LIVING INCIDENT FREE EVERYDAY
Our LIFE Culture
At Joseph Gallagher our safety culture is central to everything we do, and as part of this commitment we developed our award-winning LIFE cultural and behavioural programme in 2014. LIFE stands for Living Incident Free Everyday and this programme upholds the belief that it is possible to send everyone home safely every day, our LIFE culture sets out how we do this. This programme has now been extended as we believe that by instilling the key behavioural values of teamwork, respect, integrity, excellence and determination across the whole business these values and becomes the foundation for every piece of work we undertake. LIFE is at the core of everything that the Joseph Gallagher Group does. Our culture revolves around ensuring that we support each other every day. There simply is no alternative.
LIFE Leadership Team
Active, felt and demonstrable leadership is at the heart of our LIFE culture, and this is what makes the difference between words and actions.
To us leadership is about what we do and how we do it, rather than someone’s job title – so whether their seat in the business is behind a board table, designing how we are going to deliver our projects or leading teams on the ground we all have a role to play.
Every member of the Joseph Gallagher Group who is part of the LIFE Leadership team is committed to making a real difference, but they are realistic about the challenge of doing this. They are concerned for their people and act with enthusiasm, trust, integrity and humility in order to continually improve the working environment and are dedicated to continue to ensure everyone goes home safely at the end of every day.
For us leading isn’t just about telling, it’s about removing the barriers that hold LIFE back.
LIFE Champions
Our LIFE champions are the programmes ambassadors across every single project and site that we work on. These champions promote the core principle of Living incident Free everyday whilst being role models – continually demonstrating our values of Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, Excellence and Determination across project environments.
Our LIFE champions act as a bridge between the LIFE Leadership team and our colleagues on the ground and they act as a spokesperson for the LIFE culture. They are dedicated to supporting our people in doing the right thing when it comes to Safety, Health, Environment and Quality compliance, enhancing communication, and fostering a culture of proactive engagement and continual improvement.
Our LIFE champions chair weekly LIFE meetings, where they play a crucial role in discussing observations, facilitating satisfactory resolutions, and sharing best practices through a monthly LIFE Champion meeting, thereby driving the implementation of the LIFE culture change throughout the project lifecycle and other projects across the business.
LIFE Trainers
Our LIFE trainers are central to the ongoing success and embedment of our LIFE programme. These are specially selected people from within our Joseph Gallagher who deliver our LIFE programme across the business alongside their other responsibilities.
Our trainers deliver an induction workshop into the LIFE programme ensuring that all new starters fully understand what it means and how it is demonstrated throughout everything we do.
These trainers have the benefit of being fully part of our operational activities, so they bring realism to these workshops, being able to explain first hand all the benefits that fully embedding our values bring.
We have also developed our trainers capabilities within our Middle East operations and have bilingual trainers who help break down barriers and share our message.
Roadmap
The LIFE roadmap sets out how we intend to continue to develop and improve our LIFE cultural programme in the context of our increasing diversity of activities and operating areas.
As part of defining our roadmap we carry out an annual culture survey which helps our LIFE leadership team to understand where we are excelling and where we need to place additional focus.
In conjunction with the LIFE leadership team, we developed our 2026 roadmap which includes key initiatives such as continued development of our Supervisor (Black Hat) training programme, a continued focus on mental health and wellbeing and comprehensively integrating our LIFE values into incident investigations to deepen the analysis and root cause understanding to help prevent future similar incidents.
Our Commitment to Social Value and Community
At Joseph Gallagher, social value is embedded in everything we do. Our purpose goes beyond delivering projects—we strive to create lasting, positive impacts in the communities where we work. By supporting local groups and initiatives, we ensure that our presence benefits the people and environments around us.
Many of our projects are in residential neighbour hoods and natural habitats, placing us at the heart of vibrant communities. We recognise the importance of being socially conscious and actively engage with local residents from the outset. Our commitment to these communities extends beyond construction.