Balancing performance, comfort and cost: Scottish Power’s PPE selection strategy

Event Date: 17/09/2021 11:00 am

A webinar to explore Scottish Power’s experience of using employee consultation, supplier collaboration and carefully supported field trials to make well rounded decisions about changes to critical PPE.

Selecting the right PPE to roll out to staff can be a difficult balancing act. Safety standards cannot be compromised, and cost is always a factor. But increasingly, decisions are also complicated by the need to take employee comfort and pride in their PPE into account.

These human factors are important. Ill-fitting or cumbersome PPE can itself be a hazard to workers, either creating occupational health risks or the chance that frustration with PPE causes it to be misused. Being confident of the acceptability of new PPE to staff should therefore be a key step in every procurement strategy.

In this webinar, hosted by Utility Week in association with MSA Safety, Scottish Power’s health and safety consultant Jim Denholm will share his organisation’s approach to balancing performance, comfort and cost in making its PPE selections.

Key insights will include:

  • Scottish Power’s approach to employee consultation on PPE
  • It’s approach to supporting field trials of new equipment
  • How it has collaborated with suppliers to overcome challenges raised by existing PPE going out of production in order to create new and higher performing alternatives
  • The benefits achieved through its approach. Such as:
    • reduced employee complaints
    • reduced PPE-related occupational health issues
    • improved care of PPE from satisfied and proud employees
    • improved productivity and job satisfaction
    • improved union relations

Denholm’s insights will be backed up with information from PPE experts at MSA, providing further detail of the performance and comfort of key PPE selections made by Scottish Power.

Speakers will include:

  • Ruth Williams, industry correspondent and event chair, Utility Week
  • Jim Denholm, health and safety consultant, Scottish Power
  • Marc Jenkin, industrial sales, Midlands & Wales, MSA
  • Paul Bell, sales director, MSA Bell