Emrill achieves 13 million safe manhours
FM company goes 243 consecutive days without lost-time injury across UAE sites
UAE-based facilities management (FM) services provider, Emrill, has announced it reached 13 million safe manhours without lost-time injury (LTI) in August, marking 243 consecutive days without an LTI across all of its sites.
The company said this was a major milestone in its ongoing efforts to ensure the health and safety of all employees, and covered such properties as the Dubai Marina and Downtown Dubai master communities, Dubai Airport and residential towers on Palm Jumeirah. The milestone comes as part of a “Target Zero” initiative by Emrill to improve safety and minimise accidents., as well as other initiatives that sought to empower its employees to take decisions on safety.
Emrill CEO, Stuart Harrison, said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of Emrill’s employees are at the forefront of everything we do. We have created a safety-first culture, in which every employee is accountable not only for personal safety but also for the wellbeing of colleagues and the residents of the communities and sites we serve. Achieving this milestone demonstrates the ongoing commitment of every Emrill employee to ensure our sites and facilities’ safety is second to none.”
Emrill added in a statement that the message of its Target Zero initiative was simple: “If it is not safe, don’t do it”. In another successful campaign, titled Don’t Walk By, Emrill employees were empowered to identify and raise concerns about any unsafe working practices and conditions to any other team member with confidence.
“All employees have been issued with a ‘Stop Work Card’, giving them the authority to stop any unsafe activity. Other ongoing safety programmes include Emrill’s Behavioural Based Safety and Working at Height initiatives, as well as monthly roleplay activities and Toolbox Talks, which focus on safe working practices,” added the statement.
Emrill said this year it has also expanded its extensive suite of health and safety training courses, adding its Frontline Supervisor (FLS) Health, Safety and Environment Training module. The learning outcomes of the module include understanding responsibilities, recognising common workplace hazards, implementing appropriate control measures, evaluating and mitigating risks and recognising the different ways in which health and safety performance can be measured and improved.
Since the launch of the module, 92% of the 443 eligible employees have completed the course, with 93% of participants achieving a pass rate of over 70% on the final assessment said the company.
Faisulla Shariff, Emrill’s integrated management system (IMS) manager, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it many challenges, including how to continue delivering world-class training and maintaining best practice standards while adhering to physical distancing guidelines. To ensure Emrill employees could complete the module, which is so critical for the safety of our frontline supervisors and the teams they manage, we adapted the course and training methodologies to enable us to deliver the lessons virtually. To date, 15% of participants have completed the module via virtual learning, achieving comparable results to face-to-face learners at the end of the course.”
Harrison added: “It is our ongoing and transparent commitment to health and safety that has enabled us to reach such an incredible health and safety milestone. This achievement goes to prove that when safety is a priority for everyone, we can work in a safe and accident-free environment.”
