There are nearly three hundred Stelrad employees working for the company at its manufacturing headquarters in Mexborough, South Yorkshire and they are celebrating an impressive new health and safety record.
They’ve currently exceeded 930 days – more than two and a half years – without a ‘lost time accident’ on the site, having surpassed their longest record of 929 days, and are now looking towards the next target which is 1,000 days without a lost time accident on the site. For a heavy manufacturing/engineering business with large quantities of steel being moved around the factory and a very busy National Distribution Centre, that’s quite an achievement and exceeds the previous record at the site set back in 2014.
Simon Murgatroyd is the company’s Compliance & Facilities Manager: “This new record is mightily impressive. Our team here has been heavily motivated to build on their already impressive health and safety record and the schemes we run day in day out here, keeps health and safety awareness at the forefront of everyone’s minds in every area of the business.”
Simon joined Stelrad less than 2 years ago and set about changing the health and safety culture within the business from day 1: “Many of the people working here have been with the company for more than twenty-five years and getting them to think about health and safety in a very different way was difficult. We had to introduce a new approach to the way things happened here. The major driving force was the attitude of the people who do the work including the management team. You can’t expect the shop floor to change their attitudes if they don’t see management embracing changes and the success we’ve had has come about because we’ve been able to get management – right at the top of the business – and the shop floor teams to work together to drive health and safety at every level.”
An incentive scheme to encourage people throughout the business to report potential hazards around the factory and the site had been introduced with monthly awards to the top three ‘Hazardous condition spots’ decided on by the safety reps and senior management team. Good health and safety are about spotting potential problems before they happen and doing something about them – not leaving them, hoping nothing untoward will happen: Stelrad has an excellent maintenance team in place on site which is vital. Any potential issues reported that require machines to be repaired or guards to be replaced, are prioritised, and rectified immediately and this has been instrumental in ensuring that accidents with machinery haven’t happened.
“It’s all about getting everyone to buy in to health and safety,” says Simon. “For many people it’s not the most important thing in their day but if we can change the culture so it is definitely one of the things they think about in their day, we’re making progress. The new safety psychology here at Stelrad has been embraced by everyone. Staff are doing things properly, being aware of the issues and taking care, not just of themselves, but their colleagues, ultimately will deliver better performance and better results. It’s been a very rewarding 930 days so far!”
