Workforce Solutions
Standing up a design and delivery team for the start of AMP8
A capital programme roughly doubling at the AMP boundary, with process, MEICA and site delivery people needed in the same quarter as everyone else.
- Water
- A water utility delivery partner
- Midlands and North West
- 9 months, continuing as a framework
The challenge
What we were asked to solve
The AMP boundary is the hardest hiring moment in the water sector. Our client's capital programme stepped up sharply at the start of AMP8, and the whole industry was recruiting the same process, MEICA and delivery people in the same few months.
Storm overflow and WINEP-driven schemes carried regulatory deadlines that could not move, which meant the design team had to be at strength before the site teams could be usefully deployed — a sequencing problem as much as a volume one.
The client also had to keep IR35 exposure controlled across a mixed population of staff, contractors and consultants, and get NEC4-fluent commercial and planning people in early enough to set the programme up properly rather than firefight it later.
What we did
How we ran it
Sequenced hiring to the design-then-deliver curve
Process and MEICA design roles were prioritised ahead of the site delivery ramp, so drawings and specifications were flowing before the construction teams landed rather than after.
Recruited against water-specific competence
Screening was built around real programme content — WINEP and storm overflow schemes, EICA commissioning on live assets, NEC4 Option C administration — not generic engineering keywords.
Handled status and compliance up front
Every contractor engagement carried a documented status determination, right-to-work check and, where the work touched clean water assets, the relevant hygiene and confined space certification before day one.
Moved to a framework once the shape was clear
After the first wave, we set up an agreed rate card by discipline and a standing shortlist for the recurring roles, so subsequent hires ran in days rather than restarting each time.
“Everyone in the sector was hiring the same people in the same quarter. Getting the design roles filled first was the call that kept the scheme dates honest.”
The outcome
Where it landed
The client entered AMP8 with the design team at strength and a repeatable route to the delivery hires. The figures below are illustrative of this engagement type.
- 34
- Design and delivery placements in the first nine months
- Design-first
- Sequencing that protected the regulatory scheme dates
- 100%
- Placements with documented status and compliance checks
- Days
- Time to shortlist on framework roles after the first wave
NE Project Solutions is a young business and these are representative examples of the work we deliver, written from real UK market practice. Clients are described generically and never named, quotes are attributed by role only, and figures illustrate the shape of each engagement rather than audited client data.
Disciplines
Roles delivered
The disciplines this engagement called for — a useful shorthand for the kind of work we resource in water.
- Process Engineers
- MEICA Design Engineers
- EICA Commissioning Engineers
- Civils Site Engineers
- Project Managers (NEC4)
- Planners (P6)
- Quantity Surveyors
- CDM Principal Designer support
- Site Supervisors
More proof
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