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WASTE DISPOSAL & RECYCLING


MAKE A WISH TO IMPROVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT


Improving health and safety within the waste and recycling industry is being pioneered by Waste Industry Safety & Health forum (WISH) comprising HSE staff, operatives at FCC Environment and individuals at North Kesteven District Council. Here we find out more about the scheme.


New practices are being put in place, led by employees and employee safety representatives themselves, to enhance employee engagement and liaison with senior management across the health and safety sector - with the sole aim of saving lives, reducing accidents and ill health.


The waste and recycling industry has one of the UK’s highest fatality and serious injury rates of all industry sectors and much work has been done over the past five years to reduce this figure.


MAKING A DIFFERENCE The Health & Safety Executive have established the Waste Industry Safety & Health forum (WISH) and colleagues from both private and public sector have embarked on a number of ambitious projects to tackle the worryingly high figures.


With the ambitious aim to achieve a 10% year-on-year reduction on RIDDOR-reported accidents and a zero death rate in the industry, WISH established project groups are tackling the following issues:


• Management and leadership. • Employee engagement. • Safer workplaces. • Building competency. • Creating healthier workplaces. • Providing support for SMEs.


Employee and safety representatives from all over the UK recently attended a workshop held at GMB Offices in London, to work through the realities faced in their daily routine, share experiences and identify


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good practice, all with one clear objective – to identify how employee engagement with health and safety can be improved within the waste and recycling industry.


“THE WASTE AND RECYCLING


INDUSTRY HAS


ONE OF THE UK’S HIGHEST FATALITY AND SERIOUS


INJURY RATES OF ALL INDUSTRY SECTORS.”


John McClean, GMB Trade Union, commented: “There’s no getting away from the fact it’s a dangerous industry. We wanted to learn from [workers] expertise; they’re the ones at the sharp end who know the pressures and the risks.


“We wanted them to share that expertise to identify the good practices which make sense, and work on the ground. From that perspective alone the exercise has already proved to be a great success and I have no doubt that they share all of our determination to cut accidents and fatalities to zero.”


GETTING EMPLOYEES HOOKED Following on from the success of the Health and Safety Leadership Tool - which helps leaders and senior managers of organisations identify improvements in health and safety performance, culture and their own leadership behaviours - it was recognised that improvements in employee engagement were also required.


The main areas of employee engagement identified, through the workshop, as opportunities for improvement were:


• Communication. • Visibility. • Workforce Attitudes. • Opportunities to Contribute.


The workshop was a pioneering move, bringing together representatives from across all sectors of the waste and recycling industry.


Operatives who work directly at an operational level on the vehicles, tip sites and weighbridges gave a flavour of working realities and relationships to more senior management at the workshop to identify challenges and opportunities – with communication at an appropriate, regular and relevant level being key.


The feedback and outcomes from the workshop will help inform and develop a similar tool for organisations to improve employee engagement across all sectors of the waste industry – bottom-up.


Speaking about the event Janet Viney, from the Health & Safety Executive,


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