It’s another insightful conversation this week as Colin talks to Phil Redmond of the Institute Of Quarrying and formerly Hanson Aggregates, and who is now with Lehigh Hanson, and whose role is to make sure the company is the best it can possibly be. As such, Phil is supremely knowledgeable about health and safety issues, as well as other concerns and issues that can often hold a company back in terms of progress.

In the first part of their fascinating conversation, Phil discusses how the industry is moving beyond physical conditions, the biggest changes he’s seen in the last thirty years, and the ways in which Phil and Colin have had a hand in helping the industry to grow and evolve.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• For Phil, the biggest change in health and safety since he began thirty years ago, is the move to be more collaborative between operatives and supervisory managers.

 

• We should always lead by example. When people see positive change occur, they are far more likely to push for positive change themselves.

 

• In all industries, but especially in the quarry industry, you can never entirely eliminate risk. Instead we should see it, embrace it, and try to make it a part of everything we do.

 

• The ability to identify a hazard is a very personal skill. Familiarity is a dangerous buffer sometimes. A person who has worked in an environment for a long time may have become numb to the hazards all around them, and so when risk is determined by someone, it becomes a personal experience.

 

• Communication is critical in the industry, not just in transmitting the hazards of quarrying to the workers, but also to communicate these concerns to the next generation of leaders, who will take the industry onward.

 

• One of the biggest victories scored by the quarrying industry is that the working environment they have shaped and created is attracting new talent of all backgrounds and sexes, meaning that it has become extraordinarily progressive.

BEST MOMENTS

’The industry now is vastly different to the one we started in’

‘Can you imagine us thirty years ago having a conversation about mental health? It just wouldn’t have been on the agenda’

‘It wasn’t that I broke the rules. I was broken as an individual’

‘Many people will put their hands up because they see the outcome of consultation’

‘Experienced; not old!’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Interesting Health And Safety Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/training-competency-creating-effective-plan-process/id1467771449?i=1000452692837 

Phil Redmond LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-redmond-b6136927/?originalSubdomain=uk

Lehigh Hanson - https://www.lehighhanson.com 

ABOUT THE HOST

Colin Nottage

‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’

This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.

He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.

Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.

Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.

He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).