I mentioned earlier about stigma, myths, and
we really need to change as an industry how we perceive the EH and
S professional, commonly known as the safety guy.
Again, as we have evolved and
really advanced our culture towards injury free environment, a safety professional
has now become a real core component at corporate level, at project level,
even down to building relationships with a craft worker on the front line.
Subcontractor safety representatives again,
playing a key role on how we keep our people safe.
So again, the perception that EH and S professional is there to help, is there
as a technical resource, is not there as a safety got the, I got you, type of guy.
That's there to say, really enforce compliance on our projects,
a really all inclusive accepting role as part of the technical team,
and being part of that solution moving forward.
That being said, that also means that other people within their project teams
also need to be safety professionals.
Everybody needs to play a role in the solution.
So we need to make sure that we furnish those individuals with the right training,
the right competencies, technical skills, and knowledge over management systems.
They must have a very clear expectation set out for
them, what their involvement is, how they can engage, and
how they must play a part in the solution moving forward.
So we absolutely must ensure that we have adequate resources there to furnish them
with the tools that they need from a competency level.
So again, our structure where we have an introduction overview of our
management system.
We need corporate level right through the CEOs to be cognizant of the process and
identifying risks, the process of collecting,
continually improve controlled programs and how they're applied,
right down to activity specific planning process.
We need the corporate manager, we need the CEO to be fully aware of those processes.
Otherwise when they do engage on projects, they can ask questions relevant to
our management system, they're not gonna effectively don't ask questions.
That's what we mentioned earlier of one of the buyers,
that's what message that we convey if we don't even ask a question.
That means that what we convey subliminally in some cases as that system
or that process or the why, the care for light value bind is not important
to that executive leader because they didn't ask the questions.
But if they're not aware and don't have the knowledge of the systems,
of the programs, how can they possibly ask the questions?
So when we relaunched their integrated holistic approach and
unified program, we started with the CEO and the senior leadership group.
And made sure that they had the tools, they had the education and
the knowledge of the processes that enable them to get out there on a project, ask
the questions that convey the fact that as core value, as important to that leader.
So again, education and competency right at the top is absolutely essential.
We're ultimately we need to go, and we still have a long way to go.
And from industry colleagues we get the exact same feedback.
We need to be more involved strategically at pursuit stage.
We need to really sell the benefits of management systems or
EH and S tools or approach to sustainability,
really need to market those core values as differentiators.
And again, there's a competitive edge there.
But really when it comes to EH and S,
we don't see our programs systems as something that we can morally hold onto.
And that's why we share all of our programs across the industry through
various industry forums.
We're a huge consortium of the leading contractors across
the US on the building side, civil side, and
we've unified those 52 core members to initiate the industry wide safety week.
We estimate in 2016 we had roughly 40 million people involved
across the United States on industry wide safety week, so again, a celebration.
A gathering of companies and
people that really wanna push the evolution of safety and construction and
really have a serious attempt at trying to impact those
pretty negative numbers I've mentioned at the beginning of this lecture.
So again, early involvement, strategic involvement, business and marketing
advantage, and how we communicate our core value and the benefits of our systems and
processes, that's absolutely essential as to how we move forward.
So it's engrained at a very early stage in a project pursuit.
Taking that right through to the design stage, so again using the historic data,
using the planning tools to effectively manage risk and design.
Having that opportunity through utilization of BIM models and virtual
reality, being able to see how a structure or a project can be brought together but
brought together safely with people going home safe at the end of the day.
So again, early engagement in the design process can bring huge advantage.
And when we plan to mitigate that risk,
we usually find that we bring efficiency, we bring new concepts.
We bring out a more robust and efficient way to execute the project.
Again, historically, what would normally happen, we'd get to precon stage,
we win a contract.
We'd be almost ready to engage.
Then we would start to think about environmental health and safety plans, and
how we're gonna mitigate that risk.
But really missing the huge opportunity before we get to operational execution,
having an early look at how we can improve, and how we can design,
and how we can mitigate these sometimes complex risks.
But again with historic data and the tools and efficient approach,
we believe that we can really take it to another level.
So we've really taken our optimum state safety culture, what does that look like?
Again, we referenced earlier some of the gut feelings that we get when we
approach a project, even the housekeeping, the cleanliness, and
the atmosphere on the project when we have people that are positively engaged.
So some of the ultimate goals here,
we wanna have core shared values with absolute belief behind those values
when a project team's right through our company structure.
Again, I mentioned the positive attitude.
When we see a happy work force and a happy project team,
you tend to find that the execution is at an optimum.
We find that the quality of the project is at the optimum stage.
We find that the client is delighted with that project team and
how it's been been executed.
And by the way, we find that the safety performance and
injury rates are also at an optimum level.
With that project team or that group of people, they see improvement,
continual improvement, the plan, do, check, act as a huge opportunity to
improve the company and improve the project performance and
improve all of the attributes that I mentioned earlier.
Where the culture and the attitude and the atmosphere on the project that encourages
and empowers people to be innovative, really to be part of the solution.
Where expectation is consistent, there's a constant message and
people have been held accountable to those expectations on a consistent basis.
And there's no wavering from tolerating risk or tolerating
substandard performance or tolerate somebody being injured on the project.
Again, that's where we must aim if we are to achieve an injury-free
environment where no injury is tolerated.
Near miss is not tolerated.
We unpop when we have something go wrong because we know for
a fact that if we follow the systems and processes that we have prescribed,
there's no excuse for these things going wrong.
And ultimately where everybody is a leader, everybody is empowered to
speak up, everybody has an opportunity to positively impact others,
positively impact the outcomes of our projects at all times.
What I had mentioned earlier really comes down to a personal commitment.
That's my commitment.
That's everybody and our project commitment, so our CEO's ultimate
commitment that we get people home safe at the end of every working day.
So we really ask that everybody make a pledge, make that commitment,
a personal commitment to move your safety forward,
to move your project team, your company's safety performance and
ultimately the industry's performance to another level.
And that needs personal commitment.
So I would ask that everybody make a personal pledge,
share that pledge with what colleagues, share it within in your company.
Share it with your family as well, because that's ultimately
why we come to work everyday to provide, to get home safe.
So really just to wrap up, we in Skanska,
our ultimate aim here is to establish an efficient and unified approach,
integrated approach, holistic approach, where EH and
S is not this separate thing that's done because it's the flavor of the day.
Or because it's a goal that somebody set,
really because it's a core value of what we do and who we are as a company.
It then becomes what we do, it's how we build in the US.
It's how we build anywhere in the world, that really is the ultimate goal.
And when we identify risk and risk mitigation programs, that's not just for
environmental.
It's not just for health, not for safety, not just for quality.
It's an integrated approach in how we manage risk
to prevent any negative outcome.
Again ultimately from a personal basis, where EH and
S is seen as that technical support and
backup to help our project team navigate through systems, through high level risks.
Again through that integrated and team approach, that's where we ultimately wanna
be as EH and S professionals, real core members, valued member of the team.
We want people to be cognizant that everybody has a role.
As we roll out our new systems, the absolute priority at the onset is to make
sure that everybody is aware of what their expectations are.
What role do they play, and
what actions must they take to be part of the solution moving forward?
And again as a wrap up, your commitment,
your pledge to take the industry to another level.
Thank you.