Peter Mircetic goes to the top of the class for his Safety Behaviour Skills School, which teaches serious safety lessons in a fun and engaging way, and earned him the Safe Workplace Champion Award.
Mircetic came up with the line-side school as a way of shifting employee mindsets from seeing health and safety as a compliance-based activity to a core cultural value.
The syllabus includes challenging employees to spot activities they carry out in unconscious competence, otherwise known as autopilot, and the dangers of doing so. Workers also assess their attitude and behaviour towards safety and the perception of risks.
Attendees are empowered to work through the safety learning rather than being instructed on dos and don'ts. Training is carried out in groups of six with two to three half hour sessions per employee per year.
When the bell sounds, employees sign a car bonnet in recognition of their commitment to safety and are tasked with raising at least two potential misses based on what they've learned.
Four Safety Behaviour Skills Schools are now running in key production areas with over 2,000 employees passing through their doors.
Mircetic's initiative ticked all the boxes in a Safe Workplace Champion category that was looking for someone who embodies the 'safety above all else' ethic that's a cornerstone of world-class manufacturing standards.
Our judges said: "Peter stood out with the inventive way he's engaged people in a subject that can be seen as dry and distant. The concept of asking an individual to sign a car bonnet is a brilliant way of securing personal buy-in to the health and safety cause."
Mircetic says he was elated to become a Manufacturing Champion and has set his sights on next year's entry already. "I was absolutely blown away with the recognition that I have had by winning this award. I feel even more motivated to develop a new initiative and enter next year."
Name: Peter Mircetic
Job title: lead superintendent – body construction, JLR, Halewood
The judges said: "Peter's concept of asking individuals to sign a car bonnet is a brilliant way of securing personal buy-in to the health and safety cause."
Do you have a safety pioneer at your site? Find out how to enter them for this year's Manufacturing Champions Awards. Email: gosney@findlay.co.uk
'Serious safety lessons made fun to learn'
Gillian White, marketing manager, Arco
Sitting in the audience of the inaugural Manufacturing Champions Awards, we witnessed all that is great about UK manufacturing today. It was inspiring to see how the UK's leading manufacturers continue to strive for innovation and excellence, and are inspiring their own people to do the same.
As a company deeply committed to making sure that everyone goes home safely to their families at the end of each working day, Arco was delighted to see the innovative ways in which Peter Mircetic has made teaching serious safety lessons fun and engaging.
Health and safety often gets a bad press. Nearly every day we read lurid headlines complaining about 'elf and safety' and how it is spoiling our lives. Delivering the safety message is not easy. The problem is how to make it a positive message that's relevant to our own lives without resorting to scare tactics or seeming to be too authoritarian.
Peter has taken the initiative and developed his Safety Behaviour Skills School as a way of changing the employee mindset. It's a strategy that is being fully embraced within Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood factory and his schools are running across key production areas with over 2,000 successful graduates.
We applaud Peter for his efforts in helping to make his factory a safer place and congratulate him on winning this award.
