Customer Spotlight: Laurence Speller of Speller Metcalfe

Previously a PE teacher for 15 years, Laurence Speller joined Speller Metcalfe as a document controller in January 2018. Now he’s combined his love of teaching and his passion for construction with a job as a process manager and trainer, educating staff and supporting project teams on using Fieldwire, amongst other programs. He’s even introducing university students to Fieldwire, training the next generation of construction professionals to use the software as their ‘go-to’ field management tool.

Members of Speller’s family have long been involved in construction — his uncle, Steve Speller, co-founded Speller Metcalfe 24 years ago, and two of his cousins are Speller Metcalfe directors, having been in the family business since university.

“The last couple of years have been exciting,” Speller says. “Of course, I was nervous initially – moving from education to construction – and jumping headfirst into an audit on day one, but it has been a good learning curve.

“I’ve always had a love of building and DIY, and working at Speller Metcalfe has enabled me to understand more about the technical and commercial aspects of construction,” Speller says. “I’ve adjusted by listening, paying attention, asking lots of questions, and following others’ lead. I learn something new every day.”

Part of Laurence’s training role includes developing best practice initiatives, company processes, managing Fieldwire, and the QA processes for the company.

“It has been easy to adapt to Fieldwire, it’s intuitive, and using it every day, it quickly becomes second nature. I use it across a variety of platforms including mobile, laptop, and tablet,” Laurence says.

Part of his role is to visit a variety of Speller Metcalfe projects on-site, averaging between six and ten training sessions per month.

“If there’s a big Fieldwire release with new functionality, I’ll check with the site managers and project leads if there is a training need,” Speller says. “I also train new site-based employees - anyone who is on-site should know how to use Fieldwire. “At this point, we’ve trained over 150 staff and sub-contractors,” Speller says. “I show everyone the basics and how we as a company use particular functions. Fieldwire is quite intuitive, so the training is always practical. Everyone is on a practice project as we’re going along.

“Training is adjusted based on what individuals need to know; I’ll tailor the training to suit the audience, but mainly cover plans, mark-up tools, forms, categories, how to assign tasks, and how to run reports. Sub-contractors may have follower access, so I’ll show them what they’ll see on their mobiles when they get assigned a task or receive a notification.”

Laurence has also had success using the existing resources available to Fieldwire customers.

“We send out an internal company email every month, and this features a ‘Fieldwire Focus’ section which covers one or two tutorials — a snapshot of managing tasks or exporting drawings, for instance. I tend to include the videos from the Fieldwire support site and links to the Fieldwire blog.”

Speller has advice for anyone new to construction: “I advise everyone to jump in and have a go,” he says. “Realise that you’re going to make mistakes — you have to learn how to break something before you can learn how to put it right. If I can put it right then I can help others do the same thing.”

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