Tom Diamond, Commercial Director
Safety First is not just a tag line at ALS People. We place the utmost importance on the safety of our people and the equipment we use on every site we operate.
Collaboration with our customers on risk assessments, method statements, safe working practices and reporting channels is key. We regularly join health and safety meetings and briefings with our customers and actively contribute to the agenda, discussion points and actions.
We regularly run spot campaigns to promote certain safety themes for different industry sectors or sites, particularly where the potential for injury is high. The key messages are geared towards workers at the site, asking them to be vigilant, not ignore anything they suspect as a hazard or unsafe and empowering them to feel comfortable and confident to speak out.
We don’t just preach about health and safety, we celebrate good news when people act to prevent accidents and injuries. We work with our customers on key themes and deploy tactics such as posters around each site with key stats and information about what works and what to look out for.
Our people are always equipped with the right PPE to undertake their roles safely and securely. During Covid-19, it became even more important for everyone to keep their distance and their PPE exclusively for their own use. We’ve always given our workers their own kit so here we were ahead of the game. We now add face masks or visors to every worker’s kit to ensure their safety in the current operating environment and carry our additional checks and risk assessments.
We’ve always known how important PPE is for the safety of our people. For every new contract we bring in an independent safety advisor to assess the kit that’s required and we undertake periodic checks with our existing customers to ensure PPE is kept in safe working order.
The situation with Covid-19 presented multiple challenges to the recruitment sector, not least to ensure thorough health and safety inductions and essential training could still take place.
ALS are working with an online learning platform to deliver accessible training across a range of subject areas including operating in a Covid safe environment, fire safety and manual handling. We cater for all employees whether they are temporary or permanent workers or our customers’ employees and management teams.
Our online training offer creates a safer environment for workers to undertake vital health and safety training at their own pace across a multitude of platforms including smart phones, PCs and laptops. This approach allows us and our customers to monitor completion to ensure uptake and compliance resulting in a ready workforce before they step onsite. In addition, capturing the learning footprint of our workers enables us to identify any learning needs or provide opportunities for them to upskill, potentially working their way towards a recognised qualification. Our continued focus on the safety of our people creates opportunities for us to develop our offer for both our colleagues and our customers.
