15 years of Gold Awards

Company: Moore Concrete Products

Achievement: RoSPA Order of Distinction in 2022 for winning 15 consecutive Gold Awards

Background: Northern Ireland-based Moore Concrete Products Ltd was founded in 1978 by the company’s present owner and Managing Director, Wilbert Moore. The first product manufactured, in a small shed about five miles from the current head office, were cattle slats for the agricultural market. With demand for its products growing, in 1984 the company moved to its current site in Ballymena. This enabled the company to expand its capabilities into building and civil infrastructure sectors, although the agricultural market remains a key market for the business more than 40 years later. It now employs 165 staff and subcontractors.

Challenge: The company’s Quality Manager, Neil Moore, says: “In the manufacturing sector as a whole we can identify that the lack of experienced labour is one of the key issues we currently face. This means more juniors and apprentices are entering working environments with no prior experience. At Moore Concrete we mitigate this risk, and ensure health and safety is the priority, by taking time to induct, carry out statutory training and critical Standard Operating Procedures, and assign New Start Buddies in the first days of work.

Results: Neil Moore says: “Safety has to be number one, beyond everything that we do as a company. Everything that we're very proud of, and all of the business and transactions and so on that happens, above all is health and safety. It has to permeate the whole company, everybody has to feel that it's the number one priority, that nothing trumps it.”

This ethos has helped Moore Concrete achieve 15 consecutive Gold RoSPA Health and Safety Awards, an accomplishment recognised with an Order of Distinction in the 2022 awards. Neil says entering the RoSPA Awards has helped the company concentrate on its priorities.

“We’ve benefitted from the scheme giving us a key focus in terms of our performance indicators and keeping us focused on that journey. It's been great to see and review our progress in our applications for the awards, and then to be able to analyse what future improvements we could make. It’s a great way to look back, to actually review our journey, and see the progress, and from that we can plan our next steps.

“In the first few days, we're really injecting, so to speak, new starters with as much of the culture of the organisation as we can, ensuring that they see what our values are, that they know we're passionate and serious about health and safety, and that priority number one is that they go home safe.” The employees see that everyone at the company ‘buys into’ the health and safety ethos, says Neil.

“We’re owned and run by Wilbert Moore, who brought about the business, and he's very much still involved, and very, very passionate about health and safety. It's very much one of his core personal values. And, as he as he puts it, he wants to go home knowing that all his staff have gone home safely. That’s how he sleeps in his bed at night.

“Every morning he walks around the place, ensuring that housekeeping is at a good standard, that everybody is wearing their PPE, and so on. And that instils into the workers and the managers, that this is number one. This is a serious thing, and this is the priority for the business.”
Key actions for health and safety are discussed at weekly meetings, attended by Wilbert Moore, and having the Managing Director there encourages focus and incentive to swiftly attend to any issues.

“Any concerns are raised and dealt with immediately and that really derives from the MD, and it filters through to the managers who are carrying out audits daily on the floor. It permeates the whole company.”
Employees are encouraged to participate in consultations when it comes, for example, to changing processes, and to submitting entries to the RoSPA Awards.

“We make sure we get involvement from the people who are doing the job, the task, and ensure that any process that is written from there matches what they say, and they’ve bought into that change ahead of it being written down and processed.

“The RoSPA Awards submission is a team effort. We’re also grateful to our external health and safety consultant who’s such a key asset to the business, bringing the depth and breadth of experience to the company. It's not just one person sitting behind a computer writing the application, everybody’s involved, sharing what they've been doing and what they've been doing differently and what they've been helping with. So, it’s very much a team effort.”

January 2023

“We’ve benefitted from the RoSPA Awards scheme giving us a key focus in terms of our performance indicators and keeping us focused on that journey. It's been great to see and review our progress in our applications for the awards, and then to be able to analyse what future improvements we could make.” - Neil Moore, Moore Concrete Products