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Collen Construction's ISO 45001 Accreditation
May 18, 2018
The world’s first
occupational health and safety international standard, ISO 45001, was published
on 12th March 2018. Collen Construction are delighted to be amongst
one of the first companies globally to attain accreditation to this new
standard on the 26th of April 2018, with the NSAI. ISO 45001 provides
us with an internationally recognized occupational health and safety standard
to follow. This standard provides the specification for formal, systematic
analysis and management of risk, management of regulatory compliance, promotion
of safer work practices, and evaluation of occupational health and safety
performance. This systematic approach facilitates a decrease in the
number of incidents and ultimately less disruption to business.
The National
Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) launched its migration policy from OSHAS
18001 to ISO 45001and Collen were selected to be one of the first companies in
Ireland, to go through the IS0 45001 audit process. The launch of the ‘NSAI
Migration Policy’ on 21st February 2018, took place on one of
Collen’s construction sites and is ahead of the NSAI formal adoption and launch
of the new standard.
Pictured above: Joe O'Dwyer, Health and Safety Manager; Geraldine Larkin, NSAI CEO; Fergal O'Byrne, Head of Business Excellence at NSAI; Tommy Drumm, Managing Director; Rebecca Reilly, Quality and Environmental Manager; and David Lee, Construction Director.
Fergal O’Byrne, Head of
Business Excellence at the NSAI had advised that the NSAI as head of all
certification bodies in Ireland “wanted to align with a Main Contractor who
embodied all that NSAI stood for and is very impressed by the leadership
displayed by Collen in driving its Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)
management systems, as well as the appetite displayed for migrating to the new
standard.”
Collen operate a
robust Occupation Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) and were certified to ISO 45001 and
accredited with an A Rating from SAFE T Cert for the seventh consecutive year.
An OHSMS translates the organisation’s intentions to prevent incidents in a
systematic and ongoing set of processes that reinforces commitment to
proactively improving OHS performance. The decision to attain ISO 45001
accreditation was made by Collen 3 years ago now and allows Collen to
demonstrate to its employees, customers, and the community its ongoing
commitment to improving OHS performance.
ISO 45001 moves
away from management of OHS to leadership and participation and senior
management now has greater accountability and involvement in the organisation’s
OHSMS as well as promoting and supporting the participation of all workers
encompassed in the OHSMS. Tommy Drumm, Managing Director, leads this
approach fully. He believes that Collen has already embraced the shift from
management of OHS to leadership and participation by “ensuring that the
necessary resources are available to support the OHSMS in achieving its
intended outcomes.”
ISO 45001 now
requires organisations to look beyond its immediate health and safety issues
and consider what the wider society expects of it. Organisations will have to
think about their contractors and suppliers, as well as the effects their activities
have on neighbouring communities. “At Collen”,
Tommy says, “the wider enterprise of suppliers and sub-contractors has always
been recognised as a key link in providing a safe and healthy workplace.” He
explained that since 2016 Collen has held annual Safety Leadership workshops
with its internal management team and wider supply-chain seeking buy in from
the highest level so that a top-down approach to health and safety is delivered
throughout Collen and the organisations with whom it engages. “A shared safety
vision is one of the key factors in helping to deliver efficiency to our
clients as well supporting legal, ethical and moral obligations to construction
workers.”
David Lee, Construction Director, was a key promoter of the Safety Leadership
workshops for Collen’s management teams. He advised that following these,
“Collen now has an agreed vision, through a charter (the Collen Safety Charter),
which advocates continuous improvement of OHS across its projects, as the
Company strives to be an industry leader in safety.” He adds that “the Collen
Safety Charter provides the foundation for a cultural shift in the way project
delivery teams and supply-chain view OHS and injury prevention and allows the
project leadership to showcase their commitment to this new set of behaviours
and attitudes.”
Donal Hennessy, Collen Commercial Director, helped plan the supply chain workshop to
facilitate the implementation of Safety Leadership across the wider
enterprise. He put to the supply-chain
the financial consequences of failing to manage health & safety correctly,
“Risk management is an essential aspect of running any business. In
construction, safety poses the most significant financial exposure for
companies operating in the industry. A construction site is a high-risk
environment every day and no-one working in construction should ever forget
that. It’s the reason why there are safety policies and procedures to identify
hazards specific to the task with the aim of either eliminating or mitigating
them. Failing to lead safety so that the
risk it poses to our businesses is minimised, will ultimately have serious
financial consequences through an increasing number of injuries, giving rise to
an increasing number of claims, which lead to increased insurance premiums and
accident statistics that affect future work-winning.”
“Prospective
clients want to know how robust a contractor’s OHS regime is”, says Declan Lowry, New Business Director. It
is such a critical factor in work-winning, he explains that “unless contractors
can demonstrate proven track records in the prevention of injuries, they will
not be considered for the project.”
With the assured
support from Collen’s directors, Joe O’Dwyer, Health & Safety Manager says, “Attaining ISO 45001 accreditation, was
the obvious step for Collen and helps deliver Collen’s vision of working to
ensure we maintain a continually improving safety culture”. It was a great experience working with the
NSAI to bring Collen’s OHSMS up to the next level. “The new standard, he
explained, “brings risk-based thinking to the forefront, which is key to long
term sustainability and success in minimizing harm to our workers. Once the relevant
risks have been highlighted, this presents opportunities to address these
through effective planning.”
“The planning
requirements of the standard”, he says, “force you to look at how these risks
will be addressed. Risk-based thinking ensures that risk is considered from the
beginning and ensures that preventive action becomes part of strategic
planning.”
David Lee, Construction Director recognises the importance of integrating the
OHSMS into the Company’s core business processes and explains that “Collen’s OHSMS is
embedded within Collen’s business rather than existing as a sub-system”. He
supports a culture of safety leadership, which is inherent in every department
within the organisation and allows everyone to feel accountable for safety. “At Collen”, he explains, “workers are encouraged to
identify unsafe conditions and behaviours and are comfortable intervening to
correct them through clearly defined processes that promote disclosure.” He says that OHS is a key aspect of strategic
planning within Collen and that accreditation of the OHSMS to ISO 45001 will
drive OHS to the next level in line with longer-term strategic goals.
As the new
standard requires OHS to explicitly tie in with an organisation’s overall
business strategy, Collen looks to be ahead of the curve as it embraces
migration to ISO45001. With Collen now
active in various European countries, an internationally recognised OHS
accreditation will help it deliver the highest OHS standards wherever it
operates.