The Sureserve Group are a Compliance and Energy services company leading in several key industries across the UK. Their services include;
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Energy Services;
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Gas Servicing, Maintenance and Installations;
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Smart Metering;
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Water Hygiene and Legionella;
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Fire Maintenance;
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Lift Servicing, Maintenance and Installations.
Forming part of that Group Precision Lifts is an industry specialist, offering Lift compliance services for Local Authorities, Housing Associations, Commercial Sector and Private Sector. At Precision Lifts, they believe that in a highly skilled and challenging profession the requirement for certification is not only a necessity, but allows their clients and employees to have full confidence them and the services they provide.
With the recent and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic their ethos hasn’t changed one bit, they continue to strive to be the best they can for their employees and customers.
At the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic Precision Lifts knew they needed to look at their risk management, contingency plans and continual improvement of their existing core H&S processes in order to continue delivery of their services in challenging circumstances.
As an existing client of NQA’s for multiple ISO standards, including ISO 45001 (the International Occupational Health and Safety standard); Precision Lifts approach to this was defined early on.
First in their Industry
As an NQA client Precision Lifts were made aware of the new COVID SECURE Guideline Verification service as soon as it launched via the Group platform. A firm believer in third party auditing, there was little hesitation to arrange their third party verification.
“As a compliance based business, demonstrable and externally verified achievement is an essential part of our identity” said Dean White, Managing Director at Precision Lift Services Ltd.
Choosing COVID SECURE Guideline Verification with NQA was an easy decision, Precision Lifts knew the quality of auditor/service they would get and had trust in NQA as a global certification body.
Precision Lifts didn’t want an auditor to come in and tick a box, they wanted to be challenged, they wanted to be encouraged to think ‘outside the box’, to see where they could make improvements or maybe hadn’t thought of something.
COVID SECURE Guideline Verification for Precision Lifts, means they can:
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Prove they have met COVID-19 Government guidelines
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Identify any gaps or areas they could improve
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Show evidence of their achievement – their hard work and efforts solidified with verification
As part of the Sureserve Group, best practice in all areas of compliance is extremely important to Precision Lifts. As their Managing Director says “Always be measured by someone else’s standard not your own! Lots of companies put signs up or post on social media to say they’re COVID-19 secure, but have they actually done anything? What changes have they made? To a lot of organisations it’s just a tick box exercise, but not to us.”
Added value of getting COVID SECURE Verification
For Precision Lifts the value of third party verification is incomparable. They can demonstrate to their stakeholders that they are investing in all circumstances – supporting bidding and current contracts; it allows them to continue working when potentially others can’t.
Another added value to ensuring they are COVID SECURE and meeting Government guidelines; one they maybe didn’t realise would be such a big impact, is their increased communication and engagement. Not only with their employees, contractors but also with their clients.
Whilst Precision Lifts have always been big on communicating, everyone working from home gave them new opportunities – or maybe brought to light the true value. It meant that managers were having daily interaction with their teams, talking about health and well-being, offering reassurance where needed, sharing personal stories and generally getting to know each other a little better.
“We’ve had our engineers on the phone elderly customers just for chat” said Richard Nelson, H&S Manager at Precision Lifts.
It’s important to Precision Lifts that they don’t just talk a good game and they actually come through with everything possible to ensure the safety of their employees. From guaranteeing PPE, to buying additional items like brass pushes, to signage and information.
“The confidence gained by our colleagues, clients, passengers and communities through externally verified COVID SECURE Guideline Verification is invaluable to our business.” Adds Dean White, Managing Director at Precision Lift Services Ltd.
What does the future look like?
At Precision Lifts they really do operate a ‘bottom up’ hierarchy… The Managing Director has a strong focus on his employees; whether that’s out in the field or working behind the scenes – they are the core business and their safety and happiness is at the forefront of every decision his management team makes.
Being part of a larger group means that best practice can be shared across the board, ideas and experiences can be discussed, potentially saving time and investment.
Reiterated by Jesse Culleton, NQA Regional Assessor “It was a pleasure to conduct the COVID SECURE Guideline Verification with Precision Lifts. Throughout the process, all participants put my welfare, customer and colleague’s safety first ensuring social distancing and government guidelines were adhered to at all times. This was evident during the audit process; allowing me to raise best practice with the controls put in place and leadership and commitment from the managing director and all employees that took part in the audit.”
“The Sureserve Group value the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of every colleague, client, customer and key stakeholder. Safety is one of our core business values and this is evident in the way that the Group has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Communication is the key and we go above and beyond to be inclusive with all of our employees. I feel very proud to be part of the Sureserve family and work alongside businesses such as Precision Lifts” added Sarah Eddy, Group Governance & Compliance Manager.
To ensure commitment to best practice around the government guidelines relating to COVID-19 Precision Lifts have regular guideline briefings, this is an opportunity to look at what’s changed in the guidelines, what it means to them as a business and how it affects them at every level. Led by the Managing Director and the H&S Manager this ensures continual improvement of their commitment to their stakeholder’s safety at all times.
Part of this is constant communication with employees, including weekly safety updates – ensuring they have the correct info at all times, giving employees a simplified explanation of current guidelines, what it means to them in and out of the work place.
“It’s clear the Precision Lifts team put their employees and customers at the heart of everything they do. They show outstanding commitment to quality and safety, truly inspirational!” says Nick Wright, NQA Managing Director.
Precision Lifts have made a decision to continue working to the absolute best practice of health and safety they can, whether the government guidelines reduce or not. They will keep everything in place as it is now, to protect their employees and stakeholders – they want to go above and beyond.
As a result of the positive experience that Precisions Lifts had during the COVID SECURE Guideline Verification, alongside the confidence and assurance it gives the organisation, several other companies that form the Sureserve Group have now either obtained or are in the process of obtaining COVID SECURE Guideline Verification with NQA.
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