It’s been a month since UC22, our United Capital group leadership conference, which took place in Dubai, and as a group, we’re still processing what came out of the time we spent together.

With such a strong group of people in the room, from the most senior leaders to some of our brightest young apprentices, we expected to leave the conference with some great ideas – and we did.

Some are bold and ambitious, some are smaller (but all the easier to implement for it), some are designed to innovate around our processes, and some to improve our communication and problem-solving skills.

Now that we’ve been back at our day jobs for a month, we’re pushing our leaders to make good on these ideas and promises. Accountability is critical to a successfully growing business, and Graeme and I are as tough on ourselves as we are on anyone else – so when we look for progress we expect to see it!

The benefits of UC22 will be long-lasting, and across the group we hope to see everyone interacting differently from now on. Every single conversation that took place helped to build the future of our business forward in some small way, every interaction was an opportunity for better relationships going forward, every idea was the seed of a change that could transform the delivery of a service or product for our 150,000 customers.

The group before the conference was, by definition, different to the group post-event. What I love about United Capital is that we have instilled a culture where there’s no such thing as a baseline or a default setting; we’re constantly improving and moving forward. The problem we solved yesterday will be more easily tackled next time; the last acquisition we made taught us lessons we’ll take onto the next deal; the relationships we built at UC22 will only keep growing and making our group a better place in which to thrive.

Our group conference, UC22, took place last week in Dubai, and one of the major goals of bringing everyone together in a completely different environment was to boost collaboration and supercharge relationships at every level of the business.

We firmly believe that environment is stronger than will, and the intention behind bringing some of the key people from United Capital to Dubai was to make the biggest plans and visions seem possible.

In the earliest planning stages, we decided it was important to take a number of young people from group companies Saltire Facilities Management and McGill to Dubai, to thank them for their hard work and get them on board with the massive growth plans we are developing. We took Ryan, Jack, and Nicola, three of our brightest shining stars, who are all well on their way to success, despite all being younger than 21. They were chosen by their peers and their leaders, and they all thoroughly deserved their place at the table. Our hope was that they would go back to their colleagues, and share with them what’s happening around the business.

What they did went far beyond that; during one of our breakout sessions, these young people made a commitment amongst themselves to set up a shadow apprentice board, which will meet regularly. The group will select a rotating leadership group which will feed back to the United Capital board what’s happening at apprentice level, what they need in terms of development, and what they’d like to see happen next across the group.

When we say that environment is stronger than will this is what we mean – by bringing young people together, who are completely inexperienced at this level of business, they were able to make the leap from just talking to doing – and at great scale.

They’re grabbing the future with their own hands, and if there’s one thing we wanted people to be inspired to do at our conference, that was it. What they’ll all gain from this group can’t be underestimated; they’ll be exposed to the highest levels of the business, find themselves in leadership positions, and be pressed to create business plans and deliver initiatives on time. These young people are not just the future of United Capital, they’re the future of our industry!

We’ve been back at our desks for just a few days, and plans are already in place, and dates are landing in diaries. The shadow apprentice board is set to become a real forum for growth and success, and we’ve no doubt that they’ll hold us to account, as they should! This younger generation at United Capital are gifted communicators and natural collaborators, and that makes the future of our group exciting – with this entrepreneurial spirit right at the heart of our company, we’re already streets ahead of the competition.

United Capital has announced its group of winners of the Employee of the Year competition, named the Race to Dubai in recognition of the location of this year’s conference.

The Race to Dubai was launched in September 2021, and was open to all employees who could show that they are aligned with the group values of being relentless, ambitious, committed, and entrepreneurial. People were free to nominate themselves or a colleague, with the overall winner being awarded a significant prize: an all-expenses paid, 5-star, family trip of a lifetime, and an invitation to shape the future of a fast-growing, forward-thinking business, by attending our annual company conference in May.

More than 40 nominations were received from across our businesses, ranging from the youngest members of the apprentice community to those who have been with our group companies for decades. The United Capital board had the enjoyable task of reading through all of the nominations in their search for winners, and in the process got to learn more about some of the most exciting sustainability projects, inspirational people, and entrepreneurial approaches to problem-solving that have made United Capital the fastest-growing group in the decarbonisation sector.

