De-risking outdoor FM outsourcing through a culture of Kaizen

Richard Wootten, SHEQ Manager at OUTCO explores why a culture of continuous improvement is the foundation of safer, more resilient outdoor FM Partnerships

In the manufacturing world, Toyota famously popularised the concept of “Kaizen” – a culture of continuous improvement where any worker is empowered to “pull the cord” and stop the entire assembly line if they spot a problem. When applied to outdoor Facilities Management (FM), this same ethos is the bedrock of a highly effective health and safety culture.

For end customers, outsourcing outdoor FM often means handing over significant operational risk. Although handing off liabilities can be an advantage, there’s no such thing as fully washing your hands of risk. If an accident happens on a site, organisations can still face substantial reputational risk and potential legal liability – irrespective of how many subcontractors are involved down the line. Therefore, choosing an FM partner that adopts the right approach to health and safety is key.

There’s a profound difference between a provider that genuinely embodies a Kaizen culture and one that treats safety as a mere “tick-box exercise” to pass audits. Understanding this difference and selecting the right partner is the key to effective outsourcing that ensures your organisation’s standards are met in full.

So what does this Kaizen mentality look like? At OUTCO, we’ve built this through a combination of a dedicated team focused on Safety, Health, Environmental, and Quality Compliance (SHEQ), and ISO-certified Information Management System and leadership that actively listens. Working together, this internal team is viewed as a supportive function that adds value and helps ensure quality – rather than being a nuisance. In practice this means that if a team member sees a possible hazard onsite, they are empowered to stop the work immediately and receive full backing from the operations team. It also demands an openness to reviewing and learning from episodes when things don’t go right. A small example of this occurred during the incredibly hot recent weather where we learned that drinks cans had been exploding in vehicles – a possibility that made us review our own best practices concerning pressurised containers and extreme temperatures!

Arguably, this embedded culture is only possible thanks to a robust in-house capability. This matters as operations scale up and grow more complex. A dedicated, SHEQ team offers the skills, resource and training to be able to address the volume and complexity of demands. In many respects this is an advantage that larger FM providers have in the market. For example, smaller companies are often obliged to use external health and safety consultants to review Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS). While there are some truly excellent consultants, it matters how their resource is used: At worst, bringing on board a consultant is a hygiene factor – getting a name on a piece of paper in order to pass minimum accreditation standards. By contrast, at OUTCO we have a full-time, well-trained team with experience across a range of industries that employs an ISO certified Integrated Management System (encompassing ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001). As external consultants often juggle multiple clients, there can be a challenge to keep up with the daily volume of reviewing the RAMS requirements for large-scale operations.

This is not to dismiss the value that smaller contractors can deliver: Many small, best-of-breed operators are specialists in their area of expertise but lack the corporate controls needed to meet the stringent compliance standards of major clients. At OUTCO, we do bring on board specialist third parties when needed and can help bridge their skills gap by actively supporting these subcontractors. This involves reviewing their RAMS, providing targeted feedback, and ensuring all risks are mitigated before they ever step onto a client site. In higher-risk scenarios – such as a recent project involving trimming bushes on a skyscraper with unprotected edges – OUTCO’s team even stepped in to physically write and tweak the RAMS, resolving delays and allowing the subcontractor to work safely from an approved risk and methodology statement.

This robust internal oversight is especially vital for high-risk activities like winter gritting. Outdoor FM encompasses a wide scope of activities and a breadth of risk. Snow and ice clearance exemplifies a high-risk context as winter conditions introduce unpredictable weather and require teams to work in especially hazardous conditions. To make sites safe we have to send out specialist teams and vehicles to operate in conditions where the public would best stay at home. Here, an embedded health and safety culture ensures these teams are well-versed in compliance and safety controls before they deploy. We also conduct spot checks on sites to review and ensure the quality of service. But the same discipline is valuable across the board: For our grounds maintenance teams and for sub-contractors, the SHEQ team conducts frequent health, safety, and environmental inspections because we recognise and seek to minimise the possible risks. This includes ensuring that any subcontractors are trained to operate to the same exacting standards as our own staff.

Whatever the sector or service, clients value robust SHEQ capabilities, not only for minimising day to day risks but also for making procurement simpler and faster. The most frequent questions we receive from FM professionals relating to health and safety focus on areas like insurance or registration with an SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) scheme aligned with the Common Assessment Standard. Having ISO certifications alongside SSIP addresses many of the key concerns of clients as it proves you are serious about safety. There’s also the added peace of mind that comes from a contractor having robust skills and experience: For example, submitting compliance data to portals such as SafeContractor involves a specific skill set to ensure core legal standards and custom client requirements are met. At OUTCO, we see that our ability to streamline these administrative headaches for clients is really appreciated!

Ultimately, a true Kaizen culture thrives on continuous learning and keeping people aware of the risks. This starts when training and on-boarding staff but should also be a continuous dialogue between SHEQ and the workforce: We reinforce best practice through monthly “Toolbox Talks” sent to field workers – a communications channel that lets us swiftly update guidance based on real-world feedback or changes in legislation. This dedicated investment in in-house health and safety skills prevents issues from escalating and ensures the number one rule of safety: everyone goes home safe and well. By cultivating this level of Kaizen-driven operational safety, OUTCO proves that dedicated expertise is the definitive key to safer, more efficient outsourcing.

For more information contact 0800 0432 911 email enquiries@outco.co.uk or visit www.outco.co.uk