Woman in Industry #4: Nerys Griffiths

Diversity and inclusivity are vital for the industry's growth, acknowledging the crucial importance of promoting gender diversity and inclusivity.

Hosted by Marie Tyler and powered by OrangeDoor, in partnership with IPSA and DARE - the Women In Industry series shines a spotlight on the journeys, perspectives and impact of women across the industry.

Episode 4: Nerys Griffiths – Griffiths Security & Smart Technology Ltd

From Dental Nurse to Security Business: And Who’s Training the Rest of Us?

A career pivot story leading to a wider challenge on training and development gaps in the industry.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Women in Industry Podcast. I'm Marie Diane Tyler, and this series was recorded live at the security event in partnership with IPSA and Dare, powered by Orange Door, an unbridled company. Let's get into it. Neris, hi. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Now you and I have never met in person before. No. First time. And she's been a few people I've met at this one first time. It won't be the last, I'm sorry. Let's probably store keep for a moment. But um we've got a topic here to tuck into. Um, and it's it's very different. Although I know that there are perhaps a few women in the industry that have found themselves falling into this similar position because they're the back in the husband, or um someone that they know, they're like, Yeah, no, I can help you with that, and then it turns into this you know big career, or just generally people falling into the security industry. No, I was just asking for a job, and it just happened to be in the security industry. But you started as a dental nurse, like completely different.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Absolutely, so yeah, I but back my main background is dental nursing. Um, so yeah, lots of rules and regulations and policy, and I absolutely loved it. Um and with throughout that journey, they kind of put you on constant like training courses, refreshers, there's um enforced CPD to keep your registration and it keeps you on with your finger on the pulse. It allows you to stay ahead of the curve and what's new coming out. Now switching over into the security industry, yeah. I may well have known how to handle a customer, take their details and their nitty-gritty, but then as soon as I say, Oh, I've got a problem with my alarm, I'm like, okay, have you? Oh okay. So I've had to learn really, really quickly to figure out right, okay, how do I direct this? Is this something that is fixable remotely? Do I need to pass this on to an engineer? Um, is this something that is end user error? Which reminds the rooms that a 10 tends to be just because systems are complicated for the end user. Right. Um so yeah, there's been a major, major learning curve, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Can you take us back to though when that actually happened? So you're a dental nurse?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, so I was so yeah, and I decided I wanted to be a mum, and after lots and lots of trying, we ended up getting pregnant with our daughter and going back into dentistry just found that I just could not really align being a mum and being a dental nurse, and then Lisa's business was picking up more and more, and it was to a point where I was working part-time dental nurse, part-time security and mum and in between with a newborn. Um so we started from that point, so then it'd be a case of oh okay, um, at least this person's called, they want a quotation for this, and then you'd be like, Okay, well, they've got anything in particular to start off, and then so then I'd get questions thrown back at me. So really early days it was a case of I need to know this, that, and the other. Can you find that out for me? So there'd be lots of phone calls back or forth of the client to establish what needed to be done. So through that, I've then learned better practices, better questions for my clients at the interim to get all the information to be able to direct their enquiry to the right location. Throughout this, I thought, right, okay, so I can get training for engineers, we can get training for consultants, we can get training for managing directors. But what about reception admir? More about this assistants, exactly. These are the people who are boats on the ground, no tools, but they need to be able to deal with it with this industry. What is out there for them? So I remember coming up to TSE four years ago and speaking to a couple of the training providers. I said, right, this is where I'm at. I kind of know this and I kind of know that, but we need a bit more of this in regards to paperwork compliance. You know, what am I expected to get off the engineers at the end of an in-store? What do I need to send to my clients? What do I need to keep a record of? These are all quite pinnacle things that office and administrative staff need to know about, yet there's no framework framework or training providers for that. Um every year I've been here and every year I have asked the different training providers. Is this something now? Because obviously we are moving to more regulation, um and it's always been a case of oh no, no, nothing. And I think that's a real shame because it's such a diverse industry, and like you said, we need those fundamental staff to be able to understand the industry which they're working in and also give them a pathway to grow themselves. Because they may not never want to pick up a drill or pull cables or install a camera, but they may be really passionate about security and the risks and the method, the mitigation of the risks.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

