Category: CSR

We are delighted to have agreed to sponsor two Leamington Spa based schools to help provide essential road safety education to local pupils.

From September, the way that road safety in Warwickshire is delivered in primary schools is changing. All schools have the opportunity to sign up to the Warwickshire Road Safety Club, but most will now need to pay for the road safety education they receive. However over the past few months Warwickshire County Council’s Road Safety Group have been contacting Warwickshire businesses to encourage them to sponsor road safety in their local primary schools.

Our support will enable Cubbington Primary School and Our Lady & St Teresa’s Primary School to have the complete Warwickshire Road Safety Club package, which includes the popular Warwick the Bear roadshow for 5 year olds, Kerb Safe pedestrian training  for 6 – 7 year olds and the Junior Road Safety Officer scheme for 10 – 11 year olds.  Other activities include assemblies and classroom sessions from a Road Safety Officer.

Managing Director Peter O’Brien recently visited the school to find out how road safety education can benefit the local community. Mr O’Brien, said: “Having been educated at Our Lady and St Teresa’s Primary School, along with my two brothers and company Directors, Mick and Simon, we welcomed the opportunity to play our part with Warwickshire County Council and the two schools.”

“The O’Brien family has been part of the local community since the 1950’s when our father and mother moved from Ireland and made Cubbington their home.  My father formed O’Brien Contractors over 50 years ago and the village has been the location for its headquarters ever since, benefitting from employing many local and highly skilled people.”

“The importance of road safety cannot be stressed enough and as a significant employer in the area, we welcomed the chance to get involved in the road safety scheme, ensuring the welfare of the young people in Cubbington.”

Juliet Jones, Headteacher of Cubbington CE Primary School, said: “We are absolutely delighted the O’Brien’s have chosen to fund our Road Safety Club membership.  Road safety education is vital at primary school to prevent accidents from happening and to teach children important skills that will serve them well throughout their whole lives. “

We’re delighted to announce that we have presented the Stratford-upon-Avon-based, ILEAP Charity, with a generous donation to provide four assisted holidays for disabled people with learning difficulties.

Operating in South Warwickshire, ILEAP Charity supports people aged from 4 years and upwards by organising children, youth and adult leisure activity programmes for their members who have a mild / moderate learning disability.

Among the holiday opportunities organised, there is a three night stay in Bournemouth for 8 people and 4 staff, staying in fully accessible sea front accommodation at Bournemouth University Student Village. The location will provide the opportunity to take advantage of all the traditional sea side activities and enable ILEAP Charity to work with its’ members on promoting independence through skills for living type activities.

Additionally, the charity has also organised a two night stay in Woodhouse Eves in Leicestershire, where 12 people and 6 staff will enjoy a fun filled weekend with their friends, taking part in 2 specialist activities of orienteering and archery, followed by a BBQ and Party.

Peter Bazeley, Manager, ILEAP Charity, said: “Thanks to the donation from O’Brien Contractors, we have been able to subsidise these opportunities, making them excellent value and affordable to the majority. On behalf of everyone at ILEAP, we would like to thank O’Brien for thinking of us and for their generous support.”

“As a small Charity we rely on grants and donations so that children and adults with Additional Needs, can take part in their chosen leisure pursuits, in the knowledge that they will be safe and supported. This donation will help us to empower our members so that they have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers during their leisure time.” added Peter Bazeley.

Two further breaks have also been organised, including a Lads weekend away for 10 and 4 staff to a purpose built activity centre in Shropshire, where the group will enjoy a camp fire and indoor caving, abseiling and rock climbing and an outdoor pursuits weekend for a party of 12 and 6 staff to a purpose built activity centre with all food and accommodation and 4 specialist outdoor pursuit activities.

One of our Directors, Stuart Chamberlain, said: “Over the years, O’Brien Contractors has been fortunate to have great success and we feel it is important that we give back to the community whenever possible. We are very pleased to be able to support ILEAP Charity, who provides a fantastic service to disabled people.”

If you would like to make a donation to the ILEAP Charity you can do so easily at www.justgiving.com/ileap or by e-mailing ileap@stratford-dc.gov.uk. For further information please visit www.ileap.co.uk for details.

Leading civil engineering and groundworks company, O’Brien Contractors, has launched a work experience programme to provide school-leavers with an insight into careers in the construction industry.

The new scheme is designed to provide young local job seekers with practical experience and skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. It will also offer them a sense of belief, demonstrate that they can be valuable members of a working team, but most importantly, provide them with a passage into an apprenticeship scheme or employment.

The latest Government statistics have found that across the UK, 963,000 people aged 16-24 are not in employment, education or attending a training scheme, with 61% classed as unemployed. It has therefore never been more important to help younger people get a foot on the employment ladder, through work experience and apprenticeship schemes.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, O’Brien Contractors, said: “The company has been fortunate to have great success over the years and we are keen to ensure we give back to the community whenever possible.”

“We have set up the programme to help and inspire young job seekers in their pursuit of employment. Employers look at experience gained when interviewing potential new members of staff and attending a work experience programme will make their credentials stand out.” said Tony Mitchell.

