Targeting a Zero Injury Workplace: VINCI Safety Week

In 2020, 40% of all work-related fatalities were in construction, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Falling from height, and collisions with plant are all common potential hazards faced by construction workers every day. Due to the inherent, high-risk nature of the work, the construction industry is held to some of the highest safety standards around. It is also the reason why maintaining a safe work environment for employees is paramount at Bachy Soletanche, as we continue to strive for a ‘Zero Injury or Harm’ culture.

In its commitment to maintaining outstanding health and safety practices, each year VINCI dedicates time to raising awareness of safety among all employees – encouraging discussion, debate, and involvement across the board to see how they can make a difference.

This year, VINCI Safety Day is today, 27^th May 2021, in line with the international Eurovia’s Safety Day and will bring together over 200,000 VINCI employees across the world.

VINCI Safety Day 2021: Core messages

• Transparency
• Visible management commitment
• Dialogue

At Bachy Soletanche, we are running safety-themed activities throughout this week, discussing how VINCI’s core messages link to our own cultural change programme, ‘+ People’.

This year, our SHEQ team are out on-site drawing attention to safety issues, reviewing safety standards, and working with operatives to mitigate potential hazards.

Here’s what VINCI Safety Day looks like this year.

1. Reviewing High Potential Events

Also referred to as ‘Near Miss Events’ or ‘High Potential Incidents’ (HIPOs), these are all about identifying hazards before they develop into real incidents and ensuring we have the systems in place to prevent them from happening.

Part of our awareness raising for VINCI Safety Week includes showing operatives examples of hard-hitting global and UK examples of HIPOs that have occurred on site earlier in the year, from falling objects to working platform failures.

Together with the on-site team we analyse each video looking at what happened, the root cause, and the corrective actions that were implemented to prevent the HIPO from reoccurring.

Reviewing HIPOs is key to proactively improving safety – we are not just looking at the outcome of incidents but identifying them before they happen.

2. Site Safety Tours

Our SHEQ team are completing tours of all our UK sites with a focus on:

• • • Potential for falling objects – making up 40% of all HIPOs this year, falling objects and site standards for these will be thoroughly reviewed as part of the site tour.
    • Plant restricted zones – we are assessing our plant restricted zone arrangements to ensure they align with the FPS recommendations.
    • Working Platform Conditions (WPC) – Working platform failures accounted for 22.5% of this year’s HIPOs. We are having a discussion with staff about the WPCs on site, including whether the permit to dig is sufficient and if there are extra measures that could be taken to check them.
    • SAF 12A Management Engagement Tour – this will be completed on the day to assist in the review of site standards, with any findings fed back to the site team.

3. Sparking conversation and provoking discussion

Listening to our employees is instrumental to driving change and progress within the company. In line with this, we will be discussing the results from the 2021 Climate Survey, ‘SAFETY: YOUR VOICE MATTERS’ sent to all Bachy Soletanche employees; topics covered include risk perception and company core values.

The survey results will be shared at the tours to spur discussion and identify any room for improvement in safety procedures and attitudes.

To round off the day, there will also be an open Q&A session to review any concerns or feedback from site staff.

At Bachy Soletanche, we believe that the key to providing a safe and happy workplace is not just a once-a-year focus day, but a day that forms part of a wider and ongoing conversation about improving safety all year round.

VINCI Safety Day is a fantastic opportunity to set out new priorities for the year ahead and review previous performance. To keep this discussion going however, the Bachy Soletanche SHEQ team runs monthly educational campaigns for employees – each with a specific focus, from the importance of UV protection for construction workers, to how to look after your mental health.