6 minute read
Safety awards
Safety awards by James Miller
We are delighted to announce the safety award winners from 2020. With the pandemic affecting our daily and working lives, James Jones and Sons Ltd Pallets & Packaging have not had the opportunity to celebrate the fantastic milestone of another year without a lost time accident on our sites until now.
Advertisement
Congratulations to the site managers and their teams in achieving this fantastic milestone and we look forward to many more in the future. Our coveted safety certificates and personal awards goes to the following sites:
James Jones award photo
R-L Top Matthew Howe, Adhurim Duka, Kenny Stanness, Deividas Ribikauskas, John Smith, Gordon Langley, Matthew Hendren, Anthony Howe, James Murphy R-L Bottom Peter McKenzie, Zi Rayani, Robert Wood, Tony Silva
Site Manager Deividas Ribikauskas proudly accepts his award from General Manager Anthony Howe
Site Manager Gordon Langley proudly shows off his achievement
Site Manager John Smith proudly shows his award (welcome to the club John!)
Site Manager Tony Silva proudly shows his award (welcome to the club Tony!)
Site Manager Matthew Hendren proudly shows off the award
Site Manager Karl Johnston proudly takes his award in his stride
Junior Management Team
Left – Right Matthew Howe Gateshead, Kenny Stanness General Manager, Robert Wood Gateshead
Structural Timber Awards
James Jones & Sons sponsored the ‘Private Housing Project of the Year’ category at the Structural Timber Awards in October.
The award ceremony took place at the National Conference Centre, Birmingham and featured compelling examples of what can be achieved using the most natural and sustainable of materials. This year, the Structural Timber Awards was a celebration of not only outstanding projects and inspiring individuals, but the coming together of an industry after many months in isolation. Construction professionals were once again able to congregate at this prestigious awards ceremony to celebrate architectural achievements and engineering ingenuity in timber construction. The ‘Private Housing Project of the Year’ category was awarded to Innovaré Systems for its ‘Little Kelham’ project, which celebrated double award success, having also been awarded the ‘SIPs Project of the Year’. Completed over five years, Little Kelham was designed to be a catalyst for change and utilises Innovaré’s acclaimed offsite technology. This mixed development of houses, apartment blocks, shops, cafés and social spaces had to meet challenging design criteria. In addition to being exceptionally sustainable and energy efficient ensuring they were in line with Passivhaus guidelines, the development on the site of a former steelworks needed to preserve reminders of Sheffield’s industrial heritage. An innovative construction method and highly integrated design and build capability were essential to offer the architects the flexibility they needed. Little Kelham has been named in the Sunday Times’ ‘Best Places to Live in the UK’ guide, and appeared in a list of the ‘20 Hippest Places in the UK’ in The Times as well as being crowned residential winner of the RICS Yorkshire & Humber Awards. The awards were hosted by Mark Durden-Smith, who ensured that the celebrations were not only inspirational, but also highly entertaining. With 16 categories, nearly 250 entrants and over 60 companies shortlisted, the Structural Timber Award judges had an unenviable task. A huge well done and congratulations to everyone involved!
IT department update
Last year the IT department carried out a survey to gauge how James Jones & Sons staff were finding our service and to see what we could improve. The majority of our staff report that they are very happy with the support provided by our Helpdesk team:
On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being very unhappy and 5 being very happy)... This is a positive overall picture showing that staff outside the IT team are generally very happy with the helpdesk. We have read and taken onboard each and every comment and continue to work at improving all aspects of the service. • One of the most common suggestions is a dedicated IT phone number to ring to ask for assistance. We have a number of IT staff employed who work around the country, therefore a dedicated telephone number would not be suitable. If something is a P1 and requires an urgent response we have regularly circulated contact information for staff who are available 24/7 to respond to the most critical issues. All other tickets are responded to by the Helpdesk team according to priority. • Another suggestion that appeared a few times was for there to be a permanent
IT presence at a number of sites. We now have over 20 sites. As the company expands, so will the IT team – When recruiting we keep in mind the needs of all sites to ensure that staff are recruited where appropriate to ensure that we have a good geographical balance. It’s important to note that we do find that the vast majority of tickets can be resolved remotely. • A number of you said that you sometimes felt that tickets were closed too soon.
We only close tickets when we believe the issue is resolved. If you believe a ticket has been closed before the issue has been resolved, simply respond to the closure message and it will re-open the ticket again.
How happy are you with the initial response time from the IT Helpdesk?
4.1
average rating
How happy are you with the total time it takes for the IT Helpdesk to resolve any issues you have reported?
4.1
average rating
How happy are you with the resolutions provided to you by the IT Helpdesk?
4.2
average rating
How happy are you with the interactions you have with members of the IT team?
4.4
average rating
IT Security
IT security remains a critical aspect of business continuity and we are continuing to review and improve our cyber security on a proactive, ongoing basis. Over the next 12 months we will continue to monitor all threats and take action where needed, reviewing existing security arrangements with third parties and also for our staff. We understand how important it is for our staff to have a smooth experience when undertaking their roles which is why we spend a lot of time ensuring our security solutions cause as minimal disruption as possible.
IT Projects
The team have achieved a lot over the past year and completed a number of large scale projects, improving business efficiency and increasing security. These projects include the upgrade to Business Central in Pallets and Packaging, the launch of the Kronos system, enhanced Teams training and an ongoing upgrade of CCTV systems at several of our sites. We also have a number of big projects underway at present such as the rollout of MFA, various site upgrades and a new streamlined IT service portal that will ensure our end users can find and access the IT services they need. We are also pleased to welcome Joe North as IT Project Manager, based in our North East England offices. Joe has previously worked extensively at the Taylormade and Kerr sawmills and brings a wide range of skills and experience to the team. We are also pleased this year to welcome Stephen Gallagher to the team. Stephen is based full-time in the Larbert office as 1st Line Support.
