Raising the Safety Culture

HSE-Q Manager Chris Charlesworth outlines the steps taken by Heras UK in recent years to raise its safety culture.

Over the last 18 months Heras UK have worked hard to develop and implement a robust safe culture and measured its performance periodically using an employee questionnaire. In July 2020 employees felt that management were not fully engaged in making their place of work safer. When asked again in September 2021 this had significantly changed and employees felt that HSE is a critical and focused area of the business and that it was being taken more seriously by management.

The Senior Management whilst encouraged by the results and the improvements that had been made, wanted to go further and ensure that leaders in all areas of business had the necessary knowledge and skills to develop our safety culture further and so a programme of safety training was implemented. This training took the form of the IOSH Managing Safely, which is an internationally recognised certification for managers and supervisors, improves organisation wide safety awareness culture and appreciation of safety measures by active staff involvement to improve the workplace. The skills and knowledge gained by the managers and supervisors:

  • Ensures they can assess and control risks and hazards
  • Ensures they understand their own responsibilities for safety and health
  • Enables them to investigate incidents
  • Empowers them to measure their own performance
  • Allows for personal reflections on good practice

The training programme commenced with an initial session in October 2021, with sessions taking place in February and April 2022, with a total of 20 managers and supervisors from all areas of the business attending. A further session will take place later in the year to ensure all managers and supervisors have attended, gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to further develop our positive safety culture.

Heras’ commitment to safety is demonstrated by its globally recognised certifications, accreditations and memberships. To read more, click here.

It’s commitment to safety is also demonstrated in its products. An example of this is the Tangorail TR800 Play which was designed to meet the expectations of RoSPA as the ideal fence for playgrounds and schools because there is no hazard of trapping head, neck or fingers. To read more about the Tangorail TR800 Play, click here.