11 August 2016
Fairness, inclusion and respect training day
Julie writes: A few weeks ago Jimmy Callaghan and I attended a Supply Chain Sustainability School course to become FIR ambassadors. FIR means fairness, inclusion and respect, and the idea is that the people on the course will become role models for FIR in their offices, sites or projects. We travelled to Birmingham to where
10 August 2016
VGC Group partners with London Irish
We have joined London Irish as an official partner for the 2016/17 season in an important commercial partnership for the club. This new sponsorship deal will see VGC Group become an official partner of the club with our logo appearing on the club’s playing shorts for all Greene King IPA Championship and British and Irish
3 August 2016
LU Beacon award for Farringdon SER project
VGC is proud to have earned a TfL LU Beacon award for our Farringdon signal equipment room project. Chris Hobden, programme delivery manager for London Underground, presented the award to Donal McCarthy, site manager, at a ceremony on 26 July at Farringdon station. The Beacon award acknowledges VGC’s commitment to good practice in site management
2 August 2016
George's work experience at VGC
George writes: My name is George Toogood and for two weeks I was at work experience at VGC Group. I worked for Zena Wigram, marketing manager. I got the opportunity for this experience after Zena heard I was looking for a positive way to spend some time in summer and thankfully she decided to take me in. I was completely
29 July 2016
Awards for National Grid team
John writes: Three people working for us on the north Deeside (Connah’s Quay) sub-station job have helped the site to win two safety awards. Connah’s Quay won the Best Project award and the EAC project won the 100% Safe award in the ALLstar 2016 awards for Morgan Sindall. That means the project is the best
25 July 2016
Network Rail Star award for Crossrail Anglia
Network Rail has given a Star award to VGC for work on Crossrail Anglia. The prestigious award was presented by Fenton Newport, Network Rail programme manager for Crossrail Anglia, during the project’s safety ‘Step up’ meeting on 1 July. VGC achieved a score of 97% across all work sites inspected by Network Rail and principal
21 July 2016
Manual handling awareness presentation
Richard writes: This week I gave a presentation on manual handling awareness at the Balfour Beatty A21 Tonbridge to Pembury road widening project. In fact, I held two presentations. One at 07.00 attended by the workforce and supervisors, and one at 08.00, attended by site engineers and office management. The course is one of our
18 July 2016
Millions of safe hours on 4LM
The Four Lines Modernisation (4LM) programme has hit three million hours without a RIDDOR*. This was confirmed after the Period 3 report, proving that 4LM continues to put safety first. The last RIDDOR took place back in period 8 2014/15, so it’s almost 18 months without a reoccurrence. 4LM is one of the projects being
12 July 2016
Ethical labour standard launch
Ciara writes: I was delighted to attend the launch of the Ethical Labour Standard earlier this month. BRE has developed this new standard to add to existing standards including ISO 6001 and SA8000, as well as the implementation of the Modern Slavery Act in UK law. Presentations were delivered by Jacqui Glass from Loughborough University,
12 July 2016
Why electronic payslips?
Elaine writes: I am the payroll manager for the VGC Group. I am responsible for running a weekly payroll for over 1,200 people working on sites across the UK. Over the last 12 months we have brought in electronic payslips. We are encouraging people to transfer over from paper payslips to electronic payslips. They have
5 July 2016
Key influencer introduction day
Ten workers who attended a key influencer introduction day last week were unanimous in their approval. The day served as an introduction to the longer key influencer course. Richard Wheeler, HSQE manager, discussed how behavioural safety can be used to encourage positive change. The key influencer course trains workers to help their peers to be
15 June 2016
Things to remember if you're recruiting
Matt writes: If you’re recruiting, remember: you need to be an attractive employer. The latest State of Trade Survey by Build UK (online pdf) describes how shortages are now intensifying among white collar staff. Contractors report problems recruiting supervisors, managerial, professional and technical staff. The main reasons stated for the difficulties in filling vacancies were
