FMJ.CO.UK HEALTH & SAFETY FOCUS
AUGUST 2019 39
And from our leaders:
Champion health and safety as a personal
value
Encourage your teams to do the same or
better
Promote accountability for safe and
unsafe behaviour at all levels
Be visible – get involved in health and
safety
Provide adequate support and resources
for health and safety
Keep everyone focused on proactively
reducing risk exposure.
With clear expectations and a willingness to
challenge each other, regardless of seniority,
we maximise the chances of everyone going
home safe and well. It’s like a well-oiled
machine with moving, interdependent parts.
It only takes one person, anywhere in the
machine, to make the wrong choice or do the
wrong thing for the machine to fail. That’s
when people get hurt.
Implementation started with the
leadership team and has now moved to
the key influencers in the business – our
managers and supervisors. As part of
this process, each leader, manager and
supervisor is required to undertake a
self-appraisal of the extent to which they
demonstrate the required behaviours
today, and set themselves a personal action
plan to close any gaps. This requires our
people to start by shining a light on their
own behaviour and to hold themselves
accountable for their own improvement.
In addition, everyone who joins the
business will receive a new Think Again
induction to ensure they’re clear on our
expectations, and what they can expect
from others. Through the process, we are
including our supply chain partners who are
also crucial to the success of the programme.
To support this new way of thinking, we
have also developed a suite of posters to
act as conversation starters, each designed
to challenge perceptions for specific issues
(asbestos, live working, mental health and
PPE). It all adds up to a di– erent approach,
one that the business is embracing.
HOW DOES THIS WORK IN FM?
FM is a broad church. The wider team of
frontline people can be cleaning, guarding,
cooking and delivering mail – so• services
which are alien in the construction world, as
they follow long a• er the job is done. Much
more recognisable for those in construction
would be the hard services such as electrical
and mechanical work, although in FM it’s
usually, but not always, more maintenance
than installation.
Another big di– erence between FM
and construction comes from the o• en
peripatetic, even nomadic delivery model,
with lone working being common – a cleaner
here, a mobile technician there, o• en spread
across significant geographies. Unlike many
construction workers, frontline people in FM
are usually working in public areas, o• en on
customers’ own premises, as with the Canal
Rivers Trust and The Royal Parks.
Recognising these di– erences presented
VINCI with the challenge of making the
programme as impactful in an FM contract
as it would be on a large construction site or
complex civil engineering project. The result
was a programme with a ‘core’ that could be
adopted and adapted in each of our business
divisions.
A fundamental enabler to the
implementation of Think Again into VINCI
Facilities was the commitment of the MD,
Tony Raikes, and those directly reporting
to him, demonstrated through the visible
adoption of the essential behaviours for
leaders. This was followed by a nationwide
programme of training sessions, delivered
in-house, for up to 1,000 managers and
supervisors.
It’s o• en said that timing is everything, and
the decision to coincide the rollout of Think
Again with the launch of a new suite of health
and safety standards, designed specifically
for and by our facilities management
business, was certainly a conscious
decision. This has created an exciting
working environment where behaviours
and standards are being leveraged to drive
further improvements in health and safety
under the direct control and influence of the
facilities business, not the corporate centre.
This approach has resulted in some specific
tactical focus, such as physical and mental
health, lone working, managing asbestos,
legionella and contractor management. The
Think Again programme recognises that risk
is best managed by those who are planning,
managing and monitoring work, not faceless
bureaucrats at corporate HQ.
We pride ourselves on being trusted
partners for our customers. Think Again
extends this principle to the interdependence
that exists between our leaders, managers,
supervisors and frontline people. We all
need to be able to trust those around us to
make the right decisions, and be ready to be
accountable for our own health and safety.
Successful facilities management is always
a team e– ort. Think Again harnesses this
energy to help us all deliver excellence in
health and safety, together.