With the Take Care Award, we make special safety achievements and examples of good safety behaviour visible and reward them. The fourth and final award of the year 2024 was awarded to De Mix, a project by Heddes in Amsterdam. 

Heddes' 25 generic safety measures were used as guidelines when drawing up the Health and Safety Plan for the implementation phase. This led to a series of very positive assessments from inspection organisation Aboma. An example of the incorporation of the 25 generic safety rules is: ‘we avoid using ladders’.

Project leader Piet Wever: ‘With such measures, you get the project team's buyers, but also our subcontractors, thinking. This led, among other things, to a subcontractor coming up with a kind of aircraft ladder, complete with handrails, a platform and a stable setup on which you can work safely. We have now also purchased these ourselves. We also make sure that there are aerial platforms present, and that the construction site is tightly organised. That affects people in a positive way.’

Continuing to identify risks

So, in addition to your own people, subcontractors are also properly included in the safety process. How do you get that done? ‘A matter of identifying the risks together in advance and drawing up a plan for it,’ replies project leader Jasper Vellinga. ‘But you have to keep doing that risk inventory during the construction process. The Mix is a big project where different subcontractors are working in different places. If one goes a bit faster than the other, work may suddenly run together. That entails new risks. You then have to discuss these with each other again.’

How does the team actually feel about winning the award. ‘It is a reward for something that should actually be taken for granted. Still, we are happy with it, because it is a confirmation of the fact that we have got it right. At the same time, we see it as a reminder that we have to work hard to keep it that way too. Safety is never finished.’

Cheque of €500

The Take Care Award jury (Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) director Geert van der Linde and members of the Works Council's HSE committee) chooses a winner four times a year from the nominations of the previous quarter. The winning nomination receives €500 to arrange a nice treat with the colleagues involved, do something fun or donate to charity.