Peer-led training

In delivering its health and safety programme, Beyond Zero, civil engineering and construction company BAM Nuttall decided to draw on the hidden potential of employees by training them up to deliver the programme to their peers. Beyond Zero has since been extended to embrace environmental training and employee engagement initiatives and has brought on board several hundred Beyond Zero trainers, recruited from frontline employees – from office workers to those out onsite – to deliver workshops to fellow employees and champion the programme.

This bottom-up, employee-led approach has helped build confidence, pride, and enthusiasm among a group of people who had not considered that they could play such a role in the company’s sustainability plan. The process started with inviting people to a Beyond Zero Commitment Workshop. These initial workshops helped establish a network through which committed employees were identified and trained-up to go out and cascade the Beyond Zero culture to their peers, through local workshops.

This peer-led training helped deliver a more convincing message as it was being delivered by fellow employees and not  top-down HR or consultancy led. In the first two years almost 200 people were trained to deliver the half-day Beyond Zero workshops to their colleagues. Within that period the employee-led workshops delivered the Beyond Zero message to almost 3000 employees and a similar number of contractors.

Further information

• The story of Beyond Zero. Bam Nuttall, Sustainability.
• BAM Nuttall. Sustainability Reports 2012 & 2013.
• Our employee heroes. Bam Nuttall, Sustainability.
• JMJ Success Story, BAM Nuttall.
• BAM Nuttall peer-led training unlocks wealth of hidden talents. The Guardian, Sustainability Case Studies. UK..