MAINTAINING HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARDS
WOLSELEY UK
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WOLSELEY UK
WOLSELEY UK
MAINTAINING HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARDS W
ith a large fleet comprising over 5,000 vehicles and a workforce totalling around 15,000 people spread across thirteen operating businesses, maintaining health and safety standards at Wolseley UK presents a major challenge. But the challenge has been met with such determination and expertise that the company has received a host of major safety awards over the last few years. The parent company, Wolseley plc, was founded in Australia in 1887 by Frederick York Wolseley, an Irish emigrant, and now operates in 28 countries with its global headquarters in Reading, England. It had a turnover of £16.2 billion in 2007 and employs around 79,000 people worldwide in about 5,000 branches served by a network of distribution centres. It is the world’s number one distributor of heating and plumbing products to the professional market and a leading supplier of building materials and services. Despite its long history, Wolseley continues to expand at an impressive rate, with growth exceeding ten percent in each of the last nine years – around half of this being organic growth and the rest through acquisition. Wolseley UK has its head office in Leamington Spa and is engaged in the distribution of construction products and materials through more than 1,800 branches nationwide. It operates through a number of wellknown trading brands, among them: • Plumb Center, the UK’s leading supplier of heating and plumbing products through more than 550 branches • Build Center, supplying materials through 260 nationwide branches, including specialist timber, ironmongery, glass and maintenance branches • Pipe Center, a specialist supplier of commercial and industrial heating plant and pipe systems, with 95 branches. Acquisitions that are more recent include: • Bathstore.com, the UK’s leading retailer of baths and bathroom fittings through a network of 100 branches • William Wilson, established in 1900 and one of the largest suppliers of plumbing and heating products in the UK with 21 branches • Encon Insulation, a leading national distributor through 36 business units of a comprehensive range of thermal, acoustic and fire protection insulation products to all sectors of the construction industry. Each brand serves distinct customer groups with a wide range of products, many of which are market leaders with outstanding reputations. A recently developed national distribution centre at Leamington Spa serves three massive distribution centres at Ripon, Worcester and
WOLSELEY UK
PARTS CENTER PLAYS SAFE Milton Keynes. These in turn provide a daily delivery service to branches using Wolseley’s own fleet of specially designed commercial vehicles. Onward delivery to customers is then by branch-based vehicles, with Wolseley having a commercial fleet that exceeds 3,000 vehicles, including 2,000 HGVs, plus a further 3,000 company cars on top. SAFETY AWARDS Despite the size, complexity and diversity of the organisation, Wolseley UK has been a regular recipient of safety awards, including seven major awards in the last two years alone. Paul Gallemore, Wolseley UK’s Head of Health, Safety and Environment, possibly understates the level of achievement when he says: “We’ve been quite successful in terms of recognition for the efforts we’ve put in to fleet safety and general safety.” In the 2007 RoSPA awards, Wolseley UK received a Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety. This was particularly unexpected given that the company hadn’t even put in for that category, as Paul Gallemore recounts: “The occupational health award was a most pleasant surprise since we entered for the silver award category and, on the basis and quality of our entry, have been awarded gold. It is a tribute to everyone in the company who supports our business objectives by making safety in the workplace their personal priority.” Explaining the decision, the RoSPA awards manager, Dave Rawlins, said: “Wolseley UK has demonstrated how seriously it takes
In a move that will promote safety in the industry, Parts Center has teamed up with CORGI to restrict the sale of safety critical gas parts to CORGI members only. Installers wanting to acquire such parts will now be required to show their CORGI certification card before the sale will be allowed. This is believed to be the first partnership of this type between CORGI and a major distributor. The hope is that other merchants will adopt a similar policy and so demonstrate their commitment to legitimate gas installers and to safety generally.
health and safety management and is a fine example to many other companies. We would like to see more organisations following its lead.” Wolseley additionally received a Silver Award for Managing Occupational Road Risk (MORR) in recognition of its pioneering fleet safety programme. The company has also received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its systematic approach to reducing vehicle accidents. This award gives public recognition to the most outstanding examples of international road safety initiatives and, according to Paul Gallemore: “It’s probably the most significant award we’ve won to date. It was quite an honour for myself and the safety team to receive this award.” At the time of receiving the award, he also commented: “Quite apart from the human costs and disruption to the business, road accidents have a significant impact on financial results. Wolseley has
WOLSELEY UK
demonstrated that, with a robust and systematic approach, significant progress can be made in improving the standard of fleet safety.” Wolseley is a corporate partner with Brake, the road safety charity, and has won a number of its Fleet Safety Awards over the last two years. In 2006, it was the winner in the Crash Analysis Procedures category and was highly recommended the following year. Also in 2006, Paul Gallemore was named Road Risk Manager of the Year in the Large Fleet category while in 2007 the company was a winner in the Large Fleet category for Company Driver Safety. One of the most pleasing aspects of doing well in the Fleet Safety Awards is that Wolseley is up against some of the largest fleets and most respected organisations. Its success therefore serves as a benchmark to measure the company’s progress in terms of health and safety against the UK’s leading businesses. And whilst winning awards is an admirable achievement in itself, it is not, as Paul Gallemore testifies, the main aim of the exercise: “For me, it’s not about winning the awards. It’s all about using the awards to actually help reinforce messages around the business. It gives us an opportunity to say to the business: ‘We’re doing the right thing; we’ve been recognised for leading the way in both health and safety and fleet safety.’ “It’s not all about safety being sold as a negative, it’s about safety being sold as a positive. So, it actually gets managing directors, board and directors and line directors more enthusiastic and interested about health and safety, which is good news.”
