Smart Platforms, the UK-based aerial platform rental company, has implemented a new hiring strategy to attract young workforce: it encourages employees to bring their grown-up children into the company.

How has it done it?

“It was a natural progression”, Joanne Rogers, managing director of Smart Platforms, tells IRN, “Andy is one of the owners…and his son, Jordan, joined us. He still works here. He did lots of different things and knows every element of the business.

“Since then, when a vacancy becomes available, we advertise everything internally first. We give people the opportunity for progression; if they know somebody, they can recommend them.”

Rogers says this was how the company started encouraging employees to refer new vacancies to their children and relatives.

“Len Wright, our Key Account Manager, and his son Sam Wright, a senior CAP [Competent Assessed Person] engineer, are now here together. They are not direct reports,” she says.

“Not everybody wants to follow the exact footsteps of their parents. My son works here. He’s an engineer as well. So again, I don’t have anything to do with him. He’s managed by the depot manager.”

She says having employees and their children work in different departments is not a company policy, but “it just worked out that way.”

She adds that one benefit of this is that it helps make sure everybody is treated fairly; “When you know somebody that works here and they’re a family, you could quite easily say ‘Come on, son, stay late and fix that truck’, or put pressure on people.”

Rogers says the company will also promote or lay-off employees on the same ‘merit’ basis; fortunately, it has not encountered scenarios of downsizing or closing a depot.

Currently, 9.3% of Smart Platforms’ staff members are second-generation employees. They work in different roles, including marketing manager, senior engineer, CAP engineer, chassis engineer, hire desk manager, finance trainee and IPAF operator.

Advantages

Rogers’ own 19-year-old daughter, Stevie Blake, also works for Smart Platform in an accounting apprenticeship program.

“While I was through my A-levels, I was looking for anything to do with accounting”, Blake tells IRN, “I was looking for quite a few, but then this role became available. The company is great because I worked part-time with them before. So, I thought I might as well continue with this company.”

One of Smart Platforms’ Klubb hybrid van mounts. (Photo: Smart Platforms)

“I think it’s quite easy for people to forget that Jo [Joanne] is my mum, and most people don’t know that she is,” she says.

“At the Birmingham depot, at least two other children of people are already working there. So the transition was just really smooth.”

She says it’s easier for her to understand the company’s operations, culture, and people as she can ask her mother about them. She can also sometimes drive to the office with her mother.

“Being so young, starting work is so nerve-wracking”, says Blake, “I was a little bit more comfortable knowing that I was going to know someone who was going to be there. So if anything happened, then I knew where to go.”

Not always easy

With almost 10% of the workforce being younger relatives of employees, the policy has clearly been a success. However, it is not without its complications, or critics.

For example, Sam Wright, 31, an engineer at Smart Platforms, tells IRN it can be “difficult” when working with his father in the same company.

“I worked with my dad when I was at Nationwide [Platforms], but we never really had much to do with each other. He was a sales manager, and I was an engineer,” Wright says.

“When I started at Smart Platforms, he was the depot manager, and I had to directly deal with him. It can be awkward, especially when your parent is the manager, you feel like people are saying: ‘he is getting this position because of his dad’.”

He says his current position is good for him as Smart Platforms is giving him good opportunities.

Another employee who is a little sceptical about the policy is Martin Zamora, an engineer who has worked for Smart Platforms for 23 years and is the company’s longest-serving employee.

He tells IRN that he believes in keeping family and business separate; “If an employee’s son or daughter has a problem, you are not dealing with one person but two”, he says, “Every single one of us suffers from unconscious bias. It’s like a sword, and it cuts both ways.”

It says something about the positive culture at the company that Zamora is happy to express this view in the presence of managing director Joanne Rogers.

She acknowledges that some people can have concerns about whether there is any bias when the company is hiring employees’ family members. She says the company has conversations with both sides—the current employee and the family member—to ensure that new employees understands that they have been recruited on their own merits, and they will be treated that way while working with the company.

Zamora says he would not treat senior managers’ children differently if they were his subordinates; “I will treat them the same as the next person. If their parents come and say, ‘Why did you talk like that to my son?’ I will say, ‘Inside these four walls, he is not your son. He is my subordinate.’ Those are the tough rules.”

Martin Zamora, an engineer at Smart Platforms, thinks it’s better to keep family and business separate. (Photo: KHL)

Nine-day fortnight

There are other elements to Smart Platforms’ recruitment and retention strategy, including a flexible approach to the working week.

It introduced an optional ‘nine-day fortnight’ scheme for employees looking for work-life balance.

In 2024, the company’s staff could choose between a pay rise and the nine-day scheme. If they chose the latter, they would have an extra day off each month in 2025 and work nine days every two weeks in 2026 (or 26 days off in 2026). The company internally uses the slogan ‘26 for 26’.

Depot manager Rob Arnold, 49, joined the scheme; “The time option was more valuable to me than the financial one”, he tells IRN.

“We work quite long hours, so having that bit of respite every other week makes a big difference. You can plan more for things you can’t usually do with the time we start and finish.”

“An extra day away helps invigorate you a bit and keep you at a slightly higher level than you would do.” On his extra rest day, he usually turns his phone off, rests, goes to the cinema and reads.

Currently, 29% of Smart Platforms’ employees have chosen the nine-day fortnight scheme.

What is the result?

An annual survey showed that 85% of employees said they were proud to be part of the company.

About 17% of its employees have worked for the company for over 10 years, while 45% have more than five years of service. 

Zamora admits that he had looked for other opportunities over the past 23 years but chose to stay with Smart Platforms as the company gave him a lot of autonomy in operations.

Meanwhile, depot manager Arnold, who has worked with Smart Platforms on and off for 12 years, says he likes the company because its management listens to him, making him feel that he has input on how the business works.

Smart Platforms’ approach to recruitment and employee retention highlights the evolving nature of workplace dynamics in the rental industry.

By fostering a culture that values both experience and fresh talent, the company is not only addressing hiring challenges but also strengthening its workforce for the future. Its recruitment strategy ultimately reflects a commitment to adaptability, fairness, and a long-term view.