RoSPA Gold 2020
O’Keefe are awarded four RoSPA Golds, four years in a row
RoSPA Gold Award winners achieve a very high level of performance, demonstrating well-developed occupational Health and Safety management systems and culture, outstanding control of risk, and very low levels of error, harm and loss.
Now this ultimate certification applies to O’Keefe’s London, Kent, demolition and plant businesses, just months after the group implemented its own personal Health and Safety campaign upgrade and a year after the demolition division won gold.
O’Keefe has always put Health and Safety as its No 1 priority and is constantly working towards a hazard aware culture where all hazards are identified and removed, with everyone in the business taking ownership of safety and never walking by a hazard.
The upgrade involved a complete overhaul of the way the group thinks, feels and acts around safety, working on both its systems and procedures as well as focusing on and enhancing its positive safety culture.
The launch last year of its What If? campaign tasked its employees and sub-contractors with managing their own personal well-being, encouraging them to focus on the hazard and the unsafe condition, pointing out that every accident starts with a hazard so working together to remove the hazard should mean the accident can never occur.
The campaign was reflected in a series of specially-commissioned posters and leaflets and electronic signage which highlighted the need for all 200+ members of staff, as well as partners and stakeholders, to take personal responsibility for their Health and Safety.
The visuals featured O’Keefe staff members as “Hazard heroes”, using posters which ask the question “What if your hazard card made all the difference?” to make the Health and Safety message a truly personal one. This was reflected by an increased vigilance over the use of hazard cards on hazard walks, the development of a hazard awareness App and a one-way system for its new plant depot, and sharing regular dashboard statistics.
O’Keefe CEO Patrick O’Keefe said: “We are absolutely delighted to have had our efforts in our priority area of Health and Safety recognised by winning RoSPA Gold for all of our divisions.
“We engaged with the grassroots on our sites to continually improve and never be satisfied and spent a considerable amount of money on our new plant yard to provide the safest equipment and create a space that was designed from the first with safety in mind.”
Internationally-renowned, the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards are the longest-running industry awards scheme in the UK. Receiving entries from organisations globally, they recognise achievements in Health and Safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.