“SafeContractor provides a measure of consistency when vetting our supply chain. We’re able to use the client portal to select new contractors to work with, saving us time.”
AkzoNobel maintains a strong safety record and meets environmental obligations for contractors with Alcumus SafeContractor.
AkzoNobel is a leading paints and coatings manufacturer, its world-class portfolio of brands includes Dulux, International, Sikkens and is active in more than 150 countries across 130 sites. With a strong focus on sustainability through its People Planet Paint programme, AkzoNobel has implemented a global people, process, and product safety management programme, to ensure that the highest safety standards are applied to its activities and sites.
Nick Turnbull, UK HSES&S Manager at AkzoNobel, commented: “Health and safety is an integral part of how we operate. As a manufacturing company, this is one of our core values so that we have effective and suitable controls in place for our own employees and contractors to manage health and safety risks across our value chain.”
Many of our sites used paper-based systems or excel documents to manage our subcontractors, which can be difficult to access and collaborate when needed, not to mention difficult to maintain accuracy. Following a standard ISO audit and in conversations held with other site HSE business partners, we agreed this was a shared challenge across our sites. AkzoNobel follows a lean manufacturing methodology, focusing on minimising waste while simultaneously maximising productivity. An integrated management system for our contractor management was the best way to help achieve this.
“It turned out that many of our contractors already held SafeContractor certifications, which made onboarding really easy, but now we can have visibility of this information in the online portal. The process is already delivering tangible results.”
Nick Turnbull, UK HSES&S Manager at AkzoNobel
SafeContractor is a leading provider of technology-led risk management solutions for both contractor safety management and certification.
Contractors undertake an annual risk-based assessment, founded on Safety Schemes in Procurement and PAS91, this ensures that they are qualified and insured for the activity that they undertake, as well as other regulated areas such as environmental policies, modern slavery, quality, anti-bribery and more.
All of this information appears in the easy-to-use online portal which lists all of your existing contractors, as well as 37,000 more in one easy-to-access location.
“In our role as a responsible employer, our strategic HSE&S priorities are focused on continuous improvement of standardised company-wide processes. To maintain our strong safety record, SafeContractor will help us to monitor contractor safety and provides clear insight that the contractors we work with have the correct procedures and skills sets, backed up with certified training that ensures the right levels of H&S will be achieved and will also assist the sites in meeting our environmental obligations too,” said Nick.
“Implementing SafeContractor at AkzoNobel means that we can meet the same benchmark for health and safety across all of our locations, which is a step-change in our contractor management. We’re confident that we have a robust process in place, and this saves a significant chunk of time when it comes to ISOs such as 14001 and 45001.”
“It turned out that many of our contractors already held SafeContractor certifications, which made onboarding really easy, but now we can have visibility of this information in the online portal. The process is already delivering tangible results, AkzoNobel has been able to streamline vetting and compliance checks across all sites, which has reduced administration time by up to 50 to 60 hours per month. The process allows the sourcing of local contractors and also the ability to evaluate work post-project. Our central procurement team were thrilled that this covers modern slavery, environmental policies and more, which is one of our company objectives,” added Nick.
Helen Jones, Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise at Alcumus, commented: “Compliance assurance is a key HSE&S priority, particularly in such a fast-changing regulatory environment like AkzoNobel operates in. SafeContractor plays a vital role in supporting our clients, so they have the confidence that they’re working with prequalified certified contractors who have the same high standards.”
Nick continued, “Our contractors have really embraced the SafeContractor programme, those that weren’t already certified can now benefit from the support of membership such as health and safety advice and templates, and discounted materials, fuel, PPE and more.”
“I was thrilled with the communication throughout the process, which flowed as you’d expect and designed with the end-user at the forefront. Working with lots of chemicals, we’ve been able to adopt other Alcumus solutions such as Sypol for COSHH management. Again, this came with lots of great resources that we could use to train and upskill our teams.”
For organisations that need to demonstrate compliance with increasingly stringent legislation, Alcumus SafeContractor, acts as a Supply Chain and EHSQ+ risk partner. We verify the compliance of your contractors and suppliers and make them available through an easy-to-use online portal.
This provides vital insight into your supply chain, enabling you to effectively monitor, manage, and make informed decisions about who you work with.