Each placement delivers high quality on-site experience related to the person’s training requirements. They are assigned to a site supervisor, who mentors them passing on the relevant skills, introduces them to the structure of working life and demonstrates the value of working in this sector.

At the end of the week, trainees come away with a genuine learning experience, highly motivated and a better awareness of their career aspirations.

Tony Mitchell, Operations Manager, O’Brien Contractors, said: “During the recession, 400,000 skilled jobs were lost in the construction industry and an estimated 400,000 are due to go through retirement over the next five years.”

“We feel it is crucial that the industry creates more schemes, like our work experience programme, to offer hands on experience to younger people at the grassroots level and get them interested in a career in construction.”

Louis Gray from Central Construction Training was the first pupil enrolled on the scheme and experienced a week on-site at the Accident and Emergency development at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. Louis said: “I found the work experience programme very helpful and it gave me a better understanding of what I can expect from a career in construction.  I have learnt so much from my site supervisor in just one week and I feel inspired to continue developing my skills and apply them in a career in construction.”

It is an unavoidable fact that we are currently facing something of a skills shortfall in the construction industry, driven by a combination of the estimated 400,000 jobs lost during the recession coupled with a further 400,000 due to be lost to retirement in the next five years.

It has therefore never been more important to promote the construction industry as a viable and rewarding career and it is more important than ever that we demonstrate the value of working in this sector.
The industry suffers from a perception that working in construction means that you’re poorly paid and spending your days out in the howling wind and rain, when in reality well trained professionals can earn in excess of £100,000 a year.

This is a message that we need to get out there: that the construction industry can offer substantial benefits and that careers in construction are for highly skilled, intelligent people, who can earn big money.
It is apparent that we have to do more to spread this message to younger people at the grassroots level, demonstrating that careers in construction have a clear path to progression. Our core target group has always been school leavers, but the approach here could do with being refreshed, changing the image of construction from the ground-up.

Primarily, we need to utilise the existing young talent that we already have in the industry to prove first-hand that there are significant benefits and opportunities available throughout the sector. We need to understand what’s going to drive 17 and 18-year-olds and this can be more successfully achieved if we have a successful 22 year-old ex-apprentice standing in front of them who has already been through the process. They’re far more likely to take notice of someone like this than if we roll out a 60-year old managing director.

Secondly, we need to demonstrate that, once apprentices have been taken on, they’re being professionally developed rather than left to make the tea.

Every company has its own idiosyncrasies, however from our own experience if you take a young person and put them on-site with a surveyor for four days and on a college course for one day a week, in a few years’ time, they have vastly increased their knowledge and hands-on experience of the role and will also be earning around £20,000 more than they were previously.

Rather than trying to provide every apprentice with experience in every sector of the industry, we identify an individual’s strengths and evaluate where in the company they would best fit, helping them to develop in a specific discipline while nurturing their individual skills.

This isn’t a quick fix and it requires a commitment of some three to four years to truly make the most out of it, but at the end of this process, you will benefit from having a knowledgeable and confident professional who has been developed through your organisation.

This is, of course, more easily said than done, with many companies still recovering from the recession, when austerity led to scaled-down operations that left businesses without the structure or function to allow for the development and stewardship of apprentices. It needs to be made easier for businesses to take on apprentices through financial incentives such as government grants, although whether this is just pie in the sky thinking is another question.

There isn’t a simple one-size-fits-all solution that we can slot into place to solve the skills problem in construction, but with a more committed and focussed approach we should be able to go some way towards meeting the demands of a market that is back on the upswing.

In the latest of a long line of business award successes, O’Brien Contractors has won a prestigious Green Apple Environment Award alongside much larger companies, including Laing O’Rourke, Kier and Lovell.

The Bronze Award recognises the company’s achievement and long-term commitment to developing a sustainable business and sharing best practice within the industry to improve the construction sector’s overall sustainability and environmental performance.

Managing Director, Peter O’Brien said: “We are delighted that our commitment to sustainability and continual improvement of our environmental performance has been recognised by this internationally renowned environmental recognition programme.”

As well as recognising the financial stability that the company has created through its diversification programme, which saw it expand its service offering, develop new solutions, grow its client base and increase its workforce, the award recognises the commitment the company has demonstrated to being environmentally sustainable through a range of initiatives.

These include:

• Developing a comprehensive three page Environmental Policy
• Implementing a purchasing policy that ensures materials are sourced sustainably, for example:
  • Suppliers must be ISO14001 accredited
  • Timber must be FSC certified and a chain-of-custody certificate must be produced
  • Preference must be given to recycled stone/bricks where possible
  • Metal must have a minimum recycled content of 40%
  • Using Hanson EcoPlus concrete which incorporates waste blast furnace slag to reduce its CO2 content by 13.53 tonnes for every 100m3 of concrete

O’Brien’s has also introduced a comprehensive recycling system that segments waste recycling in the office and on site, with dedicated skips for timber, steel, rubble and cardboard. It is further developing this system in order to achieve zero waste to landfill.

