Hearts And Minds Programme Hits The Mark
29 April 2009
A company which embarked upon a 'hearts and minds' health and safety awareness programme in December (2008), has seen a huge statistical improvement in its health and safety reporting in the first three months of 2009.
Xmo Strata is the UK's leading independent sign installation and maintenance company and has carved out an enviable reputation for adherence to strong health and safety procedures - in an industry in which health and safety adherence and training is poor.
The firm has crews across the UK working on large signage projects on retail stores, financial services providers, malls and shopping centres, and fuel forecourts.
It holds a health and safety day every year and invites senior customer-side health and safety executives - as well as all its own crews. The day involves practical sessions, group work, seminars and discussions, as well as video and humour provided by professional comedians (the latter being regarded as an essential means of maintaining attention and involvement).
The hearts and minds programme was introduced at the December 2008 health and safety day and has seen reporting improve by significant margins. Near miss reporting increased by 176% in the first quarter of 2009, with 58 near-misses being reported compared to 21 in the same period last year.
Managing Director Steve Martin, the author of a no-holds-barred expose book on health and safety in the sign industry, said all companies experience health and safety problems in the field - but few are honest about them, and many do not encourage accurate reporting.
He stresses that his company has “no problem baring its soul” on this subject in the hope that its experiences can help prevent accidents across the board.
“The only way to address the root cause of accidents is to identify what causes them and implement appropriate control measures,” he said.
“These increases were impressive and there were no ‘cheap hits‘ - such as use of mobile phones on a forecourt. They all represented real reportable incidents, some involving our own crews and some involving other people.
“Reported incidents included electrical faults, members of the public filling jerry cans with illegal quantities of fuel, missing drain covers on sites, inappropriate fire muster points and a wide range of other issues.
“As a result of this diligent reporting by the crews we've been able to address all these issues with our customers and remove potential sources of injury, or in some cases, death, as well as liabilities and vulnerability to criminal and civil proceedings.”
The company stresses that its dedication to health and safety pre-dates this campaign and will continue in perpetuity, but it regards the initiative as having been extremely successful in generating demonstrably higher levels of awareness amongst its employees.