OTHER AWARDS In addition to its safety awards, Wolseley UK topped the Building Material and Merchants sector in Management Today’s Most Admired survey in 2006. Since voting is by other companies in the same industry sector, this shows the level of respect it is afforded by its main market competitors. Wolseley UK’s ‘Building for Tomorrow’ project, the first phase of its £100 million investment in its logistics network, won the company two categories at the Communicators in Business 2006 Awards. It came out on top in the Best in Class category as well as receiving an award of excellence for the way it was able to communicate sensitive messages about the restructuring of the logistics network. INTEGRATED APPROACH A significant reason behind Wolseley’s success in all things health and safety is its approach to the subject. Rather than treat it as a bolt-on topic to the rest of the operations, it ensures that health and safety is fully integrated into everything else that goes on. And given that Wolseley UK comprises thirteen separate business units, each with its own managing director and board of directors, it really is the only way to succeed in getting the message across. But the approach does seem to work, as Paul Gallemore confirms: “Health and safety is the number one agenda item at every one of the leadership team meetings and that in itself is a massive leap forward
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WAKEFIELD PARTNERSHIP for any organisation. We make sure that we reinforce that safety has to come first in the business. Health and safety is also on the agenda at every Wolseley UK board meeting.” As part of its efforts to constantly improve health and safety performance across the company, Wolseley UK has launched several new initiatives over the last few years. Again, however, nothing is introduced in isolation and tremendous efforts are made to ensure that each initiative fits in seamlessly with other procedures. And that, as Paul Gallemore points out, is always the hardest part. “We can all write a document. The important thing is to make sure that it’s embedded and that everybody gets behind it.” One of the main targets that has been set is a reduction of fifteen percent in the total number of accidents, which is being applied to every business and location. This is backed up by regular management information so that everyone can see how they are performing. STAYING FRESH Setting up new initiatives, introducing health and safety procedures and getting the message across to all affected parties is difficult enough, but it is only half the battle. The trick then is to keep everything fresh, ensure all items are topical and make sure everyone stays interested and alert. But, as Paul Gallemore confirms, this does not mean constantly changing everything just for the sake of doing so. He says: “It is about
Wolseley UK has entered into a long-term deal with Wakefield and District Housing (WDH), scheduled to last up to five years and be worth £6 million per year, to supply all its construction and maintenance materials. WDH was formed in 2005 to manage 31,500 homes in the Wakefield area, making it the largest single stock transfer organisation at the time. Its maintenance and refurbishment teams are working to bring all the homes up to the ‘Wakefield Standard’, which exceeds the government’s Decent Homes Standard. Wolseley UK has committed fully to the contract by creating two bespoke stores that will operate as conventional branches but with WDH as the only customer. This will ensure that WDH employees can always get the materials they need. Wolseley is working closely with WDH to ensure the latest guidelines on sustainability are met through a range of energy efficient products and renewable technologies. It will also supply high quality products and, where possible, source from local suppliers with existing relationships so that the local economy benefits. WDH will additionally benefit from the streamlining of invoicing and order processing procedures, with portable devices being used to place orders and Wolseley managing and auditing the stocks on operatives’ vans.
