Safety partnership of 9 years leads to ISO certification

Safety Partnership Program

Over the years, Recovery Partners has provided a variety of services to AJ Grant, and they’re currently using our Safety Partnership Program (SPP), a model that Brad says has been excellent for their purposes, especially given the many and varied safety requirements for tradies. ‘The SPP has worked very well for us. We manage over 2500 subcontractors in various trades, and the SPP helps us to keep on top of our responsibilities with them. The SPP means that Recovery Partners provides ongoing work on our systems to ensure safety is prioritised, compliance is maintained, and continuous improvement is facilitated. It also includes 24/7 support and monthly reporting. They coordinate with our WHS Manager to deliver all this.’

An advantage of the SPP and the reporting function is that it allows the efficacy of systems to be checked while the systems are operating, says Brad. ‘The reporting protocol gives us the opportunity to measure our performance against KPIs, but it also lets us review various parts of our operations. Recovery Partners stays up to date with all the legislative changes, updates and requirements of the industry, so we trust them to raise it if something needs attention. They might let us know that the tradies in the Sydney team are due for Working with Heights training, or if there’s a new construction industry regulation in a particular state that will affect us. They evaluate our reports to see if there are gaps that need filling or areas to address proactively. They’ve been great on all fronts.’

The SPP essentially allows a business like AJ Grant to have Recovery Partners on speed dial, a service that Brad says he’s definitely appreciated at critical times. ‘There was one incident I can recall where a painter used some scaffolding that had been erected by a roofer, incorrectly. I got the call at five past five on a Friday evening to say he’d had a fall, and the first thing I did was call Recovery Partners. I was on the phone to them off and on until after ten that night. Fortunately, the painter was okay, but there was still a lot of legislative information required. Recovery Partners were excellent in supporting us through the process. They did everything that needed to be done, from contacting the contractor to offer support, to calling all the relevant authorities, filling in all the necessary paperwork, then evaluating what follow-up training needed to be conducted to help prevent it happening again.

It gives me peace of mind to know they’re available like that.’ The Safety Partnership Program with Recovery Partners also gives AJ Grant a competitive edge, says Brad, and was a point of difference in earlier days when formal safety systems were not as widespread. ‘The SPP demonstrates that safety is a priority for us. It shows prospective customers the lengths that we’re willing  to go to in order to keep safety standards high across our whole business, and it’s helped us build ongoing relationships with customers who have seen that it’s effective.’