GALLIFORD TRY INFRASTRUCTURE

Galliford Try Infrastructure and STALSEN have been working together to reduce hand injuries since 2021. At the time of partnering, Galliford Try were experiencing a record number of hand injuries. In fact, 55% of their total reported injuries across their 34 projects, were to hands.

We carried out a thorough hand protection audit, which included having a close look at their existing glove range. It was important to understand the type of activities on each site, along with the gloves in use, and investigate the historic hand injuries on record. This allowed us to understand ‘how’ hand injuries had happened as well as more crucially ‘why’ they had happened.

The assessment revealed that the current glove range was lacking in comfort, functionality, and protection. A further problem was the removal of gloves to use handheld and touch-sensitive devices for work, which resulted in hands being exposed to injury as often operatives forgot to put them back on.

As with many businesses in this position, there was also a lack of engagement around hand safety and knowledge on cut protection levels, which indicated some effort to improve the culture would be beneficial.

STALSEN engaged with all levels of the Galliford Try (Highways) business to specify a simple range of gloves that were site-specific. The introduction of a minimum cut protection threshold across the whole range was essential to ensure better protection.

We also worked closely with Galliford Try to innovate, developing completely new gloves such as the RX589, for specialist activities and in doing so gaining their valuable input along the way.

STALSEN and Galliford Try agreed on the implementation of our hand protection programme #Gloveyourhands, this would help improve the culture by educating wearers on why hand injuries were occurring and the steps we were taking to tackle this.

Galliford Try now had a fit-for-purpose range of gloves, with a minimum cut threshold, touch-screen compatibility, and well suited to a wide range of tasks and environments.

“The support and hands-on education really bought this topic to life for all of us”

Following the launch, Galliford Try (Highways) experienced a full year of zero hand injuries across all 34 projects. This was an incredible achievement in such a short time over such a wide range of sites.

The improved attitude and approach to hand safety has continued long after the first year, with hand injury rates remaining extremely low. The programme continues to evolve in a bespoke way for Galliford Try in order to tackle complacency.