Health, Safety & Organisational Governance Compliance, control and your peace of mind – Our standards, our policies, our values

We firmly believe that growing a successful business is best achieved through non-adversarial methods. In practice this means treating our clients, subcontractors and suppliers as mutual partners, working together ethically and with fairness.

Cultural Change Through Communication
Our, Health, Safety and Sustainability Strategy is owned by our Board of Directors and delivered at all operational levels through robust governance.

We believe communication is critical to creating the conditions for our Zero Harm programme. It’s important that everyone understands our approach to Health & Safety and feels empowered to play their part. For this reason, we have an intensive formal Health & Safety induction process for all new starters, including subcontractors. One of the key aims of this exercise is to encourage a culture of care and mutual respect by strengthening relationships between management and the workforce.

Raising Awareness – We all have a part to play in keeping our workplaces safe. One of the most effective ways we can do this is by being aware of the dangers around us and taking action to address those risks. That’s why we actively encourage all our people to regularly assess their working environments and report any identified risks as they arise. A specific mechanism to achieve this is our ‘near miss’ reporting procedure.

To ensure proper continuity and sound development of our business and corporate governance strategy, our policies and management systems continue to be developed to meet client expectations and an ever changing industry and regulatory framework. They are regularly reviewed and signed-off by the Managing Director, Simon King.

The Management System delivers consistency across our business, promoting regulatory compliance and good practice. Quality procedures under ISO 9001, Environmental procedures under ISO 14001 and Health & Safety procedures under OHSAS 45001 are fully integrated into our Management System; accredited by UKAS.

Audits are a regular part of our operations and consistently demonstrate continual improvement, management commitment, innovation, good practice and favourable performance in comparison to our competitors. External health & safety, quality and environmental audits are conducted by ISO Comply (a UKAS accredited certification body). Summaries and actions in response to these audits are reported to the Directors at the management review meetings. Internal audits are managed by the Company’s Health, Safety. Environmental and Quality Manager, David Stevens and we are also subject to an increasing number of client audits.

Business Continuity – we have a proactive approach in responding to potential business interruptions through our ‘Business Continuity Plan’ (sometimes also referred to as Disaster Recovery). This plan ensures that any disruptions to our business are either negated or effectively managed.

Risk Management

Effective risk management underpins the delivery of our business objectives and is essential to protecting our reputation and generating sustainable value. We aim to identify at an early stage and develop actions to eliminate them or mitigate their impact likelihood to an acceptable level.

We have embedded continuous risk management processes throughout the business at all levels which forms an integral part of day to day business activity. They are designed to help management identify and understand the risks they face in delivering business objectives and the status of the key controls in place for managing those risks.

The Company Board is responsible for its system of risk management and internal control where by policies and delegated authority levels are set and risks are reviewed and escalated to the appropriate level within the business for consideration and approval.

Our risk management policy requires that all department functions assess the risks to which they are exposed and which could impact the ability to deliver both their own, and the wider Company’s objectives.

Identified risk events, their causes and possible consequences are recorded in risk registers, along with details of probability and the potential related business impact. Control systems to manage them are analysed and additional actions developed and put in place as required to mitigate or eliminate unwanted exposures. Team members are allocated responsibility for evaluating and managing these risks to an agreed timescale.

A range of procedures are used to monitor the effectiveness of internal controls, including management assurance, risk management processes and independent assurance provided by internal audits and other specialist third parties.

Internal control

The Company Board has ultimate responsibility for the Company’s risk management systems and internal control, and regularly reviews their effectiveness.

Our systems and controls are designed to ensure that our exposure to significant risk is managed properly; our Company Board recognises that any system of internal control is designed to manage rather than eliminate the risk of failure to achieve business objectives and can only provide reasonable and not absolute assurance against material misstatement or loss.

