During 2009 we launched our Home Safe Every Day message, to ensure all our employees, contractors and visitors return to their families each day without injury. We have always regarded the health and safety of our employees and those working alongside them as paramount: this is a key priority at all levels of the business. Due to the large range of activities that we undertake across the Group, some of which are inherently dangerous, our health and safety record is vital to our reputation and our ability to retain and win new contacts. We seek to ensure that best practice, innovative programmes and experiences are shared across the Group in a number of ways;
- The Safety Leadership Team consisting of the Executive Committee convenes prior to each Executive Committee meeting to discuss health and safety issues.
- The Corporate Safety Steering Group, chaired by the Chief Executive meets several times per year attended by the health and safety managers or directors from each division.
- An online best practice forum has been created and is being rolled out across the Group in order to share best practice as widely as possible across the workforce.
- Cross-divisional visits by health and safety managers are made during each year.
- On-site safety walk rounds are regularly undertaken by divisional directors.
Performance is monitored, reviewed and discussed each month by the Safety Leadership Team and the Board reviews performance twice a year. As part of the ongoing drive for safety improvement, a safety cultural assessment questionnaire is being issued across the Group to employees, customers and on-site contractors. The divisional and Group-wide results from this exercise will assist in pinpointing what can be done to shape attitudes and behaviours and provide a better understanding of the current and desired culture.
Safety culture performance indicators
In the past we have not formally assessed the impact of safety culture initiatives. We have therefore created a structured mechanism to measure safety-related programmes and link them to performance. The divisions will monitor and log good practice events to meet targets that have been set based on injury/incident numbers in 2008/9. Performance will be presented in the monthly health and safety report.
During 2009/10 we will seek to reduce our accident frequency rate by 50% as we strive towards our ultimate goal of zero accidents.