Compliance, Culture and Leadership
Osborne recently became one of the first construction firms in the UK to gain the new ISO 45001 accreditation for occupational health and safety. The new standard replaces OHSAS 18001.
A brief look at the difference between the two standards underlines how compliance has evolved from prescriptive rules to an environment where culture and leadership drive continuous improvements and accountability.
In line with the general quality standard ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 for environmental management systems, the new health and safety standard emphasises leadership, measurement of objectives, risk management, communication and awareness.
Osborne’s highly regarded STOP Think! cultural awareness programme demonstrates how improving standards relies on influencing how people think and behave. And for improvements to become sustainable and widespread they have to be supported by the right systems and leadership culture. These have to extend right through the organisation and supply chain.
The Commercial Benefits of Compliance
Compliance in spirit, as well as within the letter, of procedures has many commercial benefits. For our customers it means greater confidence over quality, which reduces costs during the entire lifetime of the asset. It also means there is better communication, and more certainty about costs and completion date.
Infrastructure projects often come with added pressures. Working in live road or rail environments introduces added risks that have to be managed. Closures and possessions are strictly time-limited with little scope to deal with unexpected events. Opportunities to return to rework something that wasn’t done correctly first time around are limited.
When people work together in the right way there is the opportunity to tackle complex and demanding projects with greater confidence over the outcomes. A great example of this in action was the replacement of a road bridge over the M27 at Romsey, which was completed 16 hours early after a weekend closure.
Accreditations such as ISO45001 will help to ensure that there is a uniform baseline expectation for compliance across the industry. But it is how processes are reinforced by culture and leadership that deliver the biggest gains.
Osborne ensures quality and compliance through short lines of communications, trusting project managers to make decisions and collaborating closely with customers. These traits consistently deliver better outcomes for our customers.
