Meet the Team who nurture a culture of Health & Safety across all of our sites
With this week being CIF Safety Week 2020, we sat down with some members of our Health and Safety Department to ask them about their career highlights so far, how they drive a culture of health and safety here at mac-group year round and their top tips for each of CIF Safety Week’s daily themes.
Thankfully in mac, senior leadership teams really sponsor, support and encourage health and safety in the company as an integral and important link to all other departments and functions.
EHS Manager ROI – Caroline Henry
Meet Group EHS Manager Darren Bourke
Darren is responsible for the implementation of the Health and Safety policy and procedure across all departments of mac-group. Darren has over 28 years of experience in construction, the last 18 of which have been full-time in the Health & Safety sector. His vast experience in managing complicated EH&S requirements across multi million projects and his warm, open honest approach is appreciated by both clients and his team.
Darren is the custodian of our ISO45001 accredited Safety Management Systems and leads a team of highly trained EHS Practitioners.
What is the most common misconception in Health and Safety?
The most common misconception in the construction industry and with Health and Safety in general is that you won’t have an accident, simply because you haven’t had one before. I wish more people fully appreciated aside from the implications for your health and your family, the time spent and huge costs that are incurred when incidents and injuries occur on site. We’re not putting these procedures in place to nag and annoy, we are keeping you safe, ensuring you go home to your family in one piece and making sure we all have a site to come to work on the next day. It is a collective interest and for this reason it is important that all site staff act as Health and Safety Ambassadors. The staff who fully embrace and accept their responsibility in keeping people safe on our sites are the best ambassadors one can hope for and are key to promoting a strong safety culture on our sites.
What are your top tips for looking after your mental health, welfare and wellbeing while working in construction? What do you do? (CIF Safety Week 2020 Monday’s theme)
Meet EHS Manager UK Kevin Shannon
What is the most common misconception in Health and Safety?
I think there is still a common misconception of ‘them vs us’ in the industry. I think the days of health and safety professionals just turning up onto site and pointing out a load of observations and walking away leaving the site team to pick up the pieces has started to disappear. In my opinion, health and safety management is more of a team approach. I like to use my Lewis Hamilton analogy when describing how health and safety sits within the site teams. The PM or SM is always Lewis Hamilton. The commercial team are the guys who jack the car up at the front in the pit, the technical team are the ones who take the tyres off and the health and safety team are the ones who put the new tyres on. Ultimately, health and safety is there as part of the team to support the PMs and SMs in getting the job done on time, on programme and at the same time ensuring everyone goes home safely and in good health.
What is your advice for ensuring plant and pedestrian safety (CIF Safety Week 2020 Tuesday’s theme)
Meet EHS Manager ROI Caroline Henry
What is your biggest lesson learned since you started your career in construction 10 years ago?
Never make assumptions. Hold open, frank honest conversations. In incident investigation, things are not always as they seem. In safety non-compliance, there can be hidden reasons why people made the wrong decisions. Having real and difficult conversations will solve issues instead of masking them with quick fixes, which don’t work.
What are your top tips for looking after your occupational health while working in construction? (CIF Safety Week 2020 Wednesday’s theme)
Meet EHS Officer John Coyne
What is your advice for ensuring safety while working at height (CIF Safety Week 2020 Thursday’s theme)
Meet EHS Officer Laura McCooey
What is your best advice when dealing with an emergency on site (CIF Safety Week 2020 Friday’s theme)
Other vital members of our EHS Team include EHS Officer Julia Kormisina, EHS Officer Nemanja Dragicevic and EHS Administration Officer Karoline Da Silva Ferreira
Photos from across our sites over the last three days
