SPELLER METCALFE LAUNCHES HARD HITTING SAFETY CAMPAIGN AIMED AT CHANGING INDUSTRY BEHAVIOUR
Beginning today, ‘No More Excuses’ aims to set a precedent for encouraging site operatives to highlight unsafe working in a culture that often relies on site management to take the first action.
Des O’Neill, Group Managing Director at Speller Metcalfe and driver of the new initiative explained the significance of the campaign: “Speller Metcalfe has a great health and safety track record, but to stay at the forefront of construction we recognise this can always improve.
“As such in 2016 we invited the HSE to our offices to discuss how we could move forward and it became clear that as an industry, we need a cultural change at site level that encourages operatives to speak up about health and safety in order to stop issues escalating or becoming problems in the first place.”
Essentially the campaign is aiming to create an environment where speaking up becomes a positive action to prevent accidents and near misses, rather than ignoring safety issues or waiting to escalate problems with site management.
“Through ‘No More Excuses’ our first priority is to prevent unsafe opportunities escalating into problems on site using a “Stop It. Say It. Sort It.” approach,” says Des.
“However, we know that the majority of work across our sites is up there with the best, and we are encouraging operatives to use a text service to send their comments – in particular highlighting exemplar performance and ideas – that we can then share as best practice on our No More Excuses website and external communications.”
As an incentive, sub-contractors who share innovative or new ideas to improve health and safety will be promoted through e-mail campaigns to Speller Metcalfe’s clients and supply chain, with sub-contractors who regularly score in the ‘Top 20’ monthly health and safety audits awarded with Certificates of Excellence, which can be used to increase scores for future tenders with the contractor.
Visit www.nomore-excuses.co.uk