Health and Safety Award National Winner (L-R) Stuart Rootham from category partner, R K Harrison Insurance Services with Mabey Bridge Limited She Officers, Nick Clewer, Debby Symonds and Shaun Oldfield
Mabey Bridge was crowned the national winner in the health and safety category at the prestigious EEF Future Manufacturing Awards 2014 last night.
Held at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London, Mabey Bridge’s saw off tough opposition with its innovative health and safety strategy to claim the top prize.
The Chepstow-based company had implemented a belief-based safety culture in 2011 with the aim of changing the way employees thought about safety.
The programme’s seven beliefs were developed following a management awareness session, which had been led by an external behavioural safety consultant and followed the key theme that everyone in the business should make correct decisions about health and safety.
Mabey Bridge then put in place a roadmap to agree actions upfront and to make sure these were delivered. Launched as a two-hour engagement session that was attended by all employees, participants were provided with an awareness booklet that summarised the programme.
Having delivered all of the first roadmap actions in 24 months, the company saw the accident frequency rate halved in the first year of the programme and reduced further during each consecutive year.
Mabey Bridge is building on this success with a second roadmap of actions, with the aim of achieving a zero accident frequency rate. The second phase is currently 50 per cent completed.
Judges were impressed with the entry and said that the company had created a dynamic culture and an independent environment.
Health and Safety Award National Winner Stuart Rootham from category partner R K Harrison Insurance Services and Louisa Mead, SES Officer from Mars UK Ltd
“Their consultative approach secured employee buy-in and delivered sustainable change,” judges commented.
“The results have been hugely impactful, with a demonstrable, ongoing commitment to an improved health and safety culture.”
The judges were impressed with the quality of all of the regional winners and explained that very little separated the winner, the runner up, Mars Chocolate UK Ltd and the three other regional winners.
Mars Chocolate UK Ltd was praised for its imaginative approach to reducing manual handling accidents.
For more information on the awards, visit: www.eef.org.uk/awards
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