In an industry that is all about working at height, safety training is crucial for scaffolding contractors. But teaching people the correct techniques and best-practice is one thing; it鈥檚 quite another to teach them to think differently.
This was the puzzle faced by Jim Cottrell, managing director of West Midlands-based scaffolding firm UK Access Solutions, following an incident on a job for contractor Wates last year.
鈥淲e had this incident in which a bricklayer stepped on an unsecured short board on our scaffold and fell through to the next level,鈥� explains Cottrell.
鈥淚t was a case of lack of attention to detail,鈥� he adds. It was also the last straw for Cottrell. 鈥淲e kept having niggling little accidents which I knew could end up with a major incident eventually. The trouble is, once the 鈥榟ome-bell鈥� rings all training goes out the window. People switch off and they鈥檙e not mentally at work any more,鈥� he says.
That was the problem and although it is not unique to one company, Cottrell knew he had to think afresh in order to change the culture in his own business.
After discussing the issue with his colleagues at Wates, Cottrell started to form the idea of a series of interactive training modules that would force participants to confront the potential consequences of poor health & safety behaviour.
鈥淚 got the idea from Wates鈥� own 鈥楶lan right, start right鈥� initiative and an old SGB video entitled The Cost of Accidents,鈥� says Cottrell. That video, from more than 10 years ago, is a dramatic re-enactment of a hypothetical site accident involving a distracted scaffolder. Hard-hitting and cleverly written, the video remains a popular training resource to this day.
Cottrell鈥檚 idea, though, was not a training video, but a real-life role-play in which trainees find themselves in the dock 鈥� being cross-examined about an incident caused by their failure to follow safe procedures. The idea is to make trainees understand that they must answer for their failures, as well as get them to focus on correct procedures.
UK Access Solutions has tried similar ideas before: 鈥淚n early 2020 we got a team to erect a mock scaffold in our yard. We showed them what we wanted, and over 80% knew perfectly well how to do it correctly.
鈥淭hen we pulled up the results of our site audit and asked them: 鈥榯hen why didn鈥檛 you do it correctly on this site? Or this one?鈥�,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he thing is it鈥檚 not enough for most people to act correctly. The best performer can鈥檛 drag everybody else up, but the worst will always drag the rest down,鈥� adds Cottrell.
Cottrell鈥檚 desire to bring about culture-change at UK Access Solutions has not come out of the blue. His latest initiative follows the company鈥檚 decision to transfer ownership of the business to its employees via an 鈥榚mployee ownership trust鈥�.
Conceived as a tax-efficient exit strategy for shareholders (one of whom at UK Access Solutions was Cottrell) employee-ownership was introduced by the coalition government in 2015 and is becoming increasingly popular among medium-sized construction businesses.
There are several potential benefits for a business that chooses this route, one of which is the opportunity to focus employees (as part-owners) on working for the success of the business as a shared endeavour. But, as Cottrell observes, getting people to change their mindset is easier said than done:
鈥淭hey all have a stake in the business and we鈥檙e really trying to engage them on that,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ixty or 70% think 鈥榶es, I鈥檒l stay because I own part of this鈥�, but others don鈥檛 seem to realise and they鈥檒l jump ship to another employer if they think they鈥檒l earn a bit more. It鈥檚 immensely frustrating; I don鈥檛 think they realise what it means to be part-owner of a business.鈥�
The new health and safety training concept is part of Cottrell鈥檚 plan to engage his site staff in a way that will drive home the responsibilities, as well as the benefits, of part ownership.
The idea only began to form in November last year but by January Cottrell had drafted the content of the 鈥榤ock trial鈥� training module and was ready to roll it out in early February.
鈥淥ur intention is to bring home the gravity of their actions should something go wrong. We are aiming this primarily at our foremen on site. We want them to realise that as fully-trained scaffolders there are serious consequences to their actions if they have left scaffolds in an unsafe condition due to their negligence,鈥� says Cottrell.
鈥淚 think it will take a few goes to get this polished and presentable, I also think we may well have to use 鈥榓ctors鈥�, as it were, so we get the 鈥榳rong鈥� right answers, if you see what I mean, and get the full benefit out of the session.
鈥淲e need to take a negative and turn this into a positive. Coupled with the right-first-time internal training programme we hope to gain greater involvement and understanding from the workforce so they can start to benefit fully from belonging to an employee-owned trust.鈥�
This article was first published in the听March 2022听issue of 萝莉原创 Magazine.听Sign up online听
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