BAM Nuttall Achieves a Sustainable Shift in Organizational Culture

JMJ supports Civil Engineering Company, Bam Nuttall to build and strengthen their existing Beyond Zero safety culture resulting in a sustainable shift in organisational culture, reduced environmental incidents and increasedemployee engagement

BAM Nuttall, a part of the Royal BAM Group, delivers complex civil engineering projects throughout the United Kingdom. The company is involved in infrastructure projects including roads, railways, marine facilities, airports, energy and water treatment plants. BAM Nuttall also provides specialty contracting services such as tunnelling, geotechnical, and mechanical and electrical engineering.

Business Challenges

BAM Nuttall, a part of the Royal BAM Group, delivers complex civil engineering projects throughout the United Kingdom. The company is involved in infrastructure projects including roads, railways, marine facilities, airports, energy and water treatment plants. BAM Nuttall also provides specialty contracting services such as tunneling, geotechnical, and mechanical and electrical engineering.

Beyond Zero was developed from BAM Nuttall’s strong culture in 2005. At that time Beyond Zero was established as a philosophy to create a safety culture that looked beyond statistics—where people went home better off as a result of working at BAM Nuttall. Safety rates improved at first, but performance soon plateaued. Though the safety record at BAM Nuttall was consistent and strong, accidents were still occurring. It was clear that Beyond Zero needed something more to enable the culture to develop and to keep people from being hurt.

Results

At the forefront of BAM Nuttall’s Beyond Zero results has been the formation of a leadership network and the creation of a clear, articulated company vision—the first collectively created vision in the company’s long history. The early efforts established a leadership network that enabled more effective communication and employee engagement than previous top-down approaches had allowed.

As Beyond Zero has taken hold throughout the company, environmental incident rates have dropped significantly, and the company is producing considerably less waste (84% of waste was diverted from landfills in 2012 versus 60% in 2010, and there has been a 41% reduction in construction waste since 2009). While the overall accident rate is still at a plateau, the noticeable increase in reported incidents as a result of a more open culture may have something to do with this. There has also been an 11% reduction in staff turnover.

As a result of these improvements, BAM Nuttall was awarded the Engaging Employees Guardian’s 2013 Sustainable Business Award, as well as achieved Investors in People Gold status for the first time in 2013, a standard highly recognized in the UK industry.