Ensuring the health and safety of employees and everyone who interacts with the business is the first priority of F. Ball and Co. Ltd., the UK’s leading manufacturer of adhesives for the professional flooring industry.
Its approach to process safety is developed in accordance with global health and safety standard ISO 45001. This is overseen by the a team of four people, including a health and safety manager, led by Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) manager, Jenny Barnett, who has over 20 years’ experience in the adhesives industry, including 18 years working in HS&E management. Both Jenny and health safety and environmental advisor hold Level 6 Occupational Health and Safety qualifications. The department also comprises team members with specialist knowledge in chemistry and chemical safety and sustainability, in addition to being OH&S qualified.
In line with the standard, F. Ball’s health and safety policies and procedures are led from the top down and considers legislative requirements, organisational context and performance evaluation when designing systems. It has also involved building a culture of consultation and empowerment to involve employees in the development of policy and procedures, and everyone in the company has a role in taking ownership of their own health and safety commitments. Continuous improvement and a ‘plan, do, check, act’ approach are integral to this.
F. Ball has in place a formal Health and Safety Committee, which meets monthly and comprises equal numbers of managers and employee representatives, chaired by the company operations director. Health and safety is also the first item on the agenda at every board meeting, and covers accident and incident reporting, safety concerns and the performance of safety management systems.
As well as employee representatives communicating outcomes of committee meetings, a number of channels are used to disseminate health and safety-related information. These include displaying minutes and actions of meetings on noticeboards, as well as an e-learning system that can be used for awareness, refreshers and to create customised modules for both employees.
In addition to basic health and safety training as part of induction programmes, colleagues are prescribed personalised health and safety training according to individual learning and development plans that are based on assessments of requirements for their role by department managers.
This year, F. Ball has invested further in ensuring the safety of people on site at its Staffordshire headquarters by offering optional training in CPR and the use of Automated Electronic Defibrillators (AEDs) to all colleagues, with 37 people, a quarter of the workforce, undertaking the course.
The company has also supported eight designated first aiders to achieve ITC advanced first aid status so that they can deal with other kinds of severe medical emergencies, as well as purchasing equipment with this purpose, such as a trauma responder pack and two AEDs. First aid and emergency evacuation response teams have begun following up planned emergency evacuation drills with training around potential casualty scenarios.