SafeHire is a continual Business Improvement Programme that both sets and helps maintain the standards of operation for HAE EHA members, and the standard itself is the guarantee of consistency of approach during assessment. It also provides a greater degree of transparency and reassurance to clients and customers, and to trading standards.

THE BENEFITS OF SAFEHIRE CERTIFICATION

One of the principal benefits of achievement of the standard is that it provides the differentiation between members and non-members and is designed for companies of all sizes. Originally written by HAE, its members, HSE and other corporate bodies, it endeavours to level the playing field between members large and small and enables them all to compete locally on an even ground. Additionally, we have negotiated with several other PQQ assessors, such as CHAS, and they have recognised the benefits of our program to the extent that we can add our SafeHire members to their register without further assessment; a cost benefit to HAE EHA members. Members have the choice about inclusion on the CHAS register, a register that is 80% populated by SME companies.  

Operated along UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Services) the system is designed to produce fairness for all. The certificate lasts for 3 years but is subject to an annual review visit to ensure compliance is maintained. Multi depot operations are subject to random assessments of depots based on the square root of the number of operational depots, and this is a calculation that ensures consistency across the board.

Another objective of SafeHire is to reduce the duplication experienced by many members who are constantly bombarded by a cacophony of PQQ forms. We have already had success with CHAS, we are in discussion with Constructionline and more recently with Build UK to ensure that SafeHire provides the answer to the time consuming and expensive myriad of requests from clients of our industry. SafeHire addresses a multitude of standards such as ISO 9001, 14001, 18001 (45001), 27001, PAS 91 plus, much more importantly, we pay careful attention to product inspection - both process wise and physically - something entirely unique to SafeHire.

THE SAFEHIRE ASSESSORS

All assessors are independent of HAE EHA and are selected on the basis of their knowledge and experience of operating within or around the UK hire industry. They are subject to strict recruitment requirements and have regular standardisation meetings to ensure ongoing consistency of approach, maintain training levels and highlight some of the trends occurring as outcomes of assessments. These trends are reported on a regular basis at the HAE Technical Group meeting and invariably result in the issue of a SafeHire Bulletin to members to advise them on prevention.

THE SAFEHIRE CERTIFICATION PROCESS

The certification process is uncomplicated and consists of a desktop assessment of written procedures in operation within the business and compliance is required ahead of the site visit by an assessor. The Assessor will use the desktop outcome to create an individual assessment plan for his visit to test systems and processes. An on-site visit lasts up to 4 hours during which the assessor will ensure that the written word is understood by employees, and more importantly is implemented correctly across the organisation before going on to carry out a site and product inspection. The outcome could be a simple positive pass, but in most cases organisations face up to a series of non-conformances which are graded by, major, minor and opportunities to improve.

At the end of each assessment the assessor will create an individual detailed report, which includes relevant photographic evidence and requests the company to submit a plan to deal with the non-conformances. Only on receipt of a satisfactory plan will certification be confirmed, on rare occasions has it been necessary to re-visit before awarding the certificate. This corrective action plan then provides the basis of the next assessment visit in 12 months.