Like all responsible organisations, Veolia Water see the health and safety of their staff as paramount. That’s why three years ago they set about implementing a culture of ‘zero harm’. NQA were the natural partners to help meet this target and we’re delighted to say that the company has now achieved certification to OHSAS 18001, with safety significantly improved and accident rates right down.

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KEEPING SAFETY WORKING AT VEOLIA WATER

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NEVER STOP IMPROVING

“It’s about demonstrating our commitment to health and safety. We already had an effective health and safety management system in place, but the rigour associated with the assessment process is a really important reminder to all our staff of the importance of the issue to the company.”

Veolia Water UK wanted to demonstrate their commitment to quality standards throughout every area of the business. Customers and stakeholders place considerable emphasis on the importance of independently audited management standards, so the company has held the Quality Management Standard ISO 9001 and Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001 for a number of years. In 2011 the decision was made to complete the suite of standards by going for certification to the health and safety standard OHSAS 18001 across the production and supply operations of the business.

Going for certification

Grant Wordsworth, Management System Manager across all of the three companies that make up the regulated business of Veolia Water UK is clear about the reasons for gaining the certification:

“It’s about demonstrating our commitment to health and safety. We already had an effective health and safety management system in place, but the rigour associated with the assessment process is a really important reminder to all our staff of the importance of the issue to the company.”

Veolia Water has a company ethos of “Zero Harm” with a strong commitment to the best health and safety standards.

When the certification body NQA visited the company for a pre-assessment audit, they found only minor areas needing work. This gave the Veolia Water Health and Safety team a degree of reassurance and confidence that their interpretation of the standard was on the right lines and the processes in place were fit for purpose.

Ongoing value

Achieving the certification in 2011 was only the initial part of the process; the value of certification for the company lies in the repeated audit visits and identifying areas for improvement.

“We have several hundred sites with our workforce scattered widely, so we need a relatively high number of audits to manage all of those locations,” Grant continued.

“The fact that an authoritative and independent auditor visits the sites and checks the processes is a really important signal to the staff of how important the health and safety systems are to the company.

“It also helps to support our role as in-house auditors, giving authority to our internal policies and demonstrating to our staff that we know what we are talking about and that there is a clear reason for us to insist on absolute attention to the health and safety initiatives.”

A partnership auditing role

NQA is the accredited body chosen by Veolia Water for this role. The two organisations have worked in partnership for a number of years, with NQA also being responsible for the regular audits on ISO 9001 and 14001.

“NQA was chosen because of its knowledge and breadth of understanding across the suite of standards. At the end of the day, though, the success of our ongoing relationship depends upon the experience and credibility of the individual auditors as these are the people who have contact with all of our staff.”

The use of internationally recognised management standards by Veolia Water is a very clear example of how certification is valued on many levels: as reassurance for customers and regulators and a stimulus to staff to stay focused on continual improvement: all valid business reasons for undertaking the process.

“NQA was chosen because of its knowledge and breadth of understanding across the suite of standards.”

CS/VE/02/JUL13