HSE Community Insights - Ben Kirkbride
Ben Kirkbride – Head of Safety, Quality & Environment at Gamuda
Ben brings more than seventeen years’ experience in managing Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental aspects within iconic multi-site organisations in a range of disciplines, including construction, infrastructure, and other heavy industries.
What do you think the 3 biggest opportunities that the HSE profession are faced with in the constantly changing world of work?
There is an opportunity for the younger generation to really make their mark across the HSE profession. Whilst there is a real challenge across the industry in attracting people into safety straight from school or university, there is a great opportunity for us all to take it into the next generation.
I often think about the rise of the gig economy model in many aspects of work currently, UBER, Air-tasker and Doordash. Sure, we’ve always had consultants representing the profession and working in a flexible capacity, even more so these days, however will this necessary impact the role of the HS Director?
I believe most businesses which accommodate flexible working arrangements won’t have the fear of losing employees to the state of gig economy however we do need to think about how we can offer the best bang for buck as businesses evolve to maintain our value-add.
What are the top 3 capabilities required in your view for success in the future?
The need to be seen as an effective Leader with good capabilities.
You need to have the ability to influence and not get too hands on and in the detail.
Definitely more of the softer skills which will enable you to business partner effectively.
Looking back over your career, if you could change one thing, what would that be?
I actually wouldn’t be here today in this position if I hadn’t done what I started out doing. I started my career as a front-line worker, on the tools! This really gave me the ability and insights around practical application on the ground. From there, I moved into a safety role and have never looked back since.
What is innovative about the organisation you are working for?
Gamuda have really embraced its approach to doing things differently in tunnelling. With our introduction of the Autonomous TBM in 2018, this allowed us to take our underground safety performance to the next level in tunnels—minimising our worker’s exposure to silica dust, time required to work underground and improving our safety and quality performance.
The use of Autonomous TBM’s have driven a number of health and safety improvements and benefits:
• a reduction in fatigue and human error related incidents which correlates with better mental health and wellbeing of operators / workers
• a reduction in machine down time which reduces the risk exposure to mechanics and fitters by limited repairs and better production rates
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