WOLSELEY UK
reinforcing messages, making sure there is professional looking material in the organisation. “A lot of organisations and safety professionals fail by not putting the effort into getting the materials looking professional or indeed will put materials out that could have been better. If a material looks unprofessional, managers and managing director won’t take it seriously. “We put a lot of time and effort in to make the materials we put out as professional as they can be. Therefore, if we take it seriously, other people will also take it seriously. Content for me is a given – the content has to be right. A lot of our effort is put into delivery and the professional look and feel of the materials as well.” CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY The drive to improve health and safety standards starts at the very top in Wolseley UK and filters all the way down throughout the organisation. The company’s senior management team is fully committed to the cause, evidenced by the health and safety policy statement being signed by the Managing Director and by the Human Resources Director having responsibility for health and safety. All trading meetings have health and safety as a standard agenda item while a Safety Performance Pack is produced each month for the leadership team and is distributed throughout the business. The company’s Corporate Responsibility Policy outlines Wolseley UK’s commitment to health and safety while corporate responsibility
management is dealt with through a framework of groups that meet at regular intervals and which operate at varying levels throughout the company’s structure. These groups include several whose purpose is to uphold health and safety standards: • Executive Safety Steering Group agrees health and safety strategy and assesses the effectiveness of initiatives • Health, Safety & Environment Team Meeting, which provides a forum for the team to discuss plans and projects, review their effectiveness and analyse changes in legal requirements and issues that have significance for the company • Regional Health, Safety & Environment Meeting ensures that health, safety and environment regional managers liaise with their development counterparts and the operational management team at national and local level. New initiatives are demonstrated and awareness of health, safety and environmental matters affecting sites at local level are raised. • Safety Team Sub-Groups identify key programmes and projects, take ownership of them and then complete all necessary actions to see them through to a conclusion. Certain groups and meetings focus specifically on fleet safety: • Fleet Safety Steering Group meets quarterly and aims to reduce the number of collisions that occur each year.
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• Collisions Review Meeting reviews the current status of significant motor claims and identifies key learning points and trends • Company Car Focus Group aims to minimise the risks associated with a large fleet and keep the company’s car drivers safe while on the road. Suggestions to improve health and safety are welcomed, are discussed by the relevant groups and, when suitable, are put into practice at the appropriate level. As part of its commitment to corporate responsibility, Wolseley plc has become a member of the UK’s FTSE4Good Index. This aims to measure the performance of companies the meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards and to help investors identify companies that meet those standards and invest accordingly. ADEQUATELY TRAINED A major element in getting the health and safety message across is ensuring that people are adequately trained. Wolseley UK employs three full-time health and safety trainers and, when there is excessive demand or specialist courses are needed, will additionally use external training providers.
Health and safety training starts right from day one of each employee’s career at Wolseley UK, with the first module of their induction course covering general health and safety. This is then complemented by training that is given by the employee’s manager and deals with site-specific issues. With over 3,000 pieces of material handling equipment being used throughout the organisation, Wolseley UK has a comprehensive training package for each type of equipment plus a Train the Trainer programme for most types. Every branch and location manager is expected to undergo a two day, in-house health and safety course that outlines their responsibilities under Wolseley UK’s health and safety policy. This is stage one in creating the right safety culture for new managers, with refresher and update training being provided every two years. All training courses are designed to be at the right level for their target audience and the range is kept under constant review to ensure that all training is up-to-date and relevant. GETTING BIGGER One of Wolseley’s stated ambitions, which it has managed to achieve since it began, is to double in size every five to seven years. This has resulted in the huge organisation that exists today and means it will
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KEEPING WARM IN THE ANTARCTIC inevitably get even larger in the future. And with half the growth being organic and the rest coming through acquisition, Wolseley needs to acquire some very large organisations just to keep to its targets. Whilst continuous growth by acquisition can cause difficulties due to the need to integrate the new companies into the business, in terms of health and safety it could be a logistical nightmare. Wolseley overcomes any potential problems through a well-oiled process that ensures that there are no nasty surprises when a new company comes on board. An acquisition integration team goes in prior to buying a new business and looks at all aspects of health and safety. It undertakes due diligence to assess the level of compliance within the business and identifies any major issues that need to be allowed for in the acquisition – a dangerous mezzanine floor, poor fire equipment on site, a sub-standard yard or roof, for example. “We’re looking for significant issues that might be very costly so we can build them into the negotiation for the price,” says Paul Gallemore. “If we do buy the business, we’re able to put in place those changes or controls necessary to bring the site up to an acceptable standard. Prior to an acquisition, it’s fundamental that you’ve got to get safety built in.” POST ACQUISITION Once the deed is done and the company is acquired, the hard work really starts. The health and safety team works with the new branch
Wolseley UK’s Encon Insulation business has won a contract to supply thermal products to the Halley VI Research Station, located on the Brunt Ice Shelf. Run by the British Antarctic Survey, this new laboratory will be a centre of research into global issues such as climate change, ozone depletion and atmospheric pollution. Antarctica is the coldest and driest continent, with external temperatures falling as low as minus 56 degrees Celsius. These conditions will put Encon’s products to the severest test, with a combination of thermal products, drywall and partitioning ensuring that internal temperature is maintained at 20 degrees Celsius. Due to the short Antarctic summer and the need to minimise damage to the Brunt Ice Shelf, construction of the research station is set to take two years. It will then have an expected life span of 25 years and will be one of five research stations operated by British Antarctic Survey.