Excavated earth is recycled whenever possible by incorporating it into the projects it delivers, for example at Hollyfast School, Coventry, it was used to construct a turfed mound in the playground. This not only reduced waste but also reduced disposal costs and the resulting cost to the client. If materials can’t be reused on-site they are transported to nearby projects for reuse if possible.

The move to a paperless office is now saving approximately 12,000 sheets of paper per year and the company’s entire fleet of vehicles has been updated to low-emission models.

Peter O’Brien said: “Implementing environmental best practices now and constantly striving to improve performance is vital for our business, and our industry, to remain successful.

O’Brien has struck gold in recognition of the way it protects its staff from accidents and injury.

O’Brien Contractors, based in Cubbington, has won the Gold Award in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2014.

The company will be presented with the prize at a ceremony at the Hilton Metropole, at the NEC, on Thursday, May 15.

RoSPA, a national charity, aims to save lives and reduce injuries and in support of that mission, the awards – which date back 58 years – recognise the commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention at work.

Through the scheme, which is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas, judges consider entrants’ overarching occupational health and safety management systems including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

It is the latest in a string of awards for O’Brien Contractors including Contractor of the Year at the Building Awards 2014, a National Chamber Award and the SME Award at the Celebrating Construction Awards.

O’Brien Contractors managing director Peter O’Brien said the RoSPA award was particularly special.

He said: “Any recognition of the company’s qualities and practices is great news but health and safety is such a huge issue in construction and so to achieve gold in the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards is testament to just how seriously we take it.

“Credit has to go to our management team and all of our staff for ensuring that health and safety is a priority on each and every contract we carry out.

“Health and safety can, sometimes, be given a bad name because people see it as overly bureaucratic or unnecessarily restrictive on businesses but, in our view, it is vital that companies of all sizes and sectors – but especially in construction – do everything they can to protect staff and, indeed, the public.”

O’Brien Contractors was established by Peter’s father, Thomas O’Brien, 55 years ago. Peter and his brother, Michael, got involved around 35 years ago and, in 1995, took it from a partnership to a limited company.

The firm invested heavily during the recession and that has started to pay off with turnover rising and a range of awards.

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said: “The RoSPA Awards encourage the raising of occupational health and safety standards across the board.

“Organisations that gain recognition for their health and safety management systems, such as O’Brien Contractors, contribute to a collective raising of the bar for other organisations to aspire to, and we offer them our congratulations.”

O’Brien Contractors, a specialist civil engineering firm providing best-practice, cost-effective design and build services for a wide range of construction projects, has won a Gold International CSR Excellence Award in the Building & Construction Category.

The awards recognise companies that commit to making a positive, beneficial impact on their customers, their suppliers, their employees and their families, and the communities they work in.

The Gold level of award that O’Brien won was announced at the awards ceremony on HMS Belfast on Monday 29th July.

Peter O’Brien, Managing Director at O’Brien Contractors said: “We are delighted to have won this award. As a company we are completely committed to providing the best service to our customers, being the best employer for our staff and making a positive impact on the communities where we deliver projects.”

“So far 2013 has seen us create new jobs in the region and win the Constructing Excellence SME Award for the West Midlands region. This additional recognition of our efforts shows that we are on the right track to achieve all of our goals.”

O’Brien Contractors has continued its support of local communities with the sponsorship of both Leamington RUFC and Cubbington Albion FC, after a tough year both the clubs required financial backing to enable them to look to their seasons ahead.

Ryan Cranton, FA coach at Cubbington Albion Juniors FC said: “Unfortunately, due to running costs at our club were on the brink of folding all junior teams, however we are now looking to build a solid foundation this season with U11 and U12 teams which will see us move forward in forthcoming seasons to add additional age groups. This has only been possible with the support of local businesses such as O’Brien’s and for this we are hugely grateful.”

O’Brien Contractors are exceedingly proud to have successfully been awarded three ISO (Internal Organisation for Standardization) accreditations: 9001 Quality Management, 14001 Environmental Management and 18001 Occupational Health & Safety.

9001 Quality Management

We are committed to improving our processes, systems and procedures to reduce costs and increase efficiency, both within our business and our customers.

14001 Environmental Management

We have introduced a range of initiatives to ensure we minimise our negative impact on the environment, culiminating in us achieving ISO14001 accreditation. This commitment is not based solely on a desire to ‘do the right thing’, but on a belief that we must do this to be a successful business.

18001 Occupational Health & Safety

The health and safety of our team, our clients and the wider community is of paramount importance to us. To ensure our operations are as safe as possible we invest in on-going health and safety training and employ a full time Health and Safety Manager to oversee our operations.

O’Brien’s Safety Manager, Andy Foster, said: “O’Brien has worked hard to attain these impressive accreditations. As a successful company we take the quality of our workmanship, safety and impact of our work extremely seriously; continual improvement is always at the forefront of our thoughts. We believe these accreditations will only reinforce the importance of this message to our clients.”