In 2012, when Stiltz was just starting out in a little business unit in Wokingham, Berkshire, we took on our first member of staff, 20-year-old Jack Davies. Fresh out of college, he joined the two co-founders, Lachlan Faulkner and Cameron Gillespie, to train as a lift installer. Fast forward to now, and Jack’s heading up his own Technical Support Team and celebrating ten years of uninterrupted service with Stiltz. We caught up with Jack to chat about his time with us – from start-up to global business.
Jack’s first day at work didn’t have the best start, though. Jack explains, “My first ever homelift installation was in Scotland, so I had to arrive at work at around 3am. It was my job to load up the rickety old pick-up truck with a lift wrapped in a tarpaulin. Because the truck kept overheating, we had to keep stopping to re-fill the radiator on the way up”. In the intervening years, Stiltz has grown into a large multi-site company, and Jack has been there growing his career alongside.
Jack started off working closely with Cameron, one of the two founding directors. Jack smiles as he remembers, “I can’t begin to describe how much I picked up from Cam, it was really hands-on learning at its best”.
As the company grew so, Jack progressed with it. After a few years, he was promoted to Lead Installer, helping to train the expanding number of installation recruits joining Stiltz. Jack’s most recent promotion is into the Technical Support Team, where he is one of the specialists who help with field-based and remote troubleshooting.
Mike Lord, Stiltz Chairman and CEO, presented Jack with his long-service award and took a moment to reflect on what it means to us as a business to have such a longstanding member of staff: “It’s important for any business to have a core of established employees, and the only other person with a longer service record than Jack is co-founder Lachlan. So, for Jack to have reached this outstanding milestone when in the first couple of years there were only two members of staff is worth celebrating. It’s not just that Jack has been here for this length of time; it is also the progress he’s made during his ten years with Stiltz. He started when he was young and inexperienced, built up his knowledge and skill base and progressed into a full-on tech support role. And that’s important for us. With our rapid expansion, we need more people like Jack coming up through the ranks.
Finally, we asked Jack what his advice would be to anyone thinking of applying for a role at Stiltz?
“You get well looked after, so if you have the necessary skills and attitude, I would definitely say go for it! My length of time with Stiltz is an obvious testament to how well the company treats its staff, and hopefully, as the business continues to grow, we will all grow with it.”