Might as well be self employed - Technical Service & Repair Engineer HomeServe Employee Review

Thanks for taking the time to post a review, I’m glad to read that you had a good relationship with your manager and you were able to rely on them. You’ve raised a lot of points that I’ll try to address in this response. Firstly, a lot of time went into developing both job schedules and the amount of time attributed to a job, to ensure they are right for our Customers and our People, including the provision to collect parts. They’ve been developed by People who have done the job and who currently do the job. There will always be jobs that go over as the times are averages, so the rough will hopefully come with the smooth as well! Did you mention this to your line manager? As the feedback is always welcome. As you’ll know having worked here for longer than a year, Customers come first, we’re a 24/7 business, and, as they should, our Customers expect to be able to count on us when they need us most, no matter what time. Our shift patterns have been devised to ensure fairness across the business, I’m sorry you’re unhappy with them, but most engineers understand the need. We have just agreed the latest rosters with the employee representatives which mean that for the first time everyone across our gas operation is taking the same share of the burden of evening and weekend work, which has never been the case in the past. Overtime is readily available to Engineers; the nature of the role means that unfortunately the job (which you get paid to complete) isn’t always going to mean you finish on time, and I would hope you can appreciate that the times you go over by 30 minutes will likely be balanced by the times you go under. We’ll keep this under review. Statutory sick pay is in line with government recommendations, and is the same across the board for every employee at HomeServe, from the Exec to the Frontline. We have a fantastic Occupational Health and Wellbeing team that can offer support, and help prevent People from regularly taking short periods of absence due to sickness. Yes, from time to time you need to pick up the phone and call to speak to someone, if you feel this process could have been simplified then the feedback would have been useful. I’m really pleased that despite all the big changes in our gas operation the majority our gas engineers surveyed last month think this is a great place to work. When you look at the new van stocks, improved vehicles and other things in the pipeline, I expect to see continued improvement in the next survey. I’m sorry that you don’t share that view and wish you all the best for the future. If you do want to have a discussion about the points you’ve raised, please get in touch. Martin.