Powershield is an industry leader in the design, manufacture and installation of steel doors and steel glazing systems for customers in the commercial, industrial and public sector. It employs around 90 staff, most of whom work at its main site in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

The company is currently experiencing rapid growth and has been involved in some major projects, including the Emirates Stadium, the O2 Millennium Dome, Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, and the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters in Edinburgh. Other customers include Fortune 100-listed pharmaceutical companies, prison services and even palaces in the United Arab Emirates.

The company has recently won a Queens’ Award for Enterprise for its efforts in the area of international trade, as well as a Lisburn City Business Award. It has become known for its innovative approach, which was recently illustrated by offerings in the field of Fire-Rated Sliding Doors and Powder Coated products. 

As part of a three-year Invest Northern Ireland-funded initiative, Suzanne Waddell joined the company in August 2006, and is now employed in a permanent position as Business Improvement Manager. The scheme provides a Business Improvement Agent (BIA) as a dedicated in-company resource, whose role is to promote an ethos of continuous improvement within the business. The use of a BIA is especially relevant to businesses that need a dedicated management resource to help them compete in global markets, improve the performance of their people and processes, and increase competitiveness by delivering measurable performance improvements.

Suzanne is responsible for delivering a strategy aimed at staff development, and uses BPIR.com as a resource to support that delivery. At the outset of the project, she searched the site to identify recognised measures that could be used to assess the current situation within the company. These measures will be used again to establish the level of progress that has been made as the project proceeds.

Having identified areas for inclusion in the proposed strategy, Suzanne now uses BPIR.com’s Management Briefs to gather information and inform herself about various topic areas such as Leadership Development, Staff Motivation, Succession Planning and Performance Management.

Suzanne said, “BPIR.com has the advantage of not only providing a body of knowledge, which brings with it a certain confidence when presenting to senior management, but also saves a considerable amount of research time, which would have been required had the information not already been consolidated within the web site.”