Health and Safety
The management of health and safety is considered to be a top level commitment fundamental to the company’s operation. The director responsible for health and safety policy is the managing director.
Our policy arrangements are supported by a management system certified to OHSAS 18001 and aims to protect all employees and anyone else that may be affected by our activities.
Training on health and safety is provided for management and employees to a syllabus in line with that approved by the Construction Industry Training Board and other national training organizations to which the company subscribes.
A dedicated team of health and safety specialists provide support and advice to management and workforce on maintaining the highest level of health and safety standards and have the full support of the directors.
Performance against specific health and safety objectives and targets is reported annually and includes statistical data on incidents and other key performance indicator criteria. It is the company’s aim to maintain these statistics well below the national industry average.
RIGHT FROM THE START CAMPAIGN
Despite improvements in our accident statistics over recent years, we recognised to maintain the downward trend we needed to achieve a major shift in attitudes and behaviour, rather than go on developing more procedures and systems.
Our Right From The Start (RFTS) behavioural safety campaign addresses both attitudes and some of the specific issues that we know contribute to accidents. To launch the scheme we engaged a company that specializes in innovative training using actors and role play. We developed a workshop using specific, realistic work situations to explore why accidents occur.
The workshops explained the scenarios from different perspectives and our RFTS concept. Over a two month period over 900 employees attended the half day workshops. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and there was an immediate effect on site safety standards.
For the specific issues identified, we developed posters, briefings, toolbox talks and workshops.
These are:
- Attitudes and Culture - the right approach
- Communication - the right words
- Training - the right knowledge
- Personal Protective Equipment - the right gear
- Planning - the right formula
- Plant and Tools - the right equipment
RFTS is not just another initiative but is a major change in our approach. It is born out of recognition that despite procedures, training and systems, we must engage and empower all employees to act on every opportunity to improve health and safety.
The number of reportable injuries to employees and subcontractors (RIDDOR) has reduced significantly since the launch of RFTS. In 2008 we will be able to fully assess the impact our campaign has had one year on, and we will be continuing the campaign with new topics and more behaviour-based training workshops to further reduce injuries in the workplace.