SOG Group, pioneers of Deal With ItÒ cultural safety training programme, have signed an agreement with a leading American occupational safety company to deliver Deal With ItÒ courses to businesses in the United States. (At right: John Lewis.)

Developed by Cheshire-based SOG, Deal With ItÒ is a highly effective and well-established training programme which aims to influence staff attitudes to health and safety, encouraging a change or re-evaluation of culture in the workplace and at home.

It has proved an international success with SOG recently breaking into the US market. Now a new partnership with Circle Safety & Health Consultants who are based in Richmond, Virginia, offers the opportunity to introduce Deal With ItÒ to more businesses in the US.

SOG aims to forge partnerships with other American safety training organisations to roll out Deal With ItÒ across the United States and wants interested bodies to contact them.

John Lewis, Managing Director of SOG Group, says: “Due to our continued growth in delivering cultural safety training programmes in various countries on different continents and particularly in North America, we have reached agreement with Circle Safety for them to partner with us in marketing and delivering our courses in the US.

“Circle Safety have a highly experienced team of consultants and trainers serving general industry, construction and the public sector on the Eastern Seaboard of the US. We have commenced a programme to train their staff who have already delivered a broad range of safety training to some of their clients in Virginia.”

Mr Lewis added: “Deal With ItÒ has become established as an excellent vehicle to promote positive changes in safety culture to help make the workplace environment safer for all employees. We have made some significant breakthroughs in the US where we have identified a huge potential market for Deal With ItÒ but to date we have been limited by conducting the training sessions through our UK-based trainers.

“This partnership, where Circle Safety will now deliver Deal With It® courses under license from SOG, marks an exciting new era for Deal With It® and means our programme can be introduced to more US businesses faster. This is a major new initiative for us and we are keen to speak to other training organisations in the US, and indeed other countries, who may wish to market and deliver our programmes to their business communities to speed up the transformation of Deal With It® into a truly global product which does make a difference.” More/2

Anna Jolly, Managing Director of Circle Safety, says: “Safety culture change is the next giant step for employee safety in the U.S. Deal With It® is the best vehicle we have seen for making real changes in how employees and ultimately whole organizations make decisions about how safely work is carried out.  The approach is not from the top down nor from the bottom up, but is across all levels at the same time.”

Deal With ItÒ has already been successfully deployed by one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, Merck & Co Inc, for 600 workers at a plant in Cleveland, Tennessee. A training programme for 5,000 employees of Shell involved delivering sessions at some of the oil company’s US centres.

Deal With ItÒ in the UK has been used by numerous leading businesses including Imperial Tobacco, Johnson Matthey, Fujifilm, Premier Foods, Cadbury’s, Warburton’s and Meggitt Polymers. To enable its use internationally parts of the programme have been translated into more than 20 different languages.

SOG Group has also showcased its Deal With ItÒ programme to leading trades unions in the UK and the US who have been impressed by the innovative approach to engaging with staff to make workplaces safer.

Helen Schoelzel (pictured at left), SOG’s Safety Health and Environment Manager, says: “From our customer feedback, Deal With ItÒ results are impressive. Our courses focus on safety culture and encouraging staff to think about what they do and what the implications of their actions might be – both to themselves and to their colleagues.  Changing perceptions about safety culture are key to Deal With ItÒ which really does make a positive difference. Companies have reported improved safety performance, reduced injury costs, higher staff morale and greater profitability.

About Deal With ItÒ

Deal With ItÒ is a highly innovative cultural safety programme that is raising the bar – helping businesses to recognise the importance of communication, engagement and empowerment to ensure the delivery of a sound, cultural approach within the workplace.

The programme helps employees and companies to be more aware about safety, encouraging staff to report near misses or potential hazards to avoid unnecessary accidents – reducing unnecessary costs due to downtime, overtime, damage to equipment, increased insurance premiums, compensation pay-outs and the consequences of any prosecution. At the same time, employers benefit from a more positive and productive workforce. The benefits of the programme are:

• Increased staff motivation
• Creation of a positive safety culture
• Reduced accident rates
• Saves the company money
• Reduces the risk of health and safety prosecutions

For more information visit www.dealwithittraining.co.uk or contact Sales Manager Neil Lancaster on +44 (0) 1928 515977 or email neil.lancaster@dwisafetyculture.co.uk

For information on the world-wide partners’ programme please contact: Business Partnerships Manager Peter Thomas: Peter.thomas@dwisafetyculture.co.uk       More/3

About SOG

Formed in 2000 SOG is owner and operator of The Heath Business and Technical Park which it has transformed from a once single-occupancy corporate facility into a thriving independent business park. The Heath now provides office and laboratory accommodation for more than 150 individual organisations, ranging from business services and IT specialists to those at the cutting edge of science, research and advanced manufacturing.  Around 2,000 people are employed at the site. In 2014 SOG launched Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park in Dagenham, east London.

The company are specialists in facility management and operation of science facilities and provide a wide range of specialist services including health & safety, precision engineering, scientific glassblowing and bespoke laboratory design and build. For further information, telephone + 44 (0)1928 515988 or visit www.theheath.com ; www.londoneast-uk.com