HAE EHA launch SafeHire Certification
SafeHire Certification Scheme aiming to become trusted mark of quality for the hire sector
HIRE Association Europe and Event Hire Association (HAE EHA) has announced the official launch of its SafeHire Certification Scheme.
The aim of SafeHire is to raise standards across the industry and improve all areas of company operations from CSR policy, quality management, health and safety, environmental management and customer service standards. Several big players in the hire sector, including Hire Station, Hirebase, Travis Perkins and Speedy Hire, have already gone through the audit process and are reaping the rewards of certification.
SafeHire is currently an option for existing members as part of HAE EHA membership, but will become a prerequisite of membership as of 1 January 2018, meaning all members must successfully complete the certification process by that time.
In order to meet the target, the Association is seeking to broaden the awareness of SafeHire Certification and its many benefits across the construction, hire and events industries to encourage take up of an initiative that has already had a significant impact on some of the UK’s leading hire companies.
To officially launch SafeHire, HAE EHA invited key industry players to the JCB Arena on Tuesday 19 July. Senior figures from the Association discussed the aims and aspirations of certification and were accompanied by some key names from the construction, events hire and health and safety sectors, who shared their successes and discussed how SafeHire has impacted their businesses.
Graham Arundell, managing director of HAE EHA, commented: ‘SafeHire has already had a hugely positive impact on businesses that have gone through certification voluntarily. Making SafeHire a requirement of membership is 100% the right step for the industry to create the level playing field that is much needed and to help improve practices and processes of hire businesses.
‘To date, awareness of SafeHire has largely been limited to our own membership, many of whom have been undertaking the requisite audit process to become certified. The next step for SafeHire is to widen awareness of certification to the end-user, so that people start recognizing who we are and what certification means for the industry.
‘There’s been a steady recognition, from the wider industry, of the need to work with partners who have the appropriate certifications; but there’s more that needs to be done to push the message. SafeHire has the potential to become the leading certification in the industry, and we hope that it will become the trusted mark of quality for the hire sector.’
A key element to reaching HAE EHA’s goal for SafeHire Certification will be inclusion as part of procurement tenders. This is something that is already gaining traction in the UK with a number of leading hire companies reporting that national clients, such as Network Rail, Balfour Beatty and Barratt Homes, are beginning to instruct that their hire partners must be SafeHire certified in order to be considered for inclusion on preferred supplier lists.
