Gill Group House – Delivering Excellence
(The Following is a Promoted Article)
An end-to-end service is highly regarded in the construction industry. If businesses are able to carry out all works in singular rather than necessitate the cooperation of multiple parties, it represents the significant de-risking of a contract from the perspective of the client – both financially and in terms of health and safety.
Founded in 1988 with just one civil division, Gill Group House has since grown into a multidimensional (and multimillion pound) organisation with no less than eight different companies under its group header, including: Gill Civil, Cello Aviation, Titan Plant Hire and Gill Aggregates. Each strand compliments the next and, indeed, Gill Group House carries out most projects without the help of subcontractors owing to the sheer breadth of its expertise and competencies.
One such area of expertise and competence in which Gill Group House is well-versed is health and safety and, in view of both the frequency and urgency with which health and safety issues arise within the construction industry specifically, such emphasis is to be lauded. In terms of what that drive translates as, the company places priority on training, employing a complex training matrix in order to identity specific training requirements and keep up-to-date with renewals. With so many companies and divisions, the matrix spans across anything from traffic management and Rubber Duck training (Wheeled Excavator360 Above 10 Tonnes) for HGV operators to working at height and site supervisor training.
Mark Jordan, HSQE Manager at Gill Group House stresses the importance of having mechanisms which are both proactive and ongoing, specifically highlighting the value of strong communication. “Providing that linkage between supervisors and operatives is essential,” he says. “To get the best out of the team and achieve the greatest results, you have to maintain strong communication every day: reinforcing what’s required and also highlighting the specifics of each job and each client.”
Those aims are realised by regular, on site toolbox talks led by project managers and contracts managers as well as daily briefings on the day’s itinerary and its accompanying procedures and hazards. On the rare occasions where Gill Group House works alongside sub-contractors, such as a recent 24-month project at Felixstowe where multiple parties were appointed by the principal contractor, the company extends briefings to all operatives on site, endeavouring to promote collaboration rather than separatism.
Whilst such interest in health and safety is primarily concerned with improving the working environment of operatives and mitigating risk to the public, Mark Jordan highlights that strong corporate ethics can dramatically improve the attractiveness of a firm as well as speeding up the tendering process. Talking specifically about accreditation, he insists, “Strong health and safety values and practices are frequently becoming a key part of customers’ method statements and CHAS and ISO accreditation are a means of evidencing those ethics.”
With ISO14001 and BS OHSAS 18001 as well as ISO9001, there is little question as to Gill Group House’s keen ethics on not such health and safety but quality and the environment, too. And continuing to go much further than simply compliance, the company only grows in stature and, in many respects, represents the pinnacle of excellence to which all should strive.
