Working well together small firm award

Winner

James West

This is the first time the Working Well Together Awards have been incorporated into our awards scheme, and this category celebrates achievement in health and safety for firms of fewer than 50 employees. The firm that the judges felt had the most significant achievements was James West, a vibrant Oldham contractor with a passion for its workers’ wellbeing. A host of measures to keep that wellbeing intact have been implemented: the firm has published a book of risk assessment to be used as a tool to ensure site safety; implemented a continued programme of training and toolbox talks for all staff; brought in independent audits on site, which have led to the development of benchmarking systems; and developed occupational health screenings for all new staff. Even more impressively, all James West’s site workers are now CSCS registered. All of this, we’d imagine, is why an independent planning supervisor felt moved to describe the firm as “among the most conscientious and dedicated to the health and safety of all personnel on all their sites”.

‘The firm has published a book of risk assessment, implemented a training programme, brought in independent audits and developed occupational health screening’

Runners-up

Jomaro Training

The influence this small Yorkshire training firm has had in its field is such that the judges felt compelled to recognise its work by shortlisting it in this category. Jomaro identified a gap in the industry for hand-held power tool training: previously (unbelievably) there had been no specific accredited courses on the subject. In fact, most operatives learn to use hand-held power tools by simply being shown what to do by colleagues – who are themselves equally ill-trained. So Jomaro hooked up with City & Guilds to create a recognised course teaching workers correct usage and how to minimise risks, such as hand-arm vibration syndrome. The course offers employers the opportunity to learn more about their duties, safeguard their workers’ occupational health, improve workmanship and reduce wasted time, and also reduce the financial losses associated with injury and ill-health. So everyone’s a winner (well, runner-up anyway …).

‘Jomaro hooked up with City & Guilds to create a recognised course teaching workers the correct usage of hand-held power tools and how to minimise risks’

Northern Cladding

The fantastic way in which Northern Cladding took an initial outlay in order to improve health and safety at the company, and turned it into tangible financial and professional rewards, is an object lesson in safety management and the reason it clinched the final place on this short shortlist. Biting the bullet and investing time, money and people into its initiative, Northern Cladding took a four-part approach under the satisfying headings of co-operation, communication, competence and commitment. The firm has made its achievements in all these areas, with a full-time safety and training manager, team meetings, toolbox talks, training courses, health and safety tests and a site safety file where everything is set in stone. And it has all been worth the effort, as the incident rate is down and the firm’s excellent track record has played a tangible part in its recent business successes, including a deal with a top contractor worth a cool £1m.

‘The way in which Northern Cladding took an initial outlay to improve health and safety and turned it into tangible rewards is an object lesson in safety management’