The popularity of the workshop demonstrates that in times of economic downturn health & safety professionals need all the influencing and persuasive skills they can muster as leaders look for ways to make cuts and maintain profitability. Financial pressure exposes the underlying attitude that organisations take to health and safety. At one end of the continuum are those organisations that treat health & safety as a cost to the business. For them, health & safety presents an opportunity for cost cutting when times are hard.
At the other end, are those that consider health & safety as a core value of the organisation. Such organisations see their commitment to continuous improvement in health & safety as a way of differentiating themselves from the competition, and building the business. For them, during an economic downturn, what becomes important is how they communicate this commitment to potential clients. The onshore wind energy sector offers a particular challenge to producers and contractors with regards to health and safety. The construction phase of a wind farm is where most of the recorded incidents occur. It is a complex process in which the various contractors working alongside one another often have different safety cultures and, in an increasingly pan-European context, different languages and working habits.
The ISO 9000 family of standards relating to quality management systems represents the entry level for organisations competing for tenders in this sector. But, as everyone knows, the gap between what these standards claim is happening on the ground and what is actually going on can be considerable. Furthermore, over the lifetime of a contract, standards can fall.
Under this premise, any contractor in the wind sector who can demonstrate their commitment to continuous improvement in health and safety, beyond ISO 9000, has a competitive advantage. Forward-thinking organisations understand this challenge and are taking action.
For the employer organisation overseeing the construction process, the challenge is to establish and maintain a standardized, effective safety culture. Forward-thinking organisations recognise that this can only be achieved if contractors can a) agree at the outset on how they will run a safe site and b) develop an effective communication strategy to bring that about.
In this series of articles we will examine the challenges from both the contractor and employer perspective and show what they are doing to overcome these challenges. In particular, we will look at how forward thinking contractors in the wind energy sector are committing to continuous improvement in H&S, how they can demonstrate that commitment to their clients, and how this process can deliver competitive advantage.
The articles will be supported by commentary from Chris Black, Head of Health, Safety and Quality at ScottishPower Renewables and former chair of the RenewableUK Health & Safety Lessons Learnt scheme, and David MacDonald, Civil Engineering Director of Global Construction.
We will include a case study looking at how the challenges identified are being met using an innovative approach to health and safety improvement based on action learning and group coaching strategies.
Dr Esther Walker is a social scientist, facilitator and gestalt therapist. She specialises in the influence of work culture on the way individuals think and behave and the interventions which support safe and healthy work practices.
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