Ultimately the nominations were so strong that four winners were announced by CEO Graeme Carling earlier this month. Our winners will all attend our company conference, UC22, which takes place on 16^th May in Dubai, where they’ll get to share their thoughts and ideas about the group’s future plans, and take these back to their teams across the country.  The overall winner in the Employee of the Year category will also enjoy a week-long all-expenses paid family holiday at the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi.

United Capital Rising Star Award – Nicola Barr, Saltire Facilities Management

McGill Apprentice of the Year – Ryan Bisset

Saltire Apprentice of the Year – Jack Boyd

Employee of the Year – Billy Robertson, McGill

Speaking of the Race to Dubai competition, Graeme Carling commented, “Our growth rate is phenomenal, and makes us one of the fastest-growing groups in the country, and certainly in the decarbonisation sector. In large part that’s because of this incredible group of 600 employees we’ve brought together; we all work together in a way that reflects our values of being relentless, ambitious, committed, and entrepreneurial.

The board and I couldn’t be more pleased to announce our very deserving group of winners, and we look forward to congratulating them in person, as well as hearing their fresh ideas, at our conference next month.”

Greening of the UK’s existing infrastructure is a fundamental step on the road to net-zero, and United Capital is already making real change in more than 150,000 homes.

Transforming our society into one with net zero greenhouse gas emissions is a challenge that nobody yet knows how to solve completely. It’s a puzzle with many pieces, some of which haven’t yet been created. A sustainable society is a huge goal, one that might yet require new technologies and huge shifts in the way we live and work.

Greening our existing building stock is something that’s achievable now for many homeowners, and will become more possible as renewable technologies such as solar PV, heat pumps, battery storage, and electric vehicle chargers, become ever more mainstream, and therefore more affordable and accessible.

Our group companies have already been working on decarbonisation of homes and commercial buildings for years, and are currently managing just over 150,000 homes which aim to shrink both their energy bills and their carbon footprint. With a very strong track record of winning public sector contracts, both McGill, and Saltire Facilities Management are working to improve energy efficiency in buildings right across the country.

Experts in delivering a range of renewable technologies, our group is carrying out work that makes a huge difference in tackling climate change. For example, installing air source heat pumps in homes and commercial buildings, such as sheltered housing complexes, cuts energy bills dramatically, while installing large-scale solar PV arrays in schools helping councils to fulfil their own sustainability commitments.

United Capital Director Fraser Kirk, commented “Our group companies work on behalf of some of the largest councils, housing associations, government bodies, and social landlords. Their buildings are typically older, so we have focused on how we can decarbonise the existing built environment, rather than on creating new ‘clean’ buildings.

With more than 150,000 homes now positively impacted by the work that we do, the United Capital group is making real demonstrable improvements in the UK’s existing building stock, and helping to tackle climate change in real time, every single day.”

United Capital acquires building services businesses which are operating in the renewables and decarbonisation space, but we’re more than just a collection of businesses. We’re also intentional about ensuring we have a positive impact on the environment, in our communities, and in the amount of people around the country that our group can serve.

One of the most important ways we’re positively impacting our communities is by making further investments in our established and successful apprenticeship schemes. Investing in apprentices is the easiest decision you’ll make in business, as it’s a win-win-win. By investing in young people you build permanent well-paid roles into the fabric and future of your communities, you develop the future leaders of your company, and you have the ability to tailor the skillset of your workforce to fit the company you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years’ time.

That puts you ahead of the competition, because let’s be honest; a lot of companies complain about the recruitment problem in building services, but few are investing in apprentices in sufficient numbers to tackle the problem.

United Capital is continuing its genuine commitment to young people across the country, and our apprenticeship schemes are highly sought-after and recognised as best-in-class in our local communities. We’re currently developing close to 50 apprentices across a range of trades, and will likely increase that by around 50% in 2022. That’s dozens of future industry leaders who will learn the United Capital values of being relentless, ambitious, committed, and entrepreneurial in their approach to work.

For us, this represents a real and lasting commitment to the communities in which our group companies were founded, and the chance to build a workforce that’s fit for the great decarbonisation challenge that will define the next few decades in building services. We serve customers who are struggling with how to meet their zero-carbon targets, by helping them decarbonise their buildings and replacing old technologies with the latest innovations in renewables.

United Capital is one of the only groups operating in the UK which has a sizeable enough workforce to take on the largest public sector decarbonisation projects. By bringing through cohorts of young people who are skilled in all trades and focused on becoming renewables experts, we’ll be at the forefront of the decarbonisation revolution for decades to come.