A new site manager has won a coveted industry accolade just a year into the job, aged just 26.
Ben Taylor, from Sutton Coldfield, was appointed site manager at Bellway West Midlands’ Green Oaks development in Hednesford last year.
This time spent learning the job has now paid off, with Ben – who started as an apprentice carpenter after leaving school – being named as a winner of the National House Building Council’s Pride in the Job Quality Award.
He is one of just 444 site managers chosen from around 8,000 across the UK to be recognised in the competition.
Ben said: “Hopefully this will be the first of many awards I can win as I lead the site team here at Green Oaks. Sheer hard work, long hours and persistence has led me to achieve this award. It’s been the highlight of my career so far.”
Focusing on the needs of customers has been a key part of Ben’s success at Green Oaks, where around 60 per cent of the 74 homes have now been built.
“I think one of the best parts of the job is getting good feedback from the customers through survey feedback,” Ben said. “We want customers to benefit from the quality of houses we build so it’s always important to have their needs in mind, even when we’ve just started building and houses haven’t gone on sale yet.
“Green Oaks was one of the first Bellway sites to roll out Google Nest products and customers love this technology in their home. Many mention how it is user-friendly and easy-to-use in their survey feedback.
“It’s been an absolute privilege to lead the team here at Green Oaks and deliver state-of-the-art and progressive homes. This Quality Award motivates me even more to complete the development to the best of my ability while continuously improving my skillset as a site manager.”
Ben also hopes his early career success might inspire others to follow his path into the construction industry, where he says he benefitted enormously from learning from others on site.
He said: “I worked for Bellway in assistant roles for four years so I have got to shadow other site managers leading various trade teams and got to know my colleagues. I grew in this role and that helped me to carve my own path and make the site manager role my own.
“I now manage 60 to 70 people on site. I’d had experience leading teams before so this aspect of the job didn’t overwhelm me – I just ran with it. I’m fortunate enough to work with an amazing team.
“I hope to inspire those at school or college who are considering a career in construction that you can achieve so much in such a short space of time and progress really quickly. You don’t necessarily have to be in construction for over 10 years to win accolades.”
Ben is one of four Bellway West Midlands site managers to win Quality Awards this year. The others are Lee Aston, from Cecilly Mills in Cheadle, Paul Edwards, from The Spinney in Shrewsbury, and Jamie Smith, from Hatton Court in Hatton, Derbyshire.
To find out more about the new homes being built by Bellway West Midlands’ award-winning site managers, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/west-midlands, while for more information about careers with Bellway, visit https://www.bellwaycareers.co.uk/.
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