MEET THE TEAM
SIG Roofing has a wealth of experience across their team of people. So, in this series of articles, we want to introduce them to you to showcase their value and the part that they play in delivering a better customer experience at SIG Roofing.
Next up is PETER TURNER, who is Health, Safety & Environment Director, a function highly valued, at SIG UK Roofing.
“SIG Roofing prioritises a safe working environment for all its colleagues, contractors and customers, including those visiting SIG Roofing branches and during deliveries to site. It’s our goal to completely instil a culture of continual improvement in this area.”
Peter Turner has over 30 years of experience in Health and Safety and has spent 26 years working in facilities management, rail (renewals / major projects) and the construction industry. He possesses extensive knowledge in helping businesses achieve significant improvements in this area. This expertise is crucial for SIG Roofing, as it ensures a safe working environment for its 900 employees and the thousands of customers who visit its branches. Importantly, it also helps the company meet the safety standards many of its larger clients require.
Peter started working for SIG Roofing in October 2019, and his focus is on driving a cultural shift to ensure that health and safety remain a top priority for all employees. His role overall is to provide strategic, legislative, technical advice, and guidance on all matters concerning Health, Safety, environment and quality.
CUSTOMERS DEMAND COMPLIANCE AS A RIGHT TO TRADE…
Many of SIG Roofing’s larger customers require the company to adhere to ISO standards as a condition for doing business. The business currently has ISO 45001, an international standard for health and safety at work, and ISO 14001, which is an Environmental Management System (EMS). These standards provide a framework for helping to drive improvements in an organisation’s health and safety performance and reducing the environmental impact from its operations. It is essential for these standards, as well as any new ones, to be assessed, achieved, and maintained. This responsibility falls to Peter and his team and involves conducting and reporting on up to 220 audits each year at various sites across the country.
As they also supply products to customers in the rail and utilities industry (water, energy), which require strict risk certification standards, RISQS and Achilles (UVDB) compliance is also essential.
For many years, the business has held a Constructionline silver standard and over the last few months it has now achieved the Constructionline Platinum Standard, with Peter and his team leading this progress. This requires the business to align to the Common Assessment Standard to streamline the procurement process when selling to larger businesses within the construction Industry.
THE CULTURE IS ESSENTIAL FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT…
Health and safety is taken very seriously at SIG Roofing because ultimately we care about all of our colleagues, customers and varies stakeholders and the H&S team work diligently to support and develop the culture, ensuring that all 900 employees incorporate health and safety into everything they do. This initiative is a holistic, long-term project aimed at ensuring continued progress, and they are already beginning to see the benefits of their efforts.
There has to be constant training, so initially, over 100 managers in the business completed IOSH behavioural safety courses. The business then placed the course online, and now over 1000 courses have been completed by colleagues. An online dashboard was built for reporting accidents and incidents at work, which allows for constant measurement, and during 2024, their ‘Lost Time Incident Rate’ dropped by 40%.
Peter is committed to changing the hearts and minds of the team. Instead of using a disciplinary process, they implemented consistent “positive interventions” to alter behaviours. As a result, engagement levels have improved across all branches. Each positive intervention is recorded on a dashboard, and over 3,200 conversations were reported during 2024 which is a 31% increase on the prior year.
The business conducted a comprehensive review of its PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) offerings and made significant investments in new workwear in 2024. The updated employee packs now include workwear trousers, polo shirts, high-visibility jackets, safety helmets, knives, cut-resistant gloves, and footwear. These additions ensure that employees are safer and more visible on-site.
The current goal is to achieve a GOLD safety standard across all sites. To accomplish this, Peter and his team conduct regular site audits to assess compliance levels. They also focus on various safety initiatives, including fire safety measures, minimising slips, trips, and falls, improving manual handling practices, and managing water safety.
Last year, they wrote 60 Tool Box Talks, short presentations that branch managers can deliver each month to their team, constantly reinforcing the right messages.
1000’S OF DAILY CUSTOMER VISITS AND IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP THEM SAFE…
SIG Roofing prioritises a safe working environment for all colleagues and customers, including those visiting SIG Roofing branches and during deliveries to customer sites.
In 2023/24, the business invested c:£100,000 in 220 working platforms, which are located across all branches. These platforms enable customers to securely place products purchased in the trade counter onto their van roofs without the need to actually climb onto the roofs themselves. The company now encourages customers to utilise these platforms to enhance their safety and reduce the risk of falls.
The SIG Roofing delivery teams are highly trained in safety protocols for customer site deliveries. This training is a significant benefit because it eliminates risk to the customer. The primary goal is to ensure that products arrive at the site on time, undamaged and unloaded safely so the customer can continue their work without delays.