New product innovation
In a behavioural audit, Cowry identified that when Working at Height (WAH) or when in the the process of Material Movement (MM), the construction workers would take up to 7 unnecessary risks eg. not locking the wheels on equipment they were using. The construction workers had a high propensity to take risks and displayed ‘macho’ behaviour which was reinforced by the fact that other workers like them did the same and they had done it a lot of times without coming to any harm so far.
Cowry redesigned the environment the workers relaxed in, created a new reward scheme to reinforce good behaviours and promoted good behaviour by getting workers to be the Health and Safety Officer for a day, advising their fellow workers.
Priming
We painted the walls in the canteen ’Drunk Tank Pink’ to reduce testosterone levels in the young male workers
Loss Aversion
Workers lost the chance to win weekly prize draws
Consistency Principle
They told workers how to behave & had to follow suit
We’re delighted to have won the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Initiative of the Year award at the Association for Project Safety’s National CDM Awards 2018.
We also received the International Safety Award in 2019, for our work on improving construction site safety with Overbury.
Testament to the success of Cowry’s interventions, Overbury have committed to include at least one Baker Miller pink wall in every site as part of their Site Safety Standards.
We have invested heavily in this because we believed it would work. The lessons we have learned here can be applied to any project size, and don’t require a large financial investment to see a significant change. Knowing our initiatives have helped the site operatives feel better at work and reduce unsafe behaviours is priceless.”
Sarah Piddington, Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Overbury