18 December 2012

Costain’s Alan Cheung recently showcased the success of the Costain Behavioural Safety (CBS) programme at an industry conference in the United States.

Alan, who works as Costain’s CBS Director for Behavioural Management, delivered a keynote speech to over 500 people at the Behavioural Safety Now Conference in Florida, the largest behavioural safety conference in the world. Now in its 17th year, the conference includes an educational programme for all levels of management, safety professionals and employee teams with an interest in behavioural safety.

In his speech, “Behavioural Leadership – A way of life” Alan talked about how Costain’s behavioural safety programme was implemented across the Company. He also talked about the importance of creating an environment where, through exhibiting leadership, everyone in the Company - from working on-site to working in the office - understood the importance of taking responsibility for their own safety and those around them.  

“When we introduced behavioural safety into the business in 2006, we realised it was about more than just safety. Our behavioural safety programme has never just been about introducing lots of work-related observations, in fact for large parts of our business that simply wouldn’t work. What our programme needed to deliver was a successful culture change, a culture where people did the right things because they wanted to. We had to get our leaders to understand their own behaviour, learn the behavioural science and apply it to everything they did, whether that be to time, cost, quality, customers and the safety aspects of their role,” said Alan.

Alan also delivered a workshop at the conference called “Behavioural Leadership – A Way of Life – how we achieved it,” which was attended by over 40 people and looked at the practicalities of making behavioural safety a success in the workplace.

CBS now forms an integral part of the Group’s overall safety, health, and environment programme through Costain Cares, which aims to address the growing needs of its stakeholders, including its employees, through greater corporate responsibility.

Costain was accredited by The Cambridge Centre for Behavioural Studies (CCBS), an independent non-profit organisation, in January 2012 and the Company became the first in the UK to be accredited for its behavioural safety programme.

 

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