managers and the management team to ensure that Wolseley’s policies and procedures are implemented consistently across the new business. But rather than seeing this as an imposition of established practices, it is viewed more as a sharing of benefits. Nevertheless, sometimes a lot of effort is needed to get the message across, as Paul Gallemore
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confirms: “It’s a challenge because smaller organisations or businesses, branches or independents may not necessarily see the benefits of really embracing safety and environmental programmes. “The role of the health and safety and environmental managers, and my role, is to position the programmes that will add value to their business, either through managing risk better, preventing losses to the company or, indeed, in many cases helping with demonstrating to their customers or potential new customers that we are professional in our approach to safety.” Integration of new businesses is not, of course, a one-way street with Wolseley practices and procedures always replacing those at the new company. Indeed, as Paul Gallemore reports, Wolseley is always willing to adopt programmes and methods from other companies if they are superior to its own. He recalls: “We acquired William Wilson, a plumbing, heating and electrical distributor, around 18-24 months ago. In respect of some of their programmes, their commitment, their safety marketing – they’ve spent some time putting together a professional image so that they had a consistent format for any documentation materials that went out of the business. They were all first class and we have adopted some of their ideas and used them in the rest of the organisation. “So we don’t always think we know it all. There are companies out there and companies we’ve acquired that do things better than us. We are very much an organisation and a safety team that looks for best
practice, looks for simple approaches, looks for good ideas and tries to share them whenever we can.” GROWING BRANDS In addition to expansion by acquisition, Wolseley UK is busily growing the brands it already has. Its tool hire business, Brandon Hire, has opened its largest branch to-date, Constitution Hill in the centre of Birmingham. The branch covers almost 20,000 square feet and is ideally situated to service the city’s on-going regeneration. It features Brandon Hire’s three specialist businesses – tool hire, lifting hire and pipe hire – on a single site for the first time and is serviced by a fleet of five new delivery trucks. A further six Plumb Center bathroom showrooms have opened around the country. These are all attached to Plumb Center branches but have separate entrances and opening hours. At each showroom, customers can select bathroom suites and book an installer to fit them. As part of its investment in its UK logistics network, Wolseley UK opened its new National Distribution Center in Leamington Spa at the end of 2006. The facility comprises 355,000 square feet spread over two buildings linked by an enclosed bridge. It mainly supplies products to the company’s three regional distribution centres with a further two planned for Lancashire and the South of England. Around 250 staff are employed, with an annual throughput of 65 million product units from 147,000 storage locations.
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HEALTH AND SAFETY INITIATIVES Wolseley UK is part way through a five-year programme that aims to improve health and safety throughout the business and has already achieved tremendous results. The programme includes a number of initiatives. Essential Safety Programme. This programme was launched in May 2006 with the aim of providing focus on key safety issues that affect Wolseley UK. Its central theme is a ‘topic of the month’, which is selected from a risk profile based on the previous year’s accident statistics. Each monthly topic is chosen to focus branch managers’ attention on the key issues they need to manage at local level. The topic is highlighted by a poster campaign and backed up by a briefing pack for staff that covers the hazards they face at work and the control measures required to deal with them. This key programme really has helped to improve health and safety awareness due to focusing each month on a specific topic, as Paul Gallemore explains: “What we’re trying to do here is to take what are the serious causes of accidents, what are the hot topics, authority, enforcement, what are the key programmes we need to have in place for the business.” Executive Health and Safety Steering Group. The purpose of this high profile group is to agree the Occupational Health and Safety Strategy, assess the effectiveness of tactical programmes and initiatives and to monitor safety related key performance indicators. And it really is high profile, being made up of three senior Directors, two business leaders, the Head of Property, the Head of Health, Safety and Environment and a senior Health, Safety and Environment Manager. This powerful group meets quarterly to review and agree high-level health and safety policies, strategies and programmes. These are then taken to the Leadership Team for endorsement and support. By setting up such a high-level team, Wolseley UK ensures that the profile of safety is raised right across the business. Safety Alerts. One of Wolseley’s most successful initiatives for drawing attention to serious matters has been the introduction of safety alerts. These are issued to all UK locations whenever a serious incident occurs – and not only within the organisation itself, but elsewhere in the industry if an incident is relevant to Wolseley’s operation. Each safety alert highlights the incident and outlines the key steps that each location must take to prevent occurrences of similar incidents in the future. The process ensures that effective safety communication is established and increases the awareness of staff throughout the company. Risk Assessments. As part of its drive to improve health and safety performance on a continuous basis, Wolseley UK has issued all locations with a new set of generic risk assessments. These have been specifically designed to simplify and improve the process for location managers, while at the same time ensuring compliance with updated legislation. Safety Co-ordinator Programme. This programme aims to provide an additional safety resource at Wolseley’s larger sites, defined as those with more than fifteen members of staff. Whilst the location manager may be able to deal with health and safety issues at small sites, a designated safety co-ordinator is appointed at the larger sites to support the location manager in developing a positive safety culture at the site. The co-ordinator also acts as a point of reference for the introduction and enforcement of safety management processes. Each safety co-ordinator receives five days of externally accredited health and safety training over a ten-month period
