HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENTAL

Our Commitment

As global tunnelling specialists and civil engineering solution partners we understand the hazard rich environment in which we operate and the role that each and every one of the people who work for, with or on behalf of us plays in ensuring that we all go home safely at the end of the day.

The Joseph Gallagher Group started life as Joseph Gallagher Limited in 1982, providing labour to the tunnelling industry and despite our growth into a multinational organisation operating across Britain, Ireland and the Middle East, our founder Josie Gallagher’s core values remain central to our commitment today. These values remain safety above everything else, integrity and hard work, and it is these values that frame our commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of all those involved in our operations.

We are committed to fostering a safe, positive and empowering working environment that encourages our people to reach their full potential whilst delivering outstanding projects and looking out for each other – making our sites safe and happy working environments for all.

Leadership and Governance

Our Leadership Teams set the tone for the business and are responsible for ensuring that the strategic and operational objectives of the business are delivered.

They truly are the driving force of the business and are frequently to be found on our sites making sure they are involved in every aspect of the business. The team ensures that our values are integrated into every decision we make as a business.

The Senior Leadership team are ultimately accountable for the Safety, Health, Environment, Quality and Training compliance across all five companies within the Joseph Gallagher Group across the UK and the Middle East. This is supported by our global ISO certification for quality, safety and wellbeing, and the environment.

Safety leadership comes from all levels across the business and is demonstrated through our actions.

A safe, positive and empowering working environment is an integral part of our business ethos, encouraging our people to reach their full potential whilst delivering outstanding projects together as one team.

From our Senior Leadership Team, setting the direction, to our Safety, Health, Environmental, Quality and Training (SHEQ) team who are invaluable to helping ensure each of our sites maintain a safe and happy working environment for our people, and everyone in between including our LIFE champions and everyone else who works with us – we are all responsible for the leadership of safety across our activities.

Risk Management

We recognise the importance of staying up to date with industry accreditations and certifications, further reinforcing our capabilities to deliver safety, quality, innovation and sustainability across every project we are involved in.

With certifications against ISOs 50001, 45001, 45003, 9001, and 14001 we operate within a robust framework which drives our approach to managing risk. Core to this is our civil engineering expertise, helping to design out risk at source and, where this isn’t possible, making sure that we minimise risk – not only throughout our project delivery but also when we are ready to hand back a site to the client.

All projects have comprehensive risk assessments which ensure that we manage the risk as low as possible and we ensure that everyone taking part in our operations is clear on the control measures we have put in place, especially when we are working as part of a team of contractors on a project

Wellbeing and Mental Health

Our growing community of dedicated mental health champions (many of whom speak multiple languages) on site and in our offices have a clear purpose to support our people and continue to drive positive change. This year we celebrated 460 best practice awards, 28 trained mental health champions and one mindfulness diploma graduate.

The mental health and well-being of our people working on site or in one of our offices is equally important. With the work dynamic changing for everyone in recent years, we have moved to fully integrate these needs into the fabric of our day-to-day business.

We have also achieved certification against ISO 45003 Psychological Health and Safety at Work. This standard provides a framework for continually improving how we support good mental health across the business as well as the primary, secondary and tertiary interventions that we put in place to support our people whatever life throws at them.

Training and Competence

Safety in the workplace is, and should be, expected but cannot be achieved without the required levels of competency. As a family business, we are proud to invest in training and development for our people, across all levels of the business.

Our training starts from the moment a colleague joins the business and receives their induction and initial LIFE training workshop. We then ensure that all of our people receive the training they need to work safely and assess their competence on a regular basis to ensure they continue to demonstrate the right knowledge, skills, attitude, techniques and experience. We are keen to promote from within and develop our people to reach their full potential. A key example of this is our Black Hat training programme, taking colleagues from their first steps into this role through to those who demonstrate excellence and deep experience.

Training is something that never stops at the Joseph Gallagher Group as we believe there is always more to learn and we support our people through this journey.