Throughout the month of September, staff of TSG UK, along with customers and contractors, will be fully immersed in the company’s health and safety strategy, as it launches SAFEtember.
SAFEtember will see a month of events, competitions and communications reaching the 235 strong members of TSG UK. Covering four key topics of; Health and Wellbeing, Respiratory Illness, Mental Health and Driving Safety, each week. The HSSE team, along with the senior management team, have created a month long initiative including, daily focus points, 6 Roadshows across the Country, and much more.
Andy Wallace, Operations Manager at TSG UK, explains; ‘H&S is our number 1 priority. We have long had a central philosophy of “Go Home Safe” – a mantra that we use to signify, not only the importance we put on our employees going home safely each day, but even more importantly, to ensure our employees think about the ramifications were they not to. We encourage them to think about their personal lives, loved ones, friends and their hobbies, all the things that would be adversely affected should they have an accident at work. We find that this messaging helps people concentrate in the dangerous environment that they are working in.
‘SAFEtember has been launched to further instill these messages and to ensure everyone at TSG UK gets to hear our full commitment to their safety face to face.’
Each of the 6 SAFEtember roadshows have been planned with the varying locations of TSG UK’s employees, across the Country, ensuring each and every member of the team can attend at least one show.
Neil Farmer, HSSE Manager at TSG UK, adds; ‘Although the H&S message is clear throughout our sites and our daily communication with our teams, our aim for SAFEtember is to get in front of every employee of TSG UK and ensure they understand our commitment to H&S and our motto of ‘Go Home Safe’.
‘Part of the Respiratory Illness discussions will be to, not only highlight issues at work, but also that these measures also apply when you’re at home, carrying out DIY for instance, and Driving Safety will be centrally focused on our drive to and from work, when we’re more likely to ‘switch off’ and not follow procedures enforced at work.’
As part of the initiative, TSG have teamed up with several partners to help deliver the important messages. Attendees to the Roadshows will hear from; Adam and Laura from Soul Sanctuary, who will deliver their inspiring stories of personal development and help to educate the teams on the psychological aspects of developing a healthier lifestyle, whilst AnyTime Fitness gyms have deployed their staff to carry out health checks and initiatives to get TSG employees into the gym and thinking about their fitness. The team will also deliver a driving safety presentation from SHELL and have teamed up with mental health charity – Mates in Mind – which TSG are members of.
Dave Hill, HSSE Manager and Mental Health First Aider at TSG UK, comments on the importance of talking more openly about mental illness; ‘In the past mental illness has been brushed under the carpet. Seen as something dirty, something we shouldn’t talk about. Especially in our industry, which is predominantly male, talking about how we’re feeling just hasn’t been the ‘done thing’. But that has got to change. The statistics are staggering – with 3.3% of the UK population suffering with some form of depression within a week and 50% of deaths in men down to suicide, it’s clear the topic needs to be addressed in an open and honest manner to remove the stigma and get conversations flowing.
‘During our SAFEtember roadshows, mental health and health and wellbeing – two topics that link together – will be heavily focused upon. We’ll be highlighting symptoms, encouraging conversation on the statistics and helping our employees to understand that – a. they’re not alone, and b. how to help their colleagues.’
Keep up to date on the daily messages and see the Roadshows in action, by following one of TSG UK’s company social media profiles; Twitter Facebook or LinkedIn.
You can now view the SAFEtember video on our YouTube channel – ‘here‘.
