Jump forward 17 years, Encon construction employs 44 direct staff, greatly expanded skill set, invested in plant/vehicles and company premises and has increased turnover to Circa £20million per annum, across both the civil engineering & building sectors.

We believe Encon has achieved this through our commitment to and investment in our people. Encon’s Core Values that run throughout all levels of our business and supply chain are: Quality, Integrity, Collaboration & Relationships.

We believe in leading by example, and commitment is driven and modelled by senior management.

Our senior leadership team have developed a customer focused business strategy that is inclusive of People, Innovation, Agility and Engagement, gaining regular feedback both internally and externally that drives continuous improvement. They ensure that Encon are visible and engaged and contributing to industry development across the region, sitting on boards such as CECA Wales, The Glamorgan Construction Training Group (GCTG), The Working Well Together group, Cardiff and Vale College Employers Board and Women in Property.

We are a Living Wage Employer, and have 4 Fairness, Inclusion and Respect Ambassadors, 6 Active Construction Ambassadors and 3 Mental Health First Aiders.

We are committed to creating an environment that emotes trust and builds loyalty amongst our employees which is demonstrated in our high staff retention rates. We maintain a business training plan and invest in regular training for our staff and subcontractors. We maximise our ability to develop our staff by applying for the CITB Skills and Training funding on an annual basis. This allows us to further expand opportunities including Plant Training, upskilling our managers with NVQ level 6 and progressing our apprentices onto Encon funded degree courses.

Encon were the first SME in Wales to successfully receive a CITB Commission to deliver a 2.5year Career Changers Women into Construction (CCWIC) project, addressing the Skills Gaps in trade roles by recruiting and training Female career changers whilst also addressing barriers to diversity and workplace culture. This included ensuring our career changers were paid a Living Wage whilst training and upskilling over 80 women in industry as mentors.

As a result of our approach we have successfully achieved various awards including LABC Gold Building Award 2017, CEW Project of the year 2017, Cardiff Business Awards – Construction Business of the Year 2018. Our apprentices have also been recognised for their high standards and achievements with our Civil Engineering and Quantity Surveying apprentices winning various awards from CECA, CITB, FMB & Y Prentis. Recently our Female Plant Apprentice was shortlisted for CECA Wales Most promising Trade apprentice and CCWIC project has been shortlisted for Construction News Award for Diversity and Inclusion.

Key achievements

• Continued Growth, Secure Financial Stability, Responding to Changing Markets and Successfully Diversifying to provide Secure Employment for our Employees in Wales.
• Leading the way in Wales to change the culture, promote diversity and inclusion, whilst increasing the number of women entering and staying within the industry through our Career Changers – Women in Construction Project.
• Investing in a new generation of employees & Giving Back to the Industry by supporting a wide range of industry organisations.