Follow Our Journey James Spurling

Carbon60’s Associate Director of Engineering is James Spurling. James joined the business in 2011 and has held several positions since then, all of which have led him to his current role. Here he tells us more about that journey, and what it’s like to work at Carbon60.

James’ first job with the business was as a Permanent Recruitment Manager. He’s progressed through the ranks holding a  number of positions including Operations Manager and Regional Manager before being promoted to his current role

“Each role  had its own areas of  development within it and were necessary for me to be able to progress to the next role; whether it was leadership development or strategy development,” James told us. “Couple that with various training courses I’ve had over the years  I must say it’s all gelled together quite nicely. Every role has catapulted me into the next and each has enabled me to grow and establish myself as part of the senior leadership team within Carbon60.”

James explained to us that Carbon60 has put him through a range of internal management training programs over the last ten years or so. “More recently I’ve qualified as a Chartered CMI level 5 manager with Distinction but prior to that I did the internal management training program and assessment over a period of two years.” He went on to describe how Carbon60 has provided a lot of further ‘on-the-job’ training too, including  providing him with a mentor which he had for two years and helped him to develop himself as a leader. 

When thinking about some of his proudest achievements whilst at Carbon60, James shared that his biggest personal achievement was to be recognised as Manager of the Year in 2018. “It was the same year that I became Associate Director of Engineering, so the award cemented my position and validated my promotion. It was a real personal achievement for me.”

As for his team’s greatest achievement, he described how after growing the business by 40% year-on-year, they were announced Team of the Year in June 2019. He said “It really showed our peers and Carbon60’s MD, Paul Nolan, that the strategy we implemented had worked. We have a great team moral in the engineering business.”

Life at Carbon60

We asked James what it was like to work for Carbon60. He talked openly about the businesses culture of autonomy and freedom to be yourself. He added “There isn’t micromanagement - there’s freedom to be accountable for what you’re doing. We work in a trusting environment that’s conducive to the level of experience I have. I know I’m trusted to do what I say I’m going to do. I like that about working for Carbon60 and I know that’s what a lot of other people enjoy about the business too.”

In summary, James explained how he’d describe Carbon60 as a ‘family.’ “When you’ve been here as a long as a lot of us have, it creates a family feel. We have that perfect blend of being a well-established family feel company that’s sits within a larger PLC (Impellam Group) and have the  benefits that come with working for a big corporate. But as we’ve already alluded, Carbon60 is a great business with a smaller feel. For anyone looking to join Carbon60 it’s the perfect mix of an independent and corporate all in one.”