Health and Safety Is Part Of Our Culture
Here at Midland Lead, Health and Safety has always been an important part of our business and the manufacturing process. Our people are our most valuable assets and as a family-owned business, our employees are at the heart of everything to do. That’s why we want to promote a culture where our employees look out for each other.
So, it’s not surprising that our business aims have always been shining towards Health and Safety, continually trying to improve and learn. For us, keeping ourselves up to date with new developments and practices wasn’t enough, we wanted to go above and beyond to change our H&S culture.
After attending an inspiring ‘Health and Safety Leadership Excellence’ NEBOSH course, we’ve teamed up with Gateway Consultants, who will be supporting us to develop our ‘Managed’ Health & Safety culture towards Health and Safety ‘Excellence.’ We know that cultural change is difficult and a long-term commitment. This change has no quick fix, that’s why we wanted to get some assistance from leading experts.
So, what does that mean? Using the HSL’s Culture Maturity Model, we have assessed that currently, we’re operating at a ‘Managed’ level. Developing culture can take time, so whilst we will strive towards ‘Excellence’, we are looking to enhance our existing maturity level on the road leading to up to it.
Excellence for us will mean that safety is considered to be critical to the success of Midland Lead and it is a valued element of our day-to-day work. Currently, our culture is based around Health and Safety values, in the future, we would like to see this become an integral part of our company culture, with continued learning, responsibility and leadership.
Recently, we’ve had a ‘Baseline HSEQ Assessment’ and an ‘Assessment of Health and Safety Culture Maturity’ carried out, this initial visit was to ascertain where we could improve and how we’re performing as a business. This baseline assessment based on the Hudson Model has provided us with a good foundation to build upon.
In a message from Dr Shelley Stiles, Partner Director at Gateway Consultants: “it is refreshing to see that Midland Lead is dedicated to improving their Health and Safety performance, moving beyond compliance towards achieving excellence. The willingness and determination to further enhance existing arrangements are clear for everyone to see. We are looking forward to working with the whole team as improvements are made.”
The key benefits of these assessments were to:
- Identify gaps in compliance with the existing management system arrangements
- Identify opportunities to streamline and improve processes
- Increase knowledge and knowledge sharing amongst the key duty holders
- Identify good practices and processes
- Highlight next steps as part of our Strategic Improvement Plan
So how do we plan on gearing up our Health and Safety Culture drive?
- Working with Gateway, we’re identifying key areas where we can improve, successfully integrating H&S into day-to-day thinking.
- Promoting positive H&S changes in our employee’s daily operations.
- Improving daily processes carried out at Midland Lead.
Our staff already treat H&S as part of their daily culture but reinforcing positive change amongst our employees is key for us. That’s why we’re making sure to promote:
- Job rotation – this is so employees are continually engaged with their work, when people are stuck in a routine this is usually where H&S becomes lax.
- Positive discussions and attitude towards mental health helps to improve H&S attitudes and processes – https://www.midlandlead.co.uk/raising-mental-health-awareness-at-work/ –
- Continual investment in staff – part of our ongoing commitment to enabling employees to be the best they can – https://www.midlandlead.co.uk/midland-lead-continue-to-invest-in-people/
That’s just a snapshot of the positive change we’re driving towards at Midland Lead, but don’t worry we’ll keep you updated with our developments and how we’re improving company culture.
