Ferrovial Construction’s Minimum Standards

As Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing - Knowledge & Training for Ferrovial Construction (UK) Limited, Declan Davis knows the impact effective communication has on safety results.

He recently shared his insights into how communication impacts on performance with HSE specialists, Jincom. Recognising the power of visual communication to convey critical information, Declan explained that “it’s easier to get the message across and the content becomes more interesting and engaging.”

“By improving our health and safety communications, we ultimately improve our health and safety performance”

When Declan commissioned Jincom’s creative team to transform Ferrovial Construction’s minimum standards into a highly visual 40-page booklet, he was already aware of the company’s innovative work in health and safety through his involvement with UK-based charity, Construction Health & Safety Group, which awarded Jincom the Beaumont Safety Trophy for two successive years.

The company’s minimum standards are produced in the three primary languages of its global workforce: English, Spanish and French, explain the principles of safety management and hierarchy of control and describe the 20 standards safety areas including PPE, Fall Protection and Lifting Loads.

Ebook format

With employees on hundreds of sites around the world, Declan said it can be challenging to get the standards into the hands of workers in remote locations.

A solution was found: converting the standards into a digital ebook format.

The ebook, which has had more than* 13,000 page views since its launch in mid June, makes the content more engaging and accessible to more people, according to Declan.

“It is a nice way of engaging and interacting. It makes the content more user friendly which is really important”

Suite of solutions

Jincom’s core offering is simplified and visualised technical standards. The content from the existing visual standards can then be repurposed for a variety of solutions including elearning modules and 3D and 2D motion graphic animations.

Jincom’s team of writers, illustrators, designers and animators worked with Declan and his team to develop elearning modules to promote awareness around Ferrovial Construction’s top five risk scenarios. The five modules were also produced in English, French and Spanish.

Consistent message

Declan explained that one of the key benefits of leveraging content from one solution to another - in this case the minimum standards to elearning modules - is that it “reinforces the message and makes the message consistent.”

The elearning course has been sent to 3,800 people so far, with employees receiving an invitation from the internal learning management system to complete it via Ferrovial’s intranet site or via an external site. The Working at Height module was part of an global awareness campaign earlier this year.

Training from anywhere

The HiPo Awareness elearning course can be accessed from anywhere and the goal is to make it part of mandatory induction training. Each module comprises an introduction, the causes and controls, a summary or recap in a short video and assessment in the format of a multiple-choice quiz.

The feedback so far has been very positive and Declan has since received requests from HSE managers to convert more content from the standards into elearning modules.

Learning from incident animations

Currently, Declan is working with Jincom on a Learning from Incident video where four incidents are visualised in a 6-minute 2D graphic motion animation.

*ebook stats as per 20 September 2021

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