Using the RoSPA Awards to build success
Company:
Viking Office UK Limited
Achievement:
Won Most Improved Member Award as well as a Gold Award at the 2024 RoSPA Health and Safety Awards.
Gold Award winners have achieved a very high level of performance, demonstrating well developed occupational health and safety management systems and culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of error, harm and loss.
Introduced in 2024, the RoSPA Most Improved Member award is issued to both a UK and international entrant holding RoSPA Membership, who have shown the most significant year-on-year improvement within the achievement award categories.
Background:
Viking Office UK Limited’s main operational activity is provision of office supplies and workplace solutions, storage, picking and shipping, customer service and sales. The company currently has three sites across the UK - two office premises in Manchester and Milton Keynes and the Leicester Distribution Centre including offices to the front of the site and the warehouse area to the back. It also has a customer service centre and 3PL Distribution Centre in Dublin, Ireland. There are 380 people employed across the UK and Ireland with around 110 of those directly employed in the distribution centres.
We asked Carmen Wrighten, Viking Office UK’s Health & Safety Manager UKIE, about the company’s Awards journey so far...
Why did you decide that you wanted to use an external awards scheme for health and safety?
“I had experience of the RoSPA Awards in a previous role, as too did our Managing Director, so we were fully aware of the benefits the awards can bring. Firstly, the self-evaluation of systems, procedures, culture engagement and, of course, performance is invaluable. It allows for an internal critical review outside of formal audit realms and provides clarity on what is working and what doesn’t quite. It also gets you thinking about the following year’s submission, what can we implement to make our submission bigger and better whilst keeping safety at the heart?
“It is a team effort, submissions can’t be written well without the input of so many and we can’t describe culture without involving those at the centre of it.”
Would you describe a few of the reasons you decided to choose the RoSPA Awards specifically?
“RoSPA is prestigious, it is respected and it is evolving as the world of safety evolves. There are so many awards to enter but none have the gravitas that RoSPA does. There wasn’t another awards we felt that would recognise our safety management in the same way.”
What have the benefits of entering the Awards been?
“As a business it has given us an opportunity to showcase to our clients both new and existing that we care about the people who are involved in them receiving their products. It has allowed us as a team to reflect on how we manage safety and what we would like to do going forward. It has encouraged engagement, opened up areas of opportunity for colleagues who have shown an interest in safety and made safety a positive talking point rather than the ‘red tape’ department of old.”
You first entered the Awards in 2023 and were awarded a Silver – how did you approach the Awards the second time?
“I used the Silver submission as a foundation to build on. We continued to focus on behaviours and engagement and found it a lot easier with the Silver under our belt. What I thought had been weaker I strengthened and what I knew was our strength I built further upon. Our systems are ever-evolving as our people, business and incidents do, so we always have something new we have worked on and we apply the same strategy and attitude to make our safety management system better which, I hope helped towards being awarded the Gold this year!”
You worked with a RoSPA Awards mentor - what value did that bring?
“Speaking with Alex (our mentor) gave me a great insight into how to approach the Awards and what to focus on. Many years ago, I’d only been responsible for evidence-gathering and not the submission, so to have Alex to point me in the right direction and provide advice, such as letting the context showcase the evidence, was invaluable and ultimately won us our first Silver.”
How did you feel about your success at the 2024 Awards?
“To be awarded Gold on only our second submission was a surprise and a delight and then to also receive the Members Most Improved Award too blew us away. Obviously, we are committed to delivering safety management at the highest level possible and work hard every day to achieve this with the engagement from our colleagues and to receive recognition like this was phenomenal, it gave the whole workforce a boost. I’m very fortunate in my role that I have support for health and safety from top management, senior managers, peers, and colleagues alike and to share this award for their dedication to the cause is absolutely fantastic.”
What are the next steps – and what are your aspirations, short-term and long-term for health and safety at the organisation?
“I asked our compliance reps this very question in our recent meeting, I think the combined answer from them all is bigger and better. Continue with that critical approach leading to positive outcomes and not letting complacency set in. As a business that never stands still there are always interesting challenges and we will never stop learning or improving our safety management.”
Would you recommend the Awards to others? If so, why?
“100 per cent. If nothing else, the awards ceremony is a great night! In all seriousness, personally, over the past two years we’ve entered I’ve witnessed nothing but positivity and increased engagement and for me that makes the job much easier, more pleasurable and so much more rewarding.”
Do you have any advice to organisations entering the Awards next year?
“It isn’t a test, be honest in reflection and involve those who influence your safety management system for the best results.”
August 2024
“RoSPA is prestigious, it is respected and it is evolving as the world of safety evolves. There are so many awards to enter but none have the gravitas that RoSPA does...”
Carmen Wrighten, Viking Office UK
Find out all about the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards 2025 at: www.rospa.com/awards