Making OH a top priority has earned a prestigious safety award for Toyota
UK’s Derbyshire division
A Derbyshire car manufacturer that has made OH a priority from the shop
floor upwards has won one of the country’s most prestigious occupational health
and safety awards.
Toyota Manufacturing UK, a division of the Japanese car producer, won the
Sir George Earle trophy for occupational health and safety at work in May,
awarded by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
It was one of 1,000 organisations recognised by Rospa.
Toyota project manager Colin Thompson said sickness absence among the
company’s 3,000 employees was currently running at 2.7 per cent, substantially
below the industry average of about 5-6 per cent.
Key to this achievement was ensuring health and safety and occupational
health were not something confined to "the specialists" but talked
about across the company, he said.
The company’s accident rate, absenteeism and level of musculoskeletal
injuries were also very low, with care even extending to tracking injuries that
occurred outside the workplace.
Innovations included standardised work and job sheets, near miss and safety
concern tracking, posture confirmation, a "go see" approach where
managers see for themselves when problems are reported, and a "five
why" investigation process. This entails asking the
question"why" when an incident or accident is being investigated
until it can be asked no more.
Other winners included Yorkshire Electricity Group Supply in Huddersfield
and Southampton firm Trant Engineering.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Rospa’s Astor Trophy, awarded for the best-managed occupational health
programme, was won by East Cheshire NHS Trust.
