Case Studies

Case study 1: Risk assessment and health and safety training courses – Princess Cruises

The problem: risk assessment requirements

Globally recognised premiere cruise line Princess Cruises approached us to help them meet their health and safety obligations in relation to risk assessment. They particularly needed help with:

• Risk-assessing all staff manual-handling activities
• Ensuring all Occupational Environmental and Safety Officers undertake an IOSH (Institute of Safety and Health) ‘Managing Safely' course, in order to facilitate their legal obligations
• Developing computer-based training (CBT) in relation to on-board health and safety responsibilities.

Our 'smart training solutions': assessment, action plan and health and safety training courses.

1. We carried out a thorough risk assessment of all manual handling activities on board one of the organisation’s largest cruise liners, the Star Princess. This presented a true reflection of current practices and highlighted significant areas for improvement.

2. We presented a comprehensive action plan to the Directors. The process of implementing the recommendations detailed within the report began.

3. We implemented IOSH Managing Safely health and safety training courses for key members of staff. A very impressive 100% success rate was achieved for all delegates.

Benefits for Princess Cruises: Time-saving assessment and business-relevant health and safety training courses

Our project allowed the Senior Management Team to focus on taking action and moving health and safety forward, rather than occupying themselves with the time-consuming process of conducting the risk assessments themselves.

We used relevant Princess Cruises documentation during training, making the course as practical as possible. This contextualised learning also helped delegates to retain the information more easily – undoubtedly a major contributory factor in the 100% success rate of the IOSH Managing Safely course.

Computer-based training consultation was equally successful, with the computer system now fully functional and available across the whole fleet.

To find out more about our bespoke health and safety training courses, see our bespoke training web page, or contact us to chat through your needs.

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Case study 2: Bespoke health and safety consulting and training – Premier Foods

The problem: need for standardised training

The UK’s largest food producer, Premier Foods came to Smart Training Solutions to discuss their food hygiene, health and safety consulting and training needs three years ago.

Their company portfolio had expanded and the subsequent influx of new staff meant they needed standardised training to bring together the new and existing workforce, company policies and standard operating procedures.

They particularly needed help with:

• Staff retention – Change often creates a massive turnover in staff; Premier Foods was keen to avoid this in order to retain the product/ working knowledge of both their new and existing staff base.
• Effective integration, translating existing knowledge within new working practices.
• The need for many staff to retrain and re-learn working practices in order to create parity across the established and newly acquired businesses.

Our 'smart training solutions': health and safety consulting, development and implementation of a new training programme.

NB Smart Training Solutions has been the preferred trainer for health and safety for Premier Foods at Wisbech, Long Sutton, Bury St Edmunds, Middleton and Knighton for the past three years.

In recent months, Premier has focused on two of its primary sites, Wisbech and Long Sutton. Data on percentage pass rates later in this case study therefore relate to these two sites only.

1. Our food hygiene and health and safety consulting team provided advice and guidance to the training teams at each site, enabling them to self-identify those with the greatest training need.

2. We advocated the best ways of supporting their training needs, taking into account:

• Barriers to learning – previous experiences of learning/training can adversely influence future training capacity.
• Language issues – frequently English was not the first language of those scheduled to attend.
• Engagement/participation – The design and the delivery of the programme was tailored to attendees’ working environment to promote engagement, participation and retention.
• Resistance to change – the training process had to acknowledge and empathise with the insecurities of a diverse workforce in a company undergoing massive transition and expansion.

3. Principal trainer Christine Nuttall developed a tailored programme designed to address and acknowledge all of the above issues.

With a formal teaching qualification and a wealth of industry experience and knowledge, Christine combined ‘inclusive learning’ methods with the practicalities of ‘real life’ working. This included the use of real company documentation, images of actual working environments and simulation of real working situations.

This provided a relevant context for the programme content, ensuring maximum participation, access and achievement by delegates.

Benefits for Premier Foods: Staff-centred ethos and excellent training success rate

Premier Foods recognises that its greatest asset is its workforce. It actively encourages staff development and ensures that all staff attend formally accredited Health and Safety in the Workplace training.

We developed an extremely successful programme to support this company ethos, with an overall pass rate over the last three months of over 98%.

The structure and delivery of our initial health and safety programme has proved so successful, Premier Foods have now expanded the delivery of Food Safety training to approximately 750 staff at the Long Sutton site over the next six months.

To find out more about our food hygiene and health and safety consulting, see our consultancy page, or contact us to chat through your needs.

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