Health and Safety Officer at Great British Communications Ltd., Jessica Collings, has been named SHP’s Rising Star in Construction for 2021.
Jessica Collings, H&S Officer, Great British Communications
SHP Rising Star Awards celebrate young, high-performing health and safety professionals. Some of the brightest, most passionate young stars of the profession.
Jessica Collings, was selected as the winner of SHP’s Rising Star in Construction from a list of eight finalists, by the SHP Awards judging panel.
Rising Star in Construction recognises individuals, aged under 30 and from the UK, in the construction sector going above and beyond to improve occupational health, safety and/or workplace wellbeing.
SHP Rising Star is brought to you as part of the wider SHP Awards, which, for 2021, is in collaboration with the Shirley Parsons, global HSEQ talent experts.
Describing why Jessica should win this award, one judge said: “Jessica is the epitome of a shining exemplar of a rising star in the profession: a promotion, a masters degree, a mentor, innovative, truly supportive over and beyond to keep people safe, and a measured, defined impact on EHS performance. A joy to read that the UK OSH profession can attract talent such as this.”
Another said that Jessica’s submission showed “dedication to self development, learning, attitudes, breaking down barriers and challenging stereotypes.”
On hearing of her success, Jessica told SHP: “I am shocked to have won this award, but extremely proud to have come out on top. Being relatively new to the industry and after a tough year for everybody, it’s nice to get the recognition from other industry professionals and shows that hard work pays off!”
Throughout the COVID pandemic and national lockdowns, the telecommunications sector has been essential to maintaining communication to key services such as the NHS, Police and Fire brigade. Jessica has been at the forefront of supporting all of these vital services by maintaining regular teams meetings, calls and providing updates to all of staff, engineers and subcontractors nationwide. Jessica would regularly engage with companies to provide health and safety updates and set up calls, out of hours, to ensure everyone returned home safe at the end of the working day.
Judges were particularly impressed with Jessica’s ‘quick progression’ during her career so far, indicating a visible hunger to challenge something continuously, and improve positive approach to health and safety. In the space of eight months, Jessica has gone from a H&S Coordinator to a lead Health and Safety Officer, after completing her master’s degree in occupational health and safety.
Her mentoring also stood out to the panel. Jessica has helped mentor three health and safety coordinators, providing support and guidance. During the pandemic, she provided updates to all staff, sub-contractors and the general public as legislation and guidance was updated. She regularly delivers CDM 2015 training and helps the HSE team to understand and deliver gold standard RAMS and CPHSP’s.
As a young health and safety professional working within the male-dominated construction industry, Jessica has broken down the stereotype by being knowledgeable, passionate and gaining respect from engineers, colleagues and her peers by going the extra mile to provide support.
Great British Communications Ltd has a huge nationwide supply chain and with this comes the demands of maintaining the health and safety standards for all of our suppliers. Jessica has designed and implemented the new GBC Qualified Person’s Presentation (QPL) which was designed to be delivered to suppliers virtually. Jessica organised calls with all of the GBC supply chain to arrange delivery of the QPL presentation, and set up a database to record which companies had completed the QPL process. To date, over 800 operatives have attended the QPL presentation from over 100 companies. GBC has, so far this year, had an 8% improvement from external inspections KPI database, which can be largely be accredited to Jessica’s QPL process and drive to enable it to succeed.
