We work safely or we do not work at all
We are creators of the healthy living environment. For ourselves, our partners and, of course, for end users. Safety is a prerequisite in this: we either work safely or we do not work at all. It is important to us that everyone arrives home healthy every day. That is why we have been working for years on a proactive safety culture, in which we do not turn a blind eye, but address unsafe behaviour and encourage each other to do better. We continuously strive to create the right working atmosphere for this. When working with our partners, we also consider it important to have an equal relationship, especially when it comes to safety. This does not happen automatically, which is why we take the lead on this front.
Safety is in the DNA of our employees; our GO! compass is our guiding principle here. GO stands for No Accidents. Ten years after its launch, GO! is now firmly embedded in our organisation. All our business areas are actively implementing their safety and master plans on a continuous basis. This includes safety rounds together with subcontractors, sessions with clients and partners, presenting awards for clean and safe construction sites and offering interactive toolboxes on themes that require attention. It is up to the business itself, but supported by the Safety department. Ownership in the various business areas has grown significantly over the years. They think independently about what could or should be improved, after which they incorporate this in their safety master plan. This also requires a different role on the part of the Safety department: from leading to coaching.
Safety a subject of constant attention
The Safety Culture Ladder promotes safety awareness and consciously safe conduct within the organisation. In 2023, all of Heijmans - except recently acquired companies - was certified at level 4 of the Safety Culture Ladder. Heijmans Infra has successfully continued on level 4 for the third year in a row. This means that our proactive safety culture is actually perceived as such. We continue to improve on this front. In addition to structural safety and safety at our building sites, Heijmans is devoting increasing attention to environmental safety. So all aspects of safety are considered wherever we build.
In 2023, Heijmans reviewed its Safety Strategy. Of course, we continue to do everything possible to ensure that our colleagues can perform their work in a physically safe manner; we minimise risks in all our process steps and we ensure that everyone has the right skills and the right work equipment to work safely. For example, safety is a standard part of our various training programmes. We also held several safety (behaviour) sessions with employees and with suppliers. Employees at Property Department participated in sessions on the duty of care with the aim of eliminating or reducing certain risks in the design phase by making architectural, technical and organisational choices. The ‘For whom do you come home safely’ communication campaign capitalised on the sense of responsibility to achieve behavioural change among some twelve hundred employees at Heijmans Non-residential Services. In addition to physical safety, social safety is also very important. Our code of conduct and system of confidential counsellors are examples of how we deal with this aspect of safety.
Furthermore, in 2023 we once again increased awareness of our internal virtual reality (VR) simulations among the professionals on our building sites. The ‘VR dream team’ continues to build on realistic training courses to make safe working practices easier. By detecting safety risks early in this virtual world, we ultimately prevent incidents on building sites and encourage safe behaviour. Building site employees are positive about this form of training. The customised VR safety training at the Science Campus project in Leiden even won the best practice public award from Bewuste Bouwers (the Considerate Constructors scheme). This foundation stands for environmental management, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and safety on and around building sites and encourages companies to improve on these points.
To raise safety within the construction industry to a higher level, Heijmans entered into a partnership with KPE Group, experts in education and training in the construction, infrastructure and real estate sectors. We hope to have a significant impact together by offering industry-wide innovative VR safety training to construction professionals and providing them with a realistic learning experience.
Embedding safety
Safety is a fundamental requirement at Heijmans. Day in and day out, we devote a great deal of attention to safety; training courses, communication campaigns, policies, nudging techniques and much more. Since 2023, we have been certified company-wide at step 4 of the Safety Culture Ladder, with the exception of recent acquisitions. This is great achievement of which we are proud. However, actually bringing about sustainable behavioural change among our employees is proving to be a complex task. Reducing the number of accidents permanently is therefore a challenge. All the more reason for us to continue to learn in this area and improve continuously.
How do we do that? First of all, it is important that our tools and procedures are in order. That is the basis on which we work continuously to improve safety. In addition, we look at both the specific behaviour we want to change and the wider context. Because what gets in the way of working safely? And how do we solve it? For this, we need to listen to practitioners, who are close to the issues. An open and honest working atmosphere is essential for this. An environment where everyone dares to be themselves and where people proactively share ideas and concerns. We believe that psychological safety is a prerequisite for physically safe work. To achieve this, we first need to have the basics permanently in order. In the coming years, we will therefore continue to work on risk management, instruction and training and focus on providing the right work equipment. Of course, we will ensure that our tools and procedures remain in order. To make sure we can also influence the culture and proactive safety behaviour, we will focus on (more) active management of our colleagues, developing safety leadership and learning from good examples and incidents. This is how we will continue to make strides and improve safety for our people.
Innovation in safety
At the Smart Infra Experience in October, we presented attendees with ideas on how we can use specific technology to increase safety around roadworks. Every year, the infrastructure sector is faced with traffic incidents with casualties at road works. This is why we want to continue innovating to improve safety with technology. Using so-called v2x technology, a vehicle automatically stops at a red cross, which prevents collisions. This will enable us to take our responsibility on the road. Together with our partners in the Heijmans, Swarco, V-Tron consortium, we are advocating a dynamic mix of short-distance and long-distance communication.
