Here at Site Equip we pride ourselves on our excellent standards and highly trained workforce. As a result of our efforts, we are happy to announce that we have now received official SafeHire certification!
Being SafeHire certified not only confirms our competence in safety, health and quality, but also gives our clients complete confidence in our high standards as a company and demonstrates our professionalism.
WHAT IS SAFEHIRE?
The concept of SafeHire first came to light in 2010 when ‘Which?’ issued an unfavourable report detailing everything negative about the hire industry. The report damaged the reputation of hire and rental services and so Hire Association Europe (HAE) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with the help and guidance of British Standards Institute (BSI), determined that in order to regain a positive perception of the hire sector, a practice needed to be put in place. This is where the idea for SafeHire was born!
SafeHire sets the standards for quality operation within the hire industry and is continually monitoring and evolving it practices to ensure its effectiveness. Being SafeHire certified provides a greater level of transparency to clients, giving them the reassurance that they are hiring from a reliable company who are working at a first-class standard.
THE BENEFITS OF SAFEHIRE CERTIFICATION
Achieving SafeHire accreditation provides clients with the peace of mind that a company has undergone and passed an audit by a qualified assessor. The assessors are selected on the basis of their knowledge and experience within or around the UK hire industry. They are subject to strict recruitment requirements and have regular standardisation meetings so you can rest assured that the audits are performed by a highly trained assessor with an experienced understanding of the sector.
Being SafeHire certified reinforces a companies commitment to health, safety, environment and quality as well as their competence in adhering to the SafeHire regulations, which are continually updated to keep relevant and stay effective. SafeHire promotes trust, reliability, quality and professionalism.
THE SAFEHIRE CERTIFICATION PROCESS
The certification process is relatively simple and involves a desktop assessment of written procedures in operation within the complying company. The company is then visited by an assessor who has created an individual assessment plan for his or her visit to test the procedures stated by the company. An on-site visit can last around 4 hours, during which the assessor will establish whether the written word is understood by employees and is implemented correctly across the organisation before then moving on to performing site and product inspection. The outcome could be a simple pass, but in a lot of cases the company can face a series of non-conformances which are graded by, major, minor and opportunities to improve.
At the end of each assessment the assessor will create an individual detailed report for the company based on the results of the audit. Depending on the results, the company will need to submit a plan addressing how they are going to deal with the non-conformances. The plan will then be reviewed and if it is sufficient, the certification will be awarded. This corrective action plan then provides the basis of the next assessment visit in 12 months.
The trends behind the non-conformances are reported on a regular basis at the HAE Technical Group meeting and are evaluated and then issued to the SafeHire Bulletin to inform members and help steer them away from falling victim to the trends.
The certificate lasts for 3 years and can be subject to an annual review visit to ensure compliance, meaning that a company has to maintain it’s high standards in order to retain the certification.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SITE EQUIP?
Being SafeHire certified not only proves our capability as a company to achieve such accreditation but reinforces our company’s ethos. Our mission is to combine the skills and attributes of our workforce with a commitment to provide a professional and high quality level of service. We invest in the principles of clarity, flexibility, honesty and efficiency in every relationship we develop. All company activities are carried out in a safe and healthy working environment. Our values are expressed by the duty of care we allow for people, the environment and quality.
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