Robert Merry is an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manger who also runs training courses on project management. In this series he will set out some guiding principles for successful estimating and project management. This month he discusses: Pre-Qualification Questionnaires.
There is a small place in the pit of my stomach that tightens into an uncomfortable knot at the thought of these ‘kidney stones’ of construction paperwork that are the pre-qualification questionnaires. Not that I have had kidney stones, but I understand they are extremely painful.
What are these questionnaires?
The government website ogc.gov.uk describes them thus: “Supplier assessment is an essential element of procurement as purchasing organisations need assurance that potential suppliers are suitable to tender for contract opportunities in terms of their legal, financial and technical capacity. A formalised mechanism to assess this is therefore part of the vast majority of procurement operations and is commonly referred to in the public sector as 'pre-qualification'.” In the private sector, too.
Much of the form filling and proof of compliance is centred around Health & Safety.
You should not, indeed cannot avoid this, but you should also welcome it as an opportunity to review Health & Safety procedures in your organisation.
If you are not currently employing a Health & Safety advisor, find one.
National Organisations such as The Stone Federation of Great Britain or NAMM will advise you, or try your Bank or Insurance Company. British Occupational Hygiene Society members can also help.
Health & Safety procedures should be embedded into the day to day culture of your company – in the office, in the factory and on-site. It’s a legal requirement and it saves lives. How many sites have you visited and witnessed a plume of stone dust floating upwards from the room your fixers are working in?
I was tired of receiving emails from site agents complaining about stone dust and subsequent damage to other trades’ work. The final straw came when fixers filled a close friend’s house with slate dust while using the front room as a temporary workshop – because it was raining outside!
From that moment every project Method Statement, Risk Assessment and drawing was explained to the fixing team before they started. It was called the “Handover”. Health & Safety courses were booked for each fixer. Supervisors where empowered to stop works on-site if they saw a Health & Safety issue.
And once the employees could see how important it was to the success of the organisation, we started to get results.
I can’t say we eliminated plumes of dust entirely, but we became more efficient, cleaner, safer and the site agents stopped complaining – well, almost.
If you truly ‘walk the talk’ of your Health & Safety policy your organisation will stand out from the rest… and you’ll sleep better at night.