Central to our systems of internal control are its processes and framework for risk management. Our systems of internal control operate through a number of different processes, some of which are interlinked. These include:

a clear system of delegated authorities from the Company Board to management
regular reporting, monitoring and review of the effectiveness of health, safety and environmental processes. These processes are subject to independent audit and certification to internationally recognised standards
legal compliance risks which are addressed through specific policies and training on such matters as ethics, competition and data protection laws
Compliance to both LOLER (Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) and PUWER (Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998) is paramount. To achieve the highest possible standards the company utilises the resources of our qualified insurance company ‘Allianz’ to carry out independent plant inspections. Certification and defect feedback is given to enable our team of fitters to carry out work, safeguarding the workforce and the environment by eradicating potential hazards.

Through our accreditation to RISQS (Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme), the company has access to safety bulletins, alerts and training requirements to support our substantial safety risk assessed systems. These systems come under scrutiny through audit at least once a year. Though our membership to this supplier group, we are also able to enhance our Occupational Health initiatives through medical assessments and drug & alcohol testing.

The collaboration with other members of this group also leads to the sharing of knowledge that can help maintain an accident free environment.

Ivor King believes it owes its success to our talented team and our company slogan, ‘The Piling People’ embodies this sentiment. We employ some of the best in the business and we’re committed to supporting those who devote time and effort nurturing the next generation.

We are committed to train and develop our workforce, recognising that work should be challenging, rewarding and stimulating. With this in mind, we make sure that employees across every part of our business have regular opportunities to learn and grow.

Cultivating the next generation of talent is also vital to our success. Instead of waiting for our team to learn the skills we need, we’re proactive in providing opportunities and training programmes, as supported by the CITB.

For us, Zero Harm means zero fatalities and zero permanently disabling injuries.

Only by setting the highest standards for ourselves will we be able to retain the trust of our customers and the people using our services.

Zero Harm means delivering on the following shared commitments:

• Eliminating fatal risks: we will identify fatal risks and establish Zero Harm design, management and behavioural protocols to eliminate them
• Eliminating hazards: We will identify and plan out hazards in all activities we undertake
• Maintaining Zero Harm day-to-day: We will establish and maintain management monitoring, audit and assurance systems geared for Zero Harm
• Keeping the public safe from harm: We will manage and maintain Zero Harm levels of separation, security, monitoring and stewardship to safeguard members of the public from exposure to our hazards
• Keeping all our people healthy: All our businesses will conduct health checks and health risk assessments to ensure there is no long-term harm to health from working in our business
• Working with our customers: We will enlist the support and co-operation of customers to achieve Zero Harm
• Making safety personal: All our people will make safety a personal commitment.
• Observing client and Industry initiatives such as ‘Stop Go’ and Don’t Walk By’
• Engaging in Behavioural Safety Training.

We are committed to sound management practices to minimise potential negative effects of piling activities on the environment. By encouraging the sustainable use of natural resources, minimising environmental pollution, reducing waste and encouraging recycling, we aim to contribute to improving the world in which we live and work.

We believe that a proactive approach for promoting awareness of environmental issues with our employees, sub-contractors and suppliers, together with our development of various environmental initiatives, helps us to grow an even more sustainable business in the future.

We assess our activities to prevent pollution and minimise impacts from significant environmental aspects that include; waste, releases to watercourses and the contamination of land.

The materials we use during our construction projects contribute to our environmental performance and as such we recognise the contribution sustainable materials make to improved environmental performance.

To mitigate environmental risks and promote positive environmental impacts, our environmental management system is based on a requirement to identify and evaluate environmental risks and ensure that appropriate controls are implemented.

Corporate environmental risks are reviewed on an annual basis or whenever new risks are identified by the business. Site management, using corporate risk assessment information, produce site specific risk assessments which identify and control environmental risks arising from business activities.

Compliance with Laws
All business transactions are carried out strictly in compliance with UK, EU and International laws and we continue to promote a positive relationship with enforcing authorities, engaging at a strategic level with the Health & Safety Executive and Environmental Agency as required.

All of our formal training is recognised by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).