and completes specific activities at their branch between each module. On a regular basis, they meet with their location manager and with the regional or site based Health, Safety and Environmental Manager to discuss local and company issues, including any proposals to change policies and programmes. One useful by-product of the Safety Co-ordinator Programme is that it is helping to identify and develop potential future man ‘Don’t Walk By’ Campaign. A key element that is used to engage employees on health and safety matters is the use of the ‘Don’t Walk By’ slogan in Wolseley’s campaign to encourage them to take ownership of health and safety matters. Everyone is encouraged to report immediately to their line manager all accidents, near misses and hazardous situations. This key safety theme within Wolseley UK has promoted a responsible attitude to the prevention of injury and illness at work, whether involving staff, customers or members of the public. Safety Communication. Recognising the importance of keeping health and safety at the forefront of each employee’s thinking, Wolseley UK uses regular communications to get the message across. Connections, the company magazine that is distributed to all employees, contains frequent articles on health and safety. In addition, the Health, Safety and Environment Team publishes a quarterly newsletter that aims to bring all employees up-to-date with planned programmes and news. The company realises that all internal health and safety communications must have a professional appearance as well as content that catches the attention of its readers. Fire Safety Management Programme. All new and revised legislation is routinely assessed for business planning purposes. A typical example is the introduction of the Fire Safety Reform Order, which came into effect in October 2006. Resulting from this, Wolseley UK has developed its own electronic fire risk assessment, which is utilised by all its locations and branches. Regional and Area Management Development. The Health, Safety and Environment Team, with the support of brand and operational management teams, gives presentations at national and local levels with the aim of highlighting health, safety and environmental issues throughout the branch network. All regional and site-based health, safety and environmental managers are expected to hold, as a minimum, the NEBOSH General Certificate or a similar recognised environmental qualification. They should also be working to CMIOSH status. Wolseley UK supports further development through a robust Performance Review programme that forms part of its overall staff development policy. Logistics Safety Conference Call. This is a monthly event in which all distribution centre managers have to participate. It is led by the Logistics Director and the General Manager of Distribution Centres and is supported by members of the Health, Safety and Environmental Team. If any of a distribution manager’s sites have had an incident in the period under consideration, the manager has to outline what occurred, discuss the causes and set out the steps that have been taken to prevent a similar occurrence. The report is heard by the manager’s peers so that all can share the lessons that have been learned. This powerful tool has helped to reduce accidents across the distribution side of the business. Whistle Blowing Policy. This policy and associated help line allow employees to pass on to the company their concerns about a number of issues. All calls are dealt with in a confidential manner and all are acted on.
WOLSELEY UK
The continued growth of Wolseley UK’s many brands means the health and safety policies and procedures need to be introduced again and again at new sites as they open. Coupled with the acquisition policy, it provides a never-ending challenge to the company’s Health, Safety and Environmental team. ALL TOGETHER With a company as diverse as Wolseley UK, achieving consistency across the thirteen business units, especially from a health and safety point of view, is a key aim. With many of the operating units having been acquired over the years, it is essential that all the different businesses are managed in a similar way, have the same policies and very much operate on a consistent basis. “I guess it’s fundamental to the success of our safety programme because you’re only as strong as your weakest link,” says Paul Gallemore. “If you have a business or a branch manager that is neglecting to adhere to policies or programmes, or if they don’t get involved in activities that are going on, then clearly they’re a loose cannon. Where appropriate, we’ve certainly taken corrective action with branch managers as well as employees where they’ve failed to adhere to basic standards.” KEEPING TRACK The trick, of course, is identifying non-conformance in the first place so that the necessary action can be taken. But with over 1,800 branches across the UK, this is easier said than done, as Paul Gallemore concedes: “There’s no way on earth that the health and safety team can do it on their own. You have to engage others, enthuse others to look at the success of the safety programme.” So Wolseley builds in an audit process with every health and safety programme that it launches. This aims to confirm that the documentation or the new programme has been adopted at the branch level. As part of the audit process, the company has recently launched its LT/SMT audit. This stands for Leadership Team/Senior Management
Team and consists of five basic questions that members of the teams ask the branch manager each time they visit a site. The fact that management are asking safety questions on a regular basis helps to reinforce the impression that the programmes have been correctly embedded into everyday procedures, as Paul Gallemore confirms: “It’s a real benefit to any organisation if you can get your leadership team, your managing director and your most senior people within the business, when they’re visiting a branch or any site, just to ask five or six important questions in relation to safety. “Whenever they visit, they have this simple form with them. It’s far more powerful to have a director of the business or operations asking about safety rather than a health and safety manager. We have been very successful in terms of encouraging our leadership team to do that.” Having asked the questions, it doesn’t end there. At every Wolseley UK board meeting the LT/SMT audit details are updated, covering how many have been completed and who is leading the way or falling behind. “And that,” confirms Paul Gallemore, “causes quite a lot of interesting debate at that level and encourages others to do more. It’s been a very successful programme.” SUSTAINABLE FUTURE In addition to its efforts on the health and safety front, Wolseley UK is also busily fighting in the environmental corner. The company is all too aware that the construction industry can have a negative impact on the environment and that buildings account for around half of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. It is therefore committed to helping the industry contribute to a more sustainable future by reducing the environmental footprint left by developers and occupiers. Wolseley UK’s environmental policy commits the organisation to reducing, reusing and recycling materials and resources whenever possible. It monitors and reports its performance through a whole series of objectives and targets, including waste management, carbon management and resource efficiency.