And if you want people as well to continue their journey and their career in the security industry, then that wider knowledge and opening their eyes to it is also going to be beneficial, whether that's within the company or just within the industry. We've spoken to a couple of people about apprenticeships and um you know attracting younger talent into industry and so on. There's obviously snippets, as you say, of things that are done for it really shouldn't, wouldn't take too long for someone to glue the right pieces together. Absolutely. Because we're not talking about an apprenticeship, but there is a level of learning that is required that probably is a bit of a baseline in the most part, isn't it? Is that industry awareness? What do we mean when we even say electronic security versus frontline security because there are segments within and having the ability to understand how they all connect? Most of my background was always on the electronic side, and now working with IPSER and understanding the front line, and that although they're different segments to the industry, there is a lot of overlap, and actually having, and I've only really got it probably like yourself, just because over time, yeah, you picked up a thing or someone's told you a thing. What is that actual best practice and uh for the people in the office, as you say, not necessarily the one installing it, but the backbone of the organisation that is pulling all of that together? Yeah, you're completely right. I'm actually quite shocked that there isn't.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Yeah, that's it. It's like please, somebody reach out to me. There is, and you're doing something, honestly, because I would literally back your hands off. We, as a member of staff, joined the office team, fresh kid, out of school, 17-year-old, and just done a GCSE. Life had pretty much written her off. She did everything through COVID, so grades weren't the greatest, you know. So the only apprenticeship that I could offer her or any kind of training was admin assistant. Right. And going through that course with her, it was very clear that one the course just wasn't suitable for our industry. Um, and it was it was talking about physical filing systems. It's like we don't do physical filing, we're digital, everything is digital, everyone's digital now, you know. It's it's more secure, you know. Um but yeah, it was just very archaic and it's not what we needed, and then on top of that, we still had to teach her what is an intruser system, what is a VMS system, what is so there was still that element of that training.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

I wonder as well, I was just gonna check actually. I know that we've got um we're meeting with is it today? Yes, it is today, Kerry Harding from um Skills for Security. Have you done any work with them?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

They were actually the first company I asked about training for auxiliary staff, um, and they said no, they weren't at the moment. And the other thing with skills for security, although I think they're absolutely wonderful, and my boys have actually done some of their course. That's very engineering focused, you think? They're very English focused, so they're the funding and things like that are now open to us in Wales. Oh so there's different frameworks and skill sets, and so yeah, so there was other hurdles and barriers there as well. So we've actually got a wonderful train of riser on our doorstep, um, which is FITA, their fab, and I've got one of my boys with them at the moment, he's been with them since September, um, and he's flying. Um, very impressed with them. But again, I was talking to Nikki from Fitter about the similar kind of situation that we were having in regards to staff. Yes, and she said, I'd got it myself. She said, because obviously they like us need to know security, but they also need to know training. So there's this they're also seeing it.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

They there's the training, and then there's also some of the things that keep coming up when we talk about attracting new talent into the industry, is that actually the industry itself needs a marketing campaign. Without doubt. But obviously, I'm now thinking, yeah, it does, but actually what you're talking about probably needs to be put in place either before or at the same time as well, because it's all very well saying, yeah, you should come in, and these are the reasons to come in. It would be great to go. By the way, when you do, there's a course that you can go on to really help you to understand actually fully what the industry uh does and how you could come in on those particular legs. Because yes, there are specifics around becoming an engineer or doing a but it's not covering, and I think probably when I think about the not just women but diverse talent, young talent, it it we're probably missing a trick actually, because without that level of information, you are wholly reliant on the employer to just as you're doing, we'll just find your own way and and that's it, and you've got a train in-house, and then that takes away so much time, then obviously for myself.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

My my time out to get redirected to train up this person who's supposed to be taking workloads off me, but at the interim, your workload's actually doubling. So it there needs to be a better balance there, I think.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

I mean you heard it here first, everybody. So uh if you think you're doing it, we don't know about it, let us know. Uh if you want to do it, Neris would happily contribute to board it. Absolutely, 100%. You're you're 100% on to a really great opportunity there, not just for attracting in the new talent, but like say maybe people within industry to really help. I I mean I'd probably quite like to do it myself because like yourself, I've just kind of you know, yeah, fake it till you make it, and then eventually, yeah, you just kind of learn. Like, oh okay, I'm actually doing alright, but yeah, I'm constantly. Yeah, and you build credibility on the job, but actually I could have gotten there a lot quicker if I had if I had that support.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, exactly. I remember going through for our SSAIV accreditation and the amount of paperwork and legislation, it was all completely new to me. I didn't have a clue. Um okay, yeah, I did it in the end, but it would have been nice had there been subs. Okay, if you're gonna be a certain like how you're thinking of going, you should be really best practice, these levels. This is your paperwork you need to be doing. Um, this is what you should be expecting. So then when you go for your accreditation, you've already got it in place and you should be sailing.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

But this isn't funny, it's like the simplest things, they make sense. Like, so why isn't it happening? It needs to happen. It needs to happen. Thank you so much for spotlighting this. Um, I personally as well would love to help with the mission. So I'm sure after this, there's probably some others that we could reach out to, and on the back of this podcast, going out, we'll put some into actions and shout out to industry to say, look, if you're doing it, great, let us know, but probably not. So who wants to? Um and then, yeah, maybe we can have a follow-up conversation to see how we get it progressing, and hopefully by this time, um I don't know, before Christmas, it'd be great to know there's a plan in place and that some action can happen because it really is a simple ask. Yes, it just needs the right people to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Exactly, because without operational reorganisation, everything else is going to fall apart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Won't be the last time you see this lady. Um, thank you for coming into our industry. Sorry to the dental nursing industry. You're loss our gain. Um thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very much for having me. All right.