Our safety culture is embedded through Challenging Beliefs, Affecting Behaviour, a programme based on awareness, training, coaching and visible leadership, which has formed the backbone of our approach since its inception in 2012. We have gradually evolved the programme over the years and, in 2022, we appointed a new leader for our CBAB programme to reinvigorate our efforts to tackle accident behaviour in the short, medium and long term. These efforts will integrate wider elements of the business’ strategy such as wellbeing and quality, that can influence behaviour, into the programme. This recognises the fact that post pandemic, there are factors at play that influence accident behaviour that are not work-related.
We maintain a focus on ‘Lead Indicators’ and our aspiration of no harm, underpinned by a culture of care. Lead Indicators allow us to be more forward-looking and proactive and span six key areas of Leadership, Communication, Competence, Culture, Contractors and Planning. The CBAB programme is a key way in which we engage with our subcontractors, who widely praise its ability to capture the importance of safety in a mindset changing way.
Our objective is to create and maintain an environment where care for our people and those who work with us is our top priority, and the belief that all accidents are preventable prevails. Our focus on wellbeing remains high and has never been more important than during the pandemic.
The overall responsibility for health and safety lies with our Executive Board. Health and safety is the top agenda item for all management meetings and monthly reporting at business unit and divisional Board meetings enable statistics and trends to be identified and, where needed, addressed.
Business unit management is responsible for the implementation of our Health and Safety Policy which provides a framework to effectively manage all aspects of health, safety and wellbeing, and ensuring all health and safety risks are assessed and safe systems of work are devised in line with the Galliford Try Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems. The policy determines the roles and responsibilities of the Executive Board, divisional Boards and business unit management in delivering health and safety.
It also expresses the Group’s commitment to ensuring that our people’s behaviour is consistent with an improving safety culture.
In addition, we have an Employee Wellbeing Policy, which recognises that our duty of care extends to our people’s physical and mental health.
We ensure our polices are widely communicated, through inductions for new employees, internal training sessions, site notice boards and via our intranet.
The Health, Safety & Environment Director manages a team of Health, Safety and Sustainability (HS&S) professionals and each business unit benefits from an assigned a Lead HS&S advisor. Advisors play an active role in planning, as well as visiting sites regularly to monitor adherence to our policies and procedures. Any non-compliance identified requires a corrective action plan, including the date by which it will be completed. Statistics and trends in non-compliance are reported to business unit and divisional Board meetings each month. Health and safety performance is also discussed regularly at all levels of the business, from business units to Board level. Further assurance is provided by audits against the requirements for OHSAS 18001 and 14001, the standards for Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Management.
Visible leadership through site safety tours, and an open dialogue with our site teams is a powerful way for management to promote and maintain safe behaviours on site by engaging with operatives to correct poor practice and reaffirm positive behaviour.
(RIDDORs per 100,000 hours worked)
(RIDDORs per 1,000 people)
Our commitment to health and safety extends to all people on our sites and offices and therefore the KPI calculations include our own employees, subcontractor employees and visitors.
While accident rates remain the industry standard measure of safety performance, internally, we use Lead Indicators to drive improvement in safety culture and behaviour as they enable a proactive approach to the management of health and safety. Our Lead Indicators span six areas: Leadership, Communication, Competence, Culture, Contractors and Planning, which are underpinned by our Challenging Beliefs, Affecting Behaviour programme. These indicators were reviewed at our Group HS&E Forum where senior representatives from across the Group agreed that indicators were effective, realistic and focused on the right areas. Highlights from the period include:
In 2023, there were no fatalities within our operations. We have not had any work-related fatalities, either employee or subcontractor, in the last five years.
H&S team
The Whitehouse Leicester Road Wolvey Leicestershire LE10 3JH T: 01455 222 777
