Colas were early adopters of the Behavioural Safety Coaches Course supplied to the rail industry by People Positive™ and decided that they wished to move forward more quickly. Colas contacted us directly for advice and assistance. They intended that there should be a Behavioural Safety Coach on each shift of work, who would have had the necessary training and been appraised of the clear expectations of them. Their main role would be to observe and engage with the workforce on site.

People Positive™ advised that, prior to the first course being run it was essential to have an alignment day with senior managers and an ‘Awareness Day’ or core briefing with other senior influencers across the business. Following these we adapted our 4 day Coaches course, retaining the core content and making refinements to meet Colas’ particular needs. This course has been used by Colas for the past 5 years and continues to run. Colas put a number of its sub-contracting staff on the course to ensure continuity of message. As anticipated, a consequence of the heightened awareness of the coaches was that they requested that everybody should have some form of behavioural safety training. We worked closely with a small group of Colas staff comprising Coaches and senior influencers to develop a one day behavioural safety awareness course to be delivered to all Colas staff. The course raises awareness of the impact of an improved working culture and of the importance of individual behaviours within that culture. In doing so it is building on the good work being done by current Safety Coaches.

People Positive™ devised the content, produced the Practitioner Guide, handouts, powerpoint presentation and also used our in-house drama team to write and produce two DVDs to be used in place of the drama component of the Coaches Course. We trained over 40 Colas staff to deliver the content and facilitate the groups of workers.

Colas continue to use the course as part of their employee engagement strategy and continue to promote and train behavioural coaches.