre for Languages, aimed at sharpening the focus of exporting businesses on language and cultural issues.
Hedley Purvis's speciality is the complete process of providing leak-free mechanical joints - that means ensuring, for example, that all bolts in a joint in an oil pipeline are tightened both equally and correctly, to prevent failure. This is achieved through design, manufacture and supply of product; provision of a validated technical standard; and the employment of highly competent and trained technicians to work on clients' sites around the world. All backed by a comprehensive technical support infrastructure.
"Our approach to languages has run in parallel with our expansion," says General Manager Tony Stevens. "One of our biggest projects to date has required a working knowledge of Spanish because we had some major undertakings in Mexico. By the time we needed to send men there, they had gone through a Survival Spanish for Engineers course."
Hedley Purvis has worked closely on its language training with The Language Training Partnership, Sunderland, and the aim is to provide its people with the most practical grounding for the specific work environment. "The Spanish was less focussed on 'two beers if you please', and more on useful things like 'where's the site office?' and 'how do you get a permit to work?'.
"We have about 60 technicians on field service and maintenance, and obviously the nature of their work takes them here, there and everywhere, so it's quite difficult to get everyone together in work time. So the Language Training Partnership put together some work packs with audio tapes, so people could catch up if they missed a class."
And the results were clear. After two Spanish training courses, Hedley Purvis could boast about 24 on the team with a reasonable knowledge of Spanish - enough, says Tony, to achieve "critical mass" among the engineers on site.
Tony Stevens with Paul Allsopp, who has learnt Spanish
Tony says that the advantage of having the language skills was immense: "It would have been very difficult to complete the contract without Spanish, and having that ability gave us something of a competitive edge."
Following the success of the Spanish experience, Hedley Purvis now has the bit between its teeth and is continuing its language training with 12 people following French courses, reflecting the acquisition of a business based in Paris. In this instance, the focus is more on the conversational, with a view to also looking at specialist areas, such as accountancy.
Hedley Purvis recognise the amazing edge that foreign language learning has given the business. So as the company's overseas markets continue to develop, there is a commitment to ensuring that people working there have the benefit of at least an introduction to the local language.
"We have a company policy of training in general and we try to encourage people to take their own initiative and, through the appraisal process, to identify needs and opportunities to improve skills and abilities, and languages is just one element of that," says Tony.
Zélie Guérin, of the Regional Language Network, adds: "Hedley Purvis provides an excellent example of what companies across all sectors can achieve by putting languages right up their business agenda. We want to see the whole region improve its competitive edge by adopting policies like theirs."
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