The achievement demonstrates Stepnell’s continued commitment to raising health and safety management standards and systems across the business.
The RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award is only awarded to organisations who have achieved 'a very high level of performance', with Stepnell having shown considerable progress against its health and safety objectives. This includes an exceptional record of over 1.5 million hours worked with zero RIDDOR’s across its entire operation in 2021. This has been attributed to Stepnell’s commitment to engage the wider supply chain to uphold best health and safety practice.
Rob Speirs, Director responsible for health and safety, at Stepnell, said: "We are immensely proud of our efforts to drive health and safety standards that continue to go above and beyond in terms of performance.
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"Our health and safety strategy encompasses growing our health, safety and sustainability team by 50% - and this is just the beginning. We plan to roll out our Sustainability Forum this year, to engage colleagues in our environmental strategy, and we look forward to enhancing our social value proposition.
"We have also trained five mental health first aiders and provided a comprehensive EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) package. The construction industry is highly impacted by mental health, and it has been important for us to review how we are caring for the wellbeing of our people and to create avenues of support."
According to the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), men in construction are three times more likely to commit suicide than those in other sectors. The measures have been taken to protect and prioritise the mental health of all its staff.
"Despite the impact of the pandemic, the large majority of our sites remained operational, which is testament to the expertise and prompt response of our health and safety team. We have also applied lessons from the lockdown to adapt to more hybrid and remote ways of working where possible.
"As we continue to take on new and exciting projects, and secure framework placements, it's important to us that health and safety is prioritised at every stage. That’s why we're thrilled to receive this accolade, which demonstrates to the wider industry that we are a responsible, proactive employer that puts our people and communities first."