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As with health and safety, management at the highest level of the company are actively involved in ensuring that the best environmental standards are maintained and that objectives are achieved. All employees at all levels are given responsibility for making sure that company environmental standards are met in their immediate areas while the company also works in partnership with suppliers to promote the sustainable sourcing of products and materials. Environmental performance is monitored and controlled through a number of groups, including the Environmental Working Group, the Waste Management Sub-Group and the Carbon Management SubGroup. Wolseley UK only obtains timber from certified, well-managed forests and complies with the Forestry Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification criteria. It has a Timber & Chain of Custody Sub-Group that examines the current status of the chain of custody, which charts timber through all stages from the forest to the customer so that its origins and treatment can always be traced. SUSTAINABLE DISTRIBUTION The growth in construction throughout the UK in the last few years has led to a corresponding increase in distribution capacity to get products from their source to the building site. And as a major player in the industry, Wolseley UK has not been left out, resulting in its current fleet size of around 3,000 commercial vehicles.
Whilst the company can do little to cut the size of its fleet significantly without severely damaging its business, it is making efforts to ensure that distribution is more sustainable. To this end, it has introduced various initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and negative environmental impacts. Distribution scheduling of materials has historically been undertaken at branch level but has often resulted in vehicles being underutilised. A pilot scheme trialled a ‘centralised transport hub’ in three locations around Derby and resulted in a reduction in the number of vehicles needed and the overall mileage taken to complete the same number of deliveries. The scheme is now being rolled out to more areas and is expected to reduce the fleet by fifty vehicles. It will also save one million road miles each year and cut down carbon dioxide emissions by more than 600 tonnes. As part of the service provided to customers, Wolseley UK operates a daily delivery service to every branch from its distribution centres. Whereas the trucks would previously return empty to the centres after making deliveries, they now generally call at the nearest participating supplier to collect any ordered goods that are available. The result is a reduction in the number of miles travelled by supplier vehicles and therefore a decrease in the environmental impact of the supply chain – an estimated annual carbon dioxide saving of 1,000 tonnes. Two of Wolseley UK’s distribution centres now use bio-diesel, which is better for the environment than pure mineral-based diesel. It
WOLSELEY UK
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CENTER One of Wolseley UK’s most innovative contributions to environmental performance and sustainable development is its Sustainable Building Center. This unique project will provide a national showcase for sustainable building products and construction methods. Work on the £3 million building, which is located on the same Leamington Spa site as the company’s headquarters and its National Distribution Center, began in June 2007 with the opening date scheduled for mid-2008. The two storey, 6,800 square foot building is the first of its kind and will allow everyone involved in construction, from architects and developers through to jobbing builders, to experience the latest technologies and the widest range of sustainable, energy-efficient and recycled building products. The range of products that will be displayed includes renewable energy generators (such as solar panels and ground source heat pumps), biomass stoves and boilers, water conservation devices and sustainable urban drainage systems. Visitors will be able to see products in action, with demonstrations being given by specially trained staff. Presentations will be tailored to the visitors’ needs while personalised advice will be available for specific requirements. The building will have first class training and presentation facilities and will stage events and product launches. It will include a forty seat audiovisual theatre, several display galleries and test beds. It is designed to be ‘dynamic’ so that products are replaced as new or improved versions become available. Not only will the building house products the visitors can examine, but it will itself be an example of sustainable development by incorporating many environmentally friendly features that visitors can see and experience. These features will include natural and low energy lighting, photovoltaic and biomass energy generation, water saving devices and a sedum blanket roof that will protect the roof membrane and reduce internal temperatures in the summer. In anticipation of the opening of the Sustainable Building Center, a product guide has been launched that lists and described the available sustainable products, explains various technologies behind the products and gives comparable performance data for specific items. A dedicated website (www.wolseleysbc.co.uk) provides news of the project, deals with environmental issues relating to the construction industry and lists relevant forthcoming events such as environmental conferences. Visitors to the website can register for an email newsletter that provides regular updates on the project. The Sustainable Building Center’s environmental credentials have been recognised by it being accepted as a demonstration project with the Constructing Excellence Demonstration Programme. This programme was established in 1998 to capture and disseminate best practice knowledge in the built environment sector. Demonstration projects are those that are innovating or applying an element of best practice that can be used to influence industry change.
