DRIVING UP SAFETY STANDARDS: The SMD team at the Williams Formula One Conference Centre after 2017 Building Safety Group Health & Safety Awards ceremony, from left, Steve Orr, Training Manager; Mark Bell, Construction Manager; Rich Brokenshire, Operations Manager and Dave Mann, Construction Manager
A Poole-based metal decking firm acclaimed for shaping Britain’s skyline has won another coveted national award.
SMD Ltd was presented with the Innovation Award in the prestigious 2017 Building Safety Group (BSG) Health & Safety Awards.
And the company was also named a finalist in the Sub-contractor Award and Best Use of Technology Award.
This follows a successful 2016 when the company won the BSG Sub-contractor of the Year award and was Member of the Year, highly commended for the South West.
SMD Operations Manager Rich Brokenshire received the honour during a lunchtime ceremony at the Williams Formula One Conference Centre in Grove, Oxfordshire.
The BSG Innovation Award was presented to SMD because the company demonstrated innovation in its health and safety processes, planning and management that has led to a demonstrable improvement in risk mitigation and worker well-being.
SMD’s entry included its newly-created, easily-accessible online technical guidance notes document covering health and safety as well as quality and technical issues.
Also mentioned was SMD’s new procedure for the placement of heavy metal decking packs on sites to vastly reduce the amount of manual handling required per pack.
And the company also expanded its bespoke software to allow for SMD specific real-time H&S inspections to be undertaken on site using a tablet on site.
Mr Brokenshire said: “We are delighted to have won this award which we feel demonstrates our continuing commitment to driving health and safety standards to new levels.
“The construction industry can obviously be a very hazardous environment so we make site health and safety our number one priority and innovate wherever we can to improve matters”.
“It is heartening, therefore, that our efforts to minimise risk and ensure everyone is working to the highest possible safety standards have been recognised by the UK’s leading experts in construction health, safety and environmental welfare.”
The BSG is a not-for-profit organisation which specialises in providing health, safety and environmental advice for the construction industry and has more than 800 members operating across 3,500 workplaces throughout the country.
The group’s third annual awards commemorate achievements and excellence in work-related health and safety performance by the group’s members.
SMD was also this year named Best Specialist Contractor to Work With (Under £25m) and awarded a top 10 spot in the Best Specialist Contractor to Work For (Under £25m) in the Construction Enquirer Awards.
SMD, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, employs more than 100 staff at locations across the UK, including Poole, Derby, Nottingham and Glasgow. The company, which has a satellite office in Dubai and a design base in India, was founded in Ringwood in 1987.
The Tower Park-headquartered firm’s metal decking has been used in such iconic buildings as the Shard and the Olympic Park in London, Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and multiple terminals at Heathrow Airport.
