Wealth & Finance International - January 2017

Wealth & Finance International 64 200 Years’ Experience in Power Generation nited Services Group operates under two core subsidiaries: United Energy Services, the non-union division, and United Technical Services, its union division. Both firms offer a wide range of services including specialty welding, specialty ma- chining, pre- and post-weld heat treatment, staff augmenta- tion (welders, machinists, pipe-fitters and project oversight), and equipment rental. Josh discusses the firm’s history of excellence and the techniques it has employed both to achieve and maintain this. “United Services Group provides our customers with over 200 years of combined experience in the power generation industry. With a concentrated focus on safety, quality, and productivity, we perform pre- and post-job reviews, utilise experience from lessons learned from past industry project situations, and make process improvements based on customer feedback in order to meet our customer’s specific needs and work specifications.” “Clients can be assured of the quality of our services as the group holds both the ASME S-Stamp and National Board R-Stamp Certificates of Authorization. Our quality assurance program meets the requirements of ASME NQA-1 and 10 CFR 50 Appendix B. We set ourselves apart from the competition by building a team of skilled employees and not just assembling a workforce. Our craftsmen are specialised in their skill sets and our supporting staff is cross trained to honour our commitment to providing our customers with service excellence.” Operating in such a competitive and ever evolving industry means that the firm needs to stay at the forefront of the latest innovations and developments, as Josh is keen to emphasise. “Our industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. We stay at the forefront in a few different ways, such as maintaining great relationships with leaders within our industry. These relationships were forged by the safety, quality and reliability of our previous work for them. They know when they are in a bind or a pinch, they can count on us to mobilise, get in and finish working without any issues. Building solid relationships built on hard work allows us to stay abreast to what is going on in our industry and know what opportunities are available to us. To continue on this, through these relationships, we get a lot of word of mouth references on other projects which allows us to continue to grow our business.” “Through this collaborative approach we are able to attract skilled staff to our firm, which is always crucial especially as there has been a global skills shortage in our industry for many years. Focusing on being the best in the industry is magnetising: it attracts the best. We look for employees who are driven and motivated to want to grow within the organisation. As a young company, we all wear many hats and having versatility within our ranks allows for advancement and growth opportu- nity. In addition, due to this increasing man power shortage safety and quality are often affected due to inexperienced workers. We provide continuous training with the highest emphasis on safety and quality. Many of our staff have worked with us and with each other for many years, so we treat everyone as family. Our mission is to provide service excellence. That mission is dependent upon everyone treating others and providing services as they would do for themselves.” Alongside human resources, technology also plays a key part in the success of United Services Group. Josh talks us through how the com- pany works to remain at the forefront of the latest developments in order to provide clients with the very best solutions possible. “Technology is a big part of our business, from our home office to our job-sites, we have multiple employees in many areas of the country at any given time. We try to streamline all aspects of our work by using technol- ogy to help aide us in completing our work with maximum efficiency. “In our head office, we use cloud based technology to help commu- nicate with all employees in real time. We have the ability to drop some- one a file they need within seconds. Our employees have everything they need at the palm of their hands on any device they own. It helps streamline all aspects of our jobs from quotes to accounting to project completion. “On the job-sites, technology is our business and knowing the inner workings of state of the art welding, machining and heat treating equipment. We have to be out in front of new technology, become experts with it and train our staff to use the technology to aide in project completion. Being an industry expert on various welding or machining technology allows us to offer more versatility to our customers.” Looking ahead, Josh is optimistic for the future as he discusses the firm’s ongoing focus on excellence. United Services Group are a full-service specialty contractor serving general contractors and utilities in the nuclear, fossil, natural gas, solar, and petrochemical industries. We caught up with CEO Josh Armstrong to learn more. U BU160030