is estimated that the company used over two million litres of bio-diesel in 2005-6, making it one of the largest users of the fuel in the UK. The aim is to increase the use of bio-diesel as it becomes more generally available. FLEET SAFETY Given the size of Wolseley UK’s fleet, with over 5,000 vehicles in total, fleet safety is naturally a major concern. It is widely recognised that driving is one of the biggest risks faced by the company’s employees, with statistics showing that one in four UK road deaths involves an at work driver. A comprehensive fleet safety strategy has been implemented and has helped to raise awareness across the company of fleet safety and collision reduction measures. The strategy focuses on the human, business and financial benefits of improving fleet safety and is a board level priority, being high on the agenda at all levels of meetings as well as being featured widely in various publications. The success of the strategy can be measured not only in improving accident statistics but also in the many fleet safety awards that the company has received. These include Wolseley UK being a regular winner in the annual award scheme that is run by Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum division. Part of Wolseley UK’s drive to improve fleet safety has been the introduction of rewards for good practice. The Commercial Driver of the Year competition was launched in 2006, highlighting employees with a good driving history and those who adhere to guidelines and best practice. After the inaugural year, the decision was taken to
WOLSELEY UK
WOLSELEY UK
include company car drivers in the event and so share best practice across the entire fleet. The fleet safety strategy aims to improve work-related road safety performance, promote best practice and improve the safety of the vehicle fleet, operations and drivers. This is being achieved through a number of initiatives and programmes. FLEET SAFETY STEERING GROUP This group is the primary means by which focus and attention on fleet safety are maintained. Its members include car fleet and commercial fleet managers together with a number of operational managers in order to ensure that practical and effective initiatives are implemented. There are also several external participants, including the company’s risk management led insurer Zurich, its insurance broker Willis, the fleet leasing company GE Capital, accident management company Fleet Management Group and risk management advisor Interactive Driving Systems. The Fleet Safety Steering Group (FSSG) meets quarterly and its main business is to discuss, develop, pilot, implement and evaluate initiatives that address the company’s existing and emerging driver risks. A key element of the process is encouraging managers to take more responsibility for the road safety of employees at their branch. The group has so far introduced several initiatives that have made significant contributions to improving fleet safety. DRIVER FOCUS GROUPS As a means of establishing two-way communications, driver focus groups were set up to identify and discuss areas of concern at the operational level.
The danger of this type of forum is that it can simply become a talking shop and achieve no concrete results. And while some participants have undoubtedly taken the opportunity to air a few grievances, the groups did come up with some extremely positive suggestions. Several areas for improvement have been highlighted, including the suitability of vehicles (a newer and better specified fleet was recommended), security of loads and the need for improved driver induction and training. Some suggestions have been translated into practical operational ideas for improvement and have been piloted or implemented fully. DRIVER RISK ASSESSMENTS The aim of risk assessments is to ensure the competence of not only Wolseley UK’s own employees but also its contractors to fulfil their road safety roles. The programme uses a process of assessment, monitoring and improvement in order to achieve its aim. So far, over 1,000 drivers have been put through the risk assessment process and it will eventually be undertaken by all Wolseley UK personnel who drive as part of their work. The process involves a number of separate elements – a safe driving pledge, a risk foundation assessment to ensure that drivers comply with the company’s rules, RoadRISK profile and defensive driving risk assessments and CrashCOUNT collision analysis. The RoadRISK driver assessments focus on 49 measures of the driver’s exposure to risks as well as their attitude, behaviour, hazard perception and knowledge. The measures are believed to constitute the most sophisticated and statistically validated active fleet monitoring system in the UK and identify those drivers considered at most risk of having an accident.
