Improving Health and Safety standards
With a mobile service delivery workforce and provision of services directly into customer's premises, our focus is both on health and safety for our employees and customers. Here, the company has the following challenges:
- Management of occupational road risk – stemming from the usage of our transport fleet.
- Reduction of slips, trips and falls on the same level – mainly due to staff working on customers' premises.
- Reduction of injuries caused by lifting, handling and carrying operations – due to the physical nature of our service activities.
- Management of risks associated with working at height activities – mainly from our Pest Control, Textiles and Washrooms and Cleaning activities.
- Management of risks associated with moving machinery – mainly from textiles processing plants.
- Effective management co-ordination of health and safety with our customers.
In 1999, the board of Rentokil Initial adopted a central Health and Safety Policy. This has been updated since, most recently in 2009. The Health and Safety Policy requires all businesses worldwide to implement an effective health and safety management system which complies with applicable local legislation, the group’s health and safety management requirements (see below) and meets our customers’ health and safety requirements and expectations.
The group’s health and safety management requirements (available in the Reports & Policies section of this website) sets out rigorous requirements for our businesses in five key areas: leadership and accountability; assessing and managing risk; people, training and tools; performance measurement; and review and improvement. The requirements are based on the main requirements of OHSAS 18001, which is an internationally recognised Occupational Health and Safety Management System specification, and the UK guidance document ”Successful Health and Safety Management” (HSG 65). In effect, they ensure that each business maintains a management system which will enable it to deliver on our policy commitments which are to ensure that:
- Colleagues have the tools and training to do their job safely and are able to contribute their views to the management of health and safety.
- All health and safety risks are understood, evaluated and controlled.
- Health and safety performance is regularly monitored and reviewed.
- We act on what we learn to continually improve our health and safety performance.
The group’s health and safety management requirements are supplemented by specific group policies and standard procedures for core health and safety processes and key risks including risk assessment, reviews and improvement planning, accident reporting and investigation, working at height, manual handling and occupational road risk.
The health and safety performance of each business is regularly monitored and reviewed at board, divisional and business level. Health and safety reviews are undertaken as follows:
- Board / Company Executive Board – At least once every 3 months. Formal annual review of group health and safety performance is also undertaken.
- Divisional Management Boards – At least once every 3 months.
- Business Unit – At least once every 3 months.
In addition, the Chief Executive undertakes bi-annual health and safety reviews with each division.
Business units with unsatisfactory or deteriorating health and safety performance are targeted for interventions by the group and divisional health and safety specialists and/or line managers, as appropriate. Interventions can include audits, management reviews, training, coaching and support.
In 2008, the company put in place plans to step up its commitment and add management focus and KPIs as part of its new operational plan. The intention is to ensure that health and safety performance is always at the heart of its approach to running each and every one of the operations. As a result, the group introduced two new KPIs to enable health and safety performance to be measured consistently across the group. These are the Lost Time Accident Rate (LTA Rate) and the Working Days Lost Rate (WDL Rate). The LTA rate measures the frequency of lost time accidents and work-related ill-health cases and the WDL rate measures the severity of work-related injuries and ill-health. Today, all businesses are measured against these KPIs and targets.
This additional focus is supported by the “scorecard” reporting and assurance process across the group which is designed to crystallise priorities and identify areas for improvement. By the end of 2009, over 90% of business units reported on the status of their health and safety management systems and performance, allowing benchmarking and comparative performance for the first time.
Good practice in health and safety is further promoted by our Pest Control European Technical Centre through the provision of working manuals and procedures, the circulation of information on current issues and/or the issue of mandatory instructions, as appropriate to the business. For example, the company uses 'Pink Notes', which standardise the company rules on pest control, remove uncertainty over what is permitted and prohibited and make information readily accessible throughout the global operation. Pink Notes cover many issues, including the authorisation of pest control products, rodent baiting in public areas, the authorisation and control of fumigation activities, and risk assessment. Each Pink Note gives key operational instructions, together with a brief explanation of the policy stance.
Externally, we provide the public access to expert advice and customer service information via our web sites and also safety data sheets for specific products are available via our corporate web site: http://www.rentokil-initial.com/sds/.
Success Is No Accident
Our “Success is no Accident” system in the UK contributes to safety improvements, with reportable accidents (RIDDOR) reducing. The system enables the businesses to investigate all accidents and incidents to identify the causes of accidents and ensure that lessons are learned. The company is well on the way to rolling out the Success is no Accident system in other countries where it can improve existing accident reporting and investigation processes