Health & Safety and Training in an Economic Crisis.
John Woodward FIDE, MaPS, FISMM, MIConstM, MIQ,
The Implications of not understanding your needs.
You will be unable to identify where your
weaknesses are and what you need to do to
eliminate those weaknesses.
You will be more at risk of working in a dangerous
manner and liable to enforcement action.
You will be less competitive in a market place where
clients can pick and choose.
Why these are not times to take risks.
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When the upturn comes your competitors will be more
ready to take advantage of situations than you will.
A well trained workforce will be more prepared for an
upturn in work.
Companies who fail to maintain training levels will find it
increasing difficult to win contracts, particularly for
government work.
A quality service with a fully trained workforce will lead to
repeat business from satisfied clients.
Why these are not times to take risks.
• A competent workforce is a more efficient workforce
that will increase bottom line profits on your
contracts.
• A lower accident rate is one of the Key Performance
Indices used by major blue chip clients when
evaluating tender submissions.
Remaining competitive in an increasing
tough market place without cutting
corners.
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Ensure that the mandatory training requirements
are kept up to date, such as:Manual Handling.
First Aid.
Working at Height.
Asbestos Awareness.
Demolition Safety Awareness.
• Use smaller cheaper training courses to give “bite
size” foundation training that can be built on when
work increases.
• Ensure that training is for the whole company and
not just the workforce. Too many companies forget
that the Directors have a legal obligation to continue
with training and to follow Continuous Personal
Development and maintain their knowledge of H&S
issues.
• Tailor make training to meet the needs of the
individual workers as some respond better to
training than others and consider “hands on” rather
than classroom based training.
• Try to ensure that the workforce are able to deal
with all tasks that require trained staff by spreading
those specialist skills around the workforce rather
than trying to train everyone to the highest level.
• Increase the level of individual training as work
increases and profits return.
• Use a well thought out training scheme and adjust it
to your needs.
• In the UK we have the NFDC/NDTG Demolition
Training Scheme that works well for the industry so
why not adapt that scheme and make it work in
other EU countries.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel just make it work the way
you want it to!
Case Studies.
Major Fire leading to increased insurance premiums.
A contractor failed to train his workers on the need
for hot works permits and in the implementation of a
fire risk assessment. Whilst cutting a section of pipe
on a demolition contract they caused a fire in the
building next door which spread to 2 further
buildings and caused £3 million damage.
Their insurance premium next year increased by
250%.
Train people to understand risk perception.
• Some people do not see a risk even when that risk
is obvious to everyone else.
What is wrong here?
• We all can see that the driver is at risk but how did
they ever think they could demolish a tower of that
size with such a small machine?
• Get a bigger machine or blow it down!
Environmental Issues.
• An untrained worker refilled a machine without a
spill kit near by and the spill could not be contained
before it ran into a local stream.
Thousands of fish killed!
• Major environmental disaster.
• Major fine.
• Major damage to the reputation of the company.
All because of one untrained worker!
Untrained Workers are more dangerous.
• A collapsed building in China that caused £4 million
damage and killed workers because untrained staff
overloaded the floors.
The machine was 1 of 6 written off by the collapse.
REMEMBER
• Trained, competent workers are valuable to you.
• Look after them so that they stay with you.
• They are the first line of contact with your clients so
they need to create the right impression.
• Train them so they can talk from a position of
strength and understanding of their role in the
company and in the workplace.
• Their own confidence in their ability will give your
client confidence in your ability.
What will it all cost?
• Every Euro spent on training is a Euro well
invested. As banks offer little return on savings at
the moment invest the money in your workers and
they will repay you a hundred times over.
• A trained worker is a safe worker!
Any Questions?
• Thank you for Listening.
• Enjoy the rest of the day and the Awards this
evening.
www.demolishdismantle.com