Focus themes
In 2023, we devoted more attention to psychological safety. We believe it is important to work in an environment where everyone feels they have the room to be themselves and where they can proactively share ideas, opinions and concerns. We see this as a prerequisite for the physical safety of our colleagues. Last year, we used a number of campaigns to raise awareness of this message among our employees. This theme was also the focus during the Conscious Safety Day on 29 March, and this has made the topic more accessible. We have noticed that people are talking about this, even if they find it difficult. This is not just about calling each other to account for unsafe behaviour, but also about appreciating safe behaviour.
Our internal and external safety systems are increasingly successful. For instance, we are seeing a constant improvement in how our GO! app, Workday, SAP, our IRES audit system and our safety dashboard communicate with each other. As a result, data is always up-to-date and instantly accessible. This also means that the use of these systems is being adopted more widely by employees. Reports are now automatically categorised thanks to machine learning. Using this kind of artificial intelligence (AI) makes it a lot easier to discover trends in the different types of incidents and applicable lessons. We will continue our efforts to make the threshold as low as possible for the reporting of safe and unsafe situations. This is the only way we can keep improving continuously.
Safety in the chain
An increasing number of clients are taking responsibility and addressing their role in safety. The Central Works Councils Platform for the Construction & Dredging sector (PCOBB) is working with construction industry umbrella organisation Bouwend Nederland and the Dutch Labour Inspectorate on a questionnaire that will enable contractors in a tendering process to check (anonymously) during the information note whether clients comply with all their health & safety obligations. This will enable us to create a context in which contractors can perform their work safely before that work starts. At Heijmans, we take the initiative to enter into discussions with clients about their joint role in safety. We do this in the form of workshops.
Since 2022, Heijmans has been applying Safety in Tendering (ViA) and the Safety Culture Ladder as selection criteria in our chain. This means that we only want to work with subcontractors and suppliers who are at least level 2 and SCC (Dutch: VCA) certified. We continue to encourage them to take the step up to level 3.
To improve safety when working on or from emergency lanes, Heijmans and other infrastructure companies have entered into discussions with the Ministry of Public Works and Water Management. The number of unsafe situations and accidents during work on the hard shoulder is growing and the behaviour of road users who ignore red crosses is also increasing steadily. This puts our colleagues working on the road in additional danger and we need to take action to counter this. In addition to the extra safety measures we take as principals and contractors, it is also important that road users start obeying traffic rules more. That calls for additional measures, a different way of working and more awareness. Subcontractors, contractors, clients, road authorities, labour inspectorates and road users; everyone involved can play an important role in increasing safety on and along our roads. Meanwhile, construction and technical services sector employers’ bodies Bouwend Nederland and Techniek Nederland and SME sector organisation MKB-Infra have issued a joint statement setting out additional requirements for this work.
Safety in conduct
Safety is a key priority at Heijmans. We either work safely or we do not work at all. It is a prerequisite in all the work we do. As far as we are concerned, safety should therefore not be a point of discussion. Nevertheless, we and certainly our colleagues - often due to time pressure - feel forced to make choices; economic result or safety? As a result, we see that agreements we have made with each other are not always kept. Indeed, in practice, we are rewarded for sustainability and price, for instance by organising a tender financially efficiently. But we are not always valued for ensuring safety. Clients are more likely to steer on limiting obstacles, lead times and price - in other words, economic and financial considerations. This can compromise the safety of our employees.
How do we deal with this? Safe and healthy work comes before time and money. This is why Heijmans enters into dialogue. We are in constant dialogue with our clients, subcontractors and consultants about how we can work together to maintain a healthy working environment and improve it where necessary. We want an equal relationship with both executing and commissioning partners when it comes to safety. This means that safety is also a crucial part of every decision in the cooperation with our partners. In this respect, the welfare and safety of bystanders, local residents, suppliers and colleagues are always the starting point of our actions: we must protect them. But we can only do this together with our chain partners. We need each other to take the next step in safety. If a partner fails to work according to this vision, we provide feedback and help to make the right trade-offs. And unfortunately, it sometimes also means we have to bid farewell to a client.
Construction safety
The structural safety of construction projects is essential in both the final and user phases. As both client and contractor, we play an important role in this. Structural safety is about preventing, limiting and combating disasters caused by the failure of a structure. Due to the increasing fragmentation in the construction industry, it is not always clear who is responsible for structural safety. Combined with the challenges in terms of sustainable solutions, other materials and material applications used, this issue requires constant attention.
In our framework agreements and associated job descriptions, Heijmans has made our core values more explicit to engineering firms. Where necessary, we also have discussions with our clients. Together, we make our projects and those of our clients structurally and qualitatively better and safer. In addition, we continuously evaluate the renewed cooperation both internally and externally. We keep talking to each other or take the initiative to continuously improve in this way, based on the conviction that everyone does their work as well as possible. Showing ownership and leadership is essential on this front.