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Latest Case Study – Comfort Controls

Helping to create energy efficient buildings

comfort controls [1]Comfort Controls [2] helps to create energy efficient buildings that are safe, sustainable and beneficial to their occupants. The company achieves this by carefully managing the balance between the users requirements and their energy consumption.

Formed in 1984 and based in the South East of England, Comfort Controls [2] works on controls projects worldwide in a multitude of market sectors including: hospitals, universities, school, retail parks, industrial units and leisure centres.

Comfort Controls [2] operates as a building management controls specialist, manufacturer and installer of motor control centres, as well as electrical contractor. Because its success is down to its staff, it is therefore vital these employees are looked after in the best way possible.

Rapid company growth – the need for a health and safety solution

Since its inception, the company has grown from a core team of 5-6 people to now employing over 30 from its head office in Hemel Hempstead.

Kris Mitchell [3]Kris Mitchell joined the company as a project manager prior to the rapid growth phase. It was during this growth that he realised the company needed to have a comprehensive health and safety policy in place. He comments:

“I knew we needed more than an audit; we needed to have full risk assessments undertaken and policies in place.

“We appreciated that we’d now be looking towards working on bigger projects, and in order for us to successfully tender, these would need to be in place. The time had come to really invest in our health and safety practices.”

Bringing in Hosking Associates

Health and safety specialists, Hosking Associates, were introduced to Comfort Controls [2] through a mutual client. Kris Mitchell adds:

“The team at Hosking had the right attitude and experience, and we knew they were the people to take us to the next level from a health and safety perspective. They knew where we looking to get to and how we would achieve it.”

The health and safety policy was collated, and it took three months to finalise. Once a year, the policy is reviewed and fine tuned to suit the updated business requirements.

“During 2014 we will be opening a new office – which will require a review,” added Kris.

Louise Hosking, director at Hosking Associate, adds: “We look at the entire business holistically, and develop solutions for their health and safety concerns. We work to create something which reads more like an employee handbook.

“Many of Comfort Controls [2] documents are site specific, and it’s our job to ensure that any risks associated with that site are flagged up.

We started by writing up generic plans, but were keen to work with the relevant project managers to ensure that site specific plans could be created by them.”

Kris Mitchell adds: “At the end of the day, we need to ensure that when an engineer goes out on site they are as safe as possible. Some engineers will be on a job for six months at a time, and others may do 2-3 jobs in a day – we need to ensure we have the right plan in place for each of them.”

The Future

The company is now on its fourth revision of the initial policy set out. Kris Mitchell adds:

“We have got to the stage we feel we are on top of our health and safety. In fact, we now take it all so seriously that we have chosen to employ a dedicated health and safety administrator to ensure we are on top of everything – all the time.

“Hosking Associates has made everything very straightforward, and guided us in an area which can be very confusing. They are a professional and dedicated team who have helped to make us proud of our health and safety procedures. They have also empowered us; rather than trying to run it all, they have worked hard on guiding us along the way.”