Case Study: James Heys
Case Study: James Heys - Recycling contractor
Health and Safety: a supplier’s nightmare
Rhonda Lowther works for James Heys, a recycling company that is a contracted supplier to a number of clients. Their role is to visit customer sites and remove certain recyclable materials such as cardboard, paper, plastic and tin cans. The paper and cardboard are recycled to paper mills in the UK.
What are the main health and safety challenges in your type of business today?
“There are just too many regulations being imposed on us by customers before we can gain access to their sites these days – it’s all gone a bit mad! Each seems to have their own ‘safe contractor’ scheme, which is similar, but not the same, as the next customer’s. But what can we do? It is a requirement of doing business with them that we have to join these schemes and so we need professional health and safety help to complete the endless questionnaires and the necessary supporting forms.”
Why did you decide to outsource health and safety?
“It would cost a small company like ours too much to employ a full time health and safety person, which is why the idea of outsourcing seemed the ideal solution.”
How long have you been outsourcing health and safety to MBHS?
“Coming up for three years.”
Why did you choose MBHS?
“It was important to us that our health and safety partner was local, just in case we needed them to be on site at short notice. We were very impressed with Jim Benson as we felt he really understood the needs of a small business like ours. He made us very comfortable that MBHS would be working with us, on our side, to make us comply with all the different ‘safe contractor’ schemes.”
How do MBHS work with you to make you compliant?
“MBHS basically take on the responsibility for all of our health and safety requirements including safe contractor applications, Risk Assessments and training, giving myself and my fellow directors complete peace of mind.”
How does that work day to day?
“Our MBHS consultant is on site regularly and undertakes whatever health and safety needs are necessary. He is also very firm with the staff and ensures that they take note of his directions.”
Do you think that you have saved money by outsourcing health & safety?
“Definitely. We are paying MBHS a lot less than it would cost for a full time member of staff. We also benefit from the time it saves us too as, without MBHS, we would have to dedicate a certain amount of our management time to health and safety.”
How does the cost of health and safety impact your business?
“It saves money (and aggravation) in the long run if you make sure that everything in the business is as it should be. By abiding to the rules and knowing that we are compliant, the whole operation flows more smoothly.”
Are there any other benefits to the business from outsourcing health & safety?
“We recently changed our business insurance to a top insurance provider. They insisted on sending their senior health and safety person to visit us as a condition of them accepting us as a client. When he visited he was amazed with the quality of what MBHS do for us and could not fault anything. In fact, he was so impressed that he took MBHS’s contact details so that he could refer them to other clients. That really was a stamp of approval for our decision to outsource our health and safety to MBHS.”
So how would you sum up your outsourcing experience?
“MBHS do a fantastic job for us. I highly recommend them to any other company looking for a reliable professional outsourcing service; all I have to do is pick up the phone!”
Interview conducted with Rhonda Lowther, January 2009