Creating an Incident and Injury-Free™ (IIF™) safety culture in the construction industry
Skanska Cementation Foundations dramatically reduced injury rates over a four-year period
75%
reduction in injury rates
Challenge
Cementation Foundations, a division of the Skanska Group, is a leading construction company specializing in piling and ground engineering. The company operates on a global scale, often in challenging conditions and against tight timelines. Annually, Cementation Foundations undertakes approximately 200 projects, using flexible teams sourced from the company’s regional offices across the UK. This adaptability enables the company to deliver expert support to clients precisely where and when they need it.
When JMJ began its partnership with Skanska Cementation, an open, honest culture prevailed. However, with a mobile workforce in multiple locations, there were significant cultural variations between sites.
Solution
JMJ led a safety leadership program consisting of a diagnostic assessment, commitment workshops, launching and supporting a safety leadership team, leadership coaching and Train the Trainer events. Subsequently, JMJ facilitated refresher support for Cementation Foundations, including training additional staff to lead IIF safety briefings and supporting the client in developing internal safety briefings.
Client Goals
While safety standards were ‘satisfactory’, leadership wanted to elevate them to ‘best in class’ by ensuring that every team member understood their personal and collective responsibility for safety and was committed to achieving it. Their objectives were to:
- Make safety a core value, at both organizational and individual levels
- Identify opportunities for enhancing the safety process by surfacing and addressing the perceptions, assumptions, and beliefs which influenced their safety-related behavior
- Cultivate an ongoing coaching relationship with senior leadership and key management to facilitate the development of an Incident and Injury Free™ (IIF™) workplace and align these efforts with the organization’s broader business objectives
- Ensure the sustainability of IIF by training Cementation Foundations personnel to lead orientations and workshops for their respective teams.
As a hands-on foundations contractor, we now run a risk-related business in an often-dangerous environment, so we should push the safety agenda way out there in front of all lists."
“I thought the reality of managing a business with zero accidents of any sort was more an end goal than a targeted policy. But last year we were incident free for several months running, and I now believe we can really achieve it."
Results
Adopting IIF created an award-winning safety culture within the organization. Examples of the difference the engagement has made to Cementation Foundations’ safety statistics.
Key takeaways
- Even if your organization already maintains a positive safety culture, the IIF approach can drive transformative breakthroughs
- Commitment to safety at both the individual and organizational levels is critical to the success of any culture change program
- Creating a best-in-class safety culture demands persistent dedication, ongoing refinement, and meticulous metric tracking
- A commitment to safety can lead to prestigious industry awards and recognition, elevating your company’s standing and raising employee morale
Significant injury rate improvement
75% reduction achieved
Reduced average incident rate
From 24 to 6 over 4 years
Award-winning recognition
Commitment to safety excellence recognized with two industry awards