Fallon Group; Work Safe – Keep Safe

The construction industry has made great advances in health and safety in recent years. Collective efforts by all involved have made the workplace a far safer place to be, while businesses have embraced continuous improvement to mitigate risk at grassroots level.

The value of a robust health and safety policy is now rightly at the forefront of approaches by companies leading the way in their fields. Indeed, those that distinguish themselves within a competitive industry not only exhibit exceptional standards across their individual specialisms but are founded upon health and safety best practice.

That can be said of Fallon Group. With nearly 40 years’ experience in specialist demolition, deconstruction, land remediation and heavy demolition plant hire, the company enjoys a reputation for industry leading customer service within a “safety first” culture.
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With projects ranging in size from £10,000 to £10m, Fallon has continued to build relationships at every level operating as both sub and principal contractor. Turnkey demolition and land remediation services form the core of its capability. Clients from various sectors including heavy industrial, commercial, petrochemical, rail, road and residential have benefitted from Fallon’s expertise. Over the years, it has demolished everything from a single storey structure to high-rise buildings, warehouses, heavy industrial factories, petrol stations, residential properties, supermarkets and petrochemical plants.

Working as a consultant, the company’s involvement ranges from providing pre-purchase advice on contaminated land remediation costs to strip out, demolition and ground clearance. Importantly, all its sites are fully managed by qualified and directly employed staff. This includes our in-house health and safety manager ensuring Fallon’s ambition to exceed client and industry expectations.

Projects receive an extensive pre-start survey in addition to comprehensive risk assessments, method statements and phasing plans. Waste and environmental management plans and traffic management plans are also carried out. This level of detail has meant Fallon has built long-running relationships working as a subcontractor for blue chip clients as well as end users as principal contractor.

We thoroughly review Remediation Strategies to offer our clients the most cost effective solutions that we can provide by maximising the benefit of our skilled workforce, in house plant and technical expertise. Similarly, we combine earthworks and ground improvement with environmental remediation to ensure our client’s sites are ready for development. We prepare Deployment Plans and liaise with the Environment Agency to ensure full compliance with regulatory requirements and provide Verification Reports on completion of remediation works. Our remediation skillset includes soil stabilisation, ex-situ bioremediation and dissolved phase hydrocarbon treatment of groundwater.

Indeed, as Andrew Lowe, Group Head of Sales, tells me, the company recently received a major project with an end user manufacturing client as a direct result of its strong approach to health and safety. “They’re a global business with their own work safe strategy. In their own words, one of the reasons for choosing us over the other demolition contractors was that our ‘Work Safe – Keep Safe’ policy reflects their own in-house strategy.”

“Work Safe – Keep Safe” was developed to promote health and safety best practice amongst the business. The initiative is indicative of the importance the company places on safety and encompasses a number of initiatives to support an engaged workforce and the successful implementation of robust safety policy and procedure.

“The policy was designed to reflect the sort of health and safety standards set by the likes of Balfour Beatty with their ‘Zero Harm’ and Carillion’s ‘Don’t Walk By’. We expect ‘Work Safe – Keep Safe’ to meet or exceed blue chip contractors’ health and safety standards.”

As part of the initiative, a Team Member of the Month award, for example, has helped to recognise good performance. Through its in-house health and safety manager, Fallon carries out regular planned and unplanned site inspections to oversee compliance and ensure expectations are being met.

The introduction of Hazard Report Cards has also enabled it to highlight potential issues in the early stages and take the necessary preventative action. “What we’re looking for on every site – whether that be from the HR manager who is visiting for the day or the demolition operatives at the coal face –is everyone to be looking for both safe and unsafe behaviours.

“A copy of all Hazard Report Cards is entered into a mailbox and at the end of the month the Fallon management team review to see who has contributed the most in both safe and unsafe behaviours and who are actively promoting safety within our organisation. Best performers are rewarded with internal recognition and a £50 high street voucher.”

It was a challenge to implement at first. “When you introduce something like that it is perceived as a threat but it isn’t. We just want to make sure that we’re all working safely. It has taken a number of weeks to get buy-in from all aspects of the business but now we can confidently say that everyone sees Work Safe – Keep Safe as a beneficial part of the business.”

“If we see a good behaviour, we don’t want to just acknowledge it as a one-off but try to implement it as standard.”

The success of this initiative is, in part, to bringing health and safety management in house. The health and safety manager’s position in the management structure is important, says Andrew. “He isn’t someone to pay lip service to. He has a heavy involvement in the day to day activities within the projects, communicating at site level, reviewing documents, implementing safe working practices and liaising with our operatives regarding all aspects of Health and Safety. Our health and safety management is very approachable, to all staff.”

In addition, this has enabled a more focused approach to skills development where expertise can be monitored, qualifications enhanced through training, and career-minded employees rewarded for their efforts.

“Following on from our Training Needs Analysis programme, the training matrix is set up so that we can monitor individuals progress over the following 12 months and put the relevant training in place to enable their professional development and the fulfilment of the business needs. It’s a large investment but it’s a crucial one.

“Health and safety is the first part of everything we do. Our belief is that upfront in-depth review, training, buy in from all staff to the “Work Safe Keep Safe initiative, is the best way to minimise risk. Our mission statement sums it up: the final line says – ‘working safely and getting it right first time every time.’”
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