Speedy has championed best practice in
health and safety for many years and
in 2005 it set new standards in on-site
safety communications with the launch of its
Safety from the Ground Up campaign.

The campaign initially focused heavily on
working at height, one of the main health
and safety issues on sites according to HSE
statistics. Since its introduction, three more
safety themes have been added to cover
manual handling, hand arm vibration and
dust control.

The campaign has proven to be a great
success, having received widespread industry
support and won numerous awards
including an Orange National Business
award and a Business in the Community
award for responsible marketing.

Safety from the ground up has evolved to
meet changing needs of the industry and
mirrors the findings of the 2011 HSE and
Construction Skills report by Pye Tait, a
leading education and training research
organisation, which saw the undertaking of a
major study to evaluate the key issue of
competence in the construction industry.

Human error, either through poor
performance or the individual’s inability to
recognise or predict potentially hazardous
situations, was a key factor found to be a
cause of accidents in the work place. Pye Tait
noted that in other high-risk sectors, such as
the nuclear and aviation industries, greater
consideration is given to the human factors
of behaviour and attitudes in their approach
to safety education.

The report recommended that the
construction industry should adopt the
concept of ‘new competence’ where human
factors such as behaviour and attitudes, as
well as skills and knowledge, are factored
into safety training and education.

Speedy’s Head of Brand Marketing and
Communications, Daniel Walmsley, is
responsible for the updated programme and
explains the strategy behind the decision to
re-launch. He says: “Safety is very much at
the forefront of our own business and the
underlying driving force behind the original
Safety from the ground up campaign was
always to help our customers raise awareness
and understanding of key safety themes
amongst their site operatives and managers.

“Our determination to champion best
practice in health and safety continues but it
was evident that an update to the campaign
was required to take into consideration the
latest thinking, a number of legislative
changes and the fact that new products have
been brought to market that are designed
specifically with health and safety in mind
and to mitigate risks.

“Focus group research amongst our
customers,employees and suppliers discovered
that there was still a need for the type of
information the original Safety from the
ground up campaign offered but the findings
from the Pye Tait HSE report needed to be
integrated and a new approach was needed.

“In effect, the re-launch is a response to
customers’ needs. There is now a focus on
site supervisor responsibility (as well as
operatives and managers), we’ve completely
redesigned and updated the communication
materials and we have created a product
familiarisation library with more than 40
separate short films uploaded to our web site
– a unique resource in the industry.

“Finally, we are able to offer a
comprehensive range of health and safety,
environmental and product training courses
from over 200 sites nationally.

Positive feedback from Speedy’s customers
confirms its effort to help increase awareness
and understanding of health and safety is
still very much in demand.

Speedy will display its health and safety
communications as an exhibitor at this year’s
Safety and Health Expo which takes place
from 14th – 16th May 2013 at Birmingham’s
NEC.

For more information on the company’s
Safety from the ground up programme,
visit speedyservices.com/sftgu