The challenges 2020 brought came as a surprise to all, but Multevo’s proactive approach meant that before the first lockdown was even announced its teams on the road were prepared for the trials and tribulations to come.
Understanding the challenges that our highways heroes were going to face was essential to continuing to provide an outstanding highways maintenance service to our client base existing and new.
Challenges included:
- having the ability to carry on working in a safe manner
- operatives ensuring that they are socially distancing
- operatives not handling the same equipment and driving the same vehicles
- procurement of tools and equipment required to complete works
- disseminating the information to our highways heroes
Having invested in a bespoke app, management quickly came together to use this advantage, providing instant pandemic and safety updates directly to our highways heroes’ handheld devices. This meant that they could react in real-time and ensure a safe and successful operation with new toolbox talks to ensure COVID-19 compliance.
Additionally, getting the buy-in from our workers and creating a positive transparent culture was high on the list. We have found that being able to provide a safe area where teams can still come together just to talk and interact has a huge benefit on their wellbeing and mental health.
We hosted safe distanced events which have been a huge success, such as the Friday morning ‘Butty and Brew’ get together, as well as highways supervisor safety meetings.
Working closely with our supply chain and building strong relationships ensured our teams had the correct number of vehicles and equipment to be able to strive at their job and repair Britain’s roads. Additionally, we procured cleaning stations to wipe tools and plant regularly.
Our motivation during such an uncertain time was keeping the network going and revamping our roads to ensure they are safe for road users. Although it has been hard at times, the challenge of it all has made the reward even greater and our teams even stronger.
The success of early involvement and stringent new safety measures has allowed our workforce to grow, with new faces both office based and out on the field.
Since March, we have employed a total of 16 new full-time employees and have won further contracts in the Midlands as well as undertaking new verge maintenance ventures on the high speed network in the North West.
Sonny Singh is contracts director at Multevo