WOLSELEY UK
WOLSELEY UK
The outcome of the initial phase of assessment was that 6% of drivers were shown to be high risk, 70-80% to be medium risk while 1020% were considered low risk. These results enable corrective action to be focused where most needed. The intention is that eventually all company car drivers will have to go through the risk assessment before being allowed to collect or replace their vehicle. Automated electronic licence entitlement checks will also be carried out with the DVLA, with drivers who are considered at risk being particularly targeted and 20 percent of other drivers being randomly checked each year. COLLISION ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION As part of its Work Related Road Safety programme (WRRS), Wolseley UK has put a lot of time and effort into analysing collisions that have occurred and investigating their causes. This has involved it working closely with its risk management advisors, insurance broker and insurer to improve the collection and use of collision data. It has also set up the CrashCOUNT system to analyse the data and to develop targeted risk management strategies. The FSSG was instrumental in identifying gaps in the data so that its collection could be improved. Once the collision data was collected and analysed, it was used to persuade the board and senior management to invest time and money in road safety. The topic has since been made a board level priority and a key performance indicator. As a direct result of collecting collision data and using it effectively, clear improvements in safety performance have resulted. Investigations of collisions are conducted at local level by line managers, usually involving an interview with the driver. Higher level
investigation is undertaken by the FSSG and various sub-groups, including an investigation by the claims review sub-committee of outstanding claims that are thought to be ‘interesting’. Recent investigations have focused particularly on fraudulent claims, including the increasing problem of ‘slam-on’ where criminal gangs cause or stage collisions with commercial vehicles to engineer large insurance payouts. As a result, the company is developing education campaigns to help drivers avoid this type of collision. The lessons learned from collision analysis and investigations have led to the development of a corrective action programme and its implementation across the company. Wolseley UK’s work in this area helped it win the Crash Analysis Procedures category in the Brake Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence in 2006 and be highly recommended in 2007. IMPROVED RESULTS The achievements of the work related road safety programme are measured constantly to ensure that it is on track and delivering a positive outcome. Measurement is undertaken in a number of ways, including an independent fleet safety audit conducted by Zurich Risk Services. This showed a clear improvement resulting from the policies and procedures that had been implemented. Analysis of the collision data showed a marked reduction in both the number of collisions and the resulting costs over a two-year period. Insurance loss ratios show a downward trend in the number of claims per vehicle (reduced from 65 percent to 43 percent) and the average cost of each claim (down by 17 percent) during the last four years – both providing an indication of an improvement in the organisation’s road safety performance.
WOLSELEY UK
Aside from the human and business benefits of reduced vehicle accidents, the work related road safety programme has delivered several measurable financial benefits. An increased focus on unrecovered losses associated with incidents caused by third parties has resulted in more money being recovered by the commercial and car fleet teams – more than £130,000 being clawed back over a twelve month period. This additional revenue has gone some way to funding the fleet safety programme. Reduced insurance claims have also led to a decrease in the level of insurance premiums, with the amounts paid going down by a five figure sum over the past two years. ROAD SAFETY WEEK Wolseley UK’s commitment to road safety is not limited to only its employees and contractors but extends also to the overall community. It demonstrated this commitment by backing the National Road Safety Week in 2006. Wolseley’s Essential Safety Theme topic for November 2006 was teamed up with the National Road Safety campaign to focus on various risks associated with road safety and all employees were required to acknowledge that they had read and understood the key messages. The main focus of the week was on young drivers and so Wolseley UK invited all its graduates to participate in an online driver RoadRISK assessment to identify those most at risk from accidents. It also showed Brake’s road safety DVD ‘Busy Enough to Kill’, which features case studies of accidents resulting from unsafe road practices, to all graduates based at its UK head offices. Each attendee also received a copy of the Wolseley UK Company Car and Safe Driving Handbook, which is packed with information and guidance to help keep drivers safe.
The company sponsored two large Road Safety Week banners, which were placed in prominent locations at Leamington Spa and Ripon. Additionally, a number of sixth form students who were also provisional driving licence holders were invited to a practical and theorybased workshop at Wolseley UK’s national fleet training company. A similar level of support was given to National Road Safety Week in 2007 to show the company’s ongoing commitment. POSITIVE TRENDS With ongoing expansion of the organisation almost taken for granted, Wolseley UK will continue to grow and new companies will be acquired and integrated. On top of all that, changes in legislation are inevitable and will have to be dealt with as they occur. Despite the successes so far, Paul Gallemore does not underestimate the task ahead. He says: “Whilst we’ve seen some very positive trends in reducing our collision and injury rates, we’ve still got a long way to go as an organisation. We still have people injured through collisions at work and through injuries in the workplace and the team won’t rest, I won’t rest, until we see continued improvement in the future.”
WOLSELEY UK, THE WOLSELEY CENTER HARRISON WAY, SPA PARK ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA CV31 3HH TEL: 01926 705000 www.wolseley.co.uk
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