The Keil Centre

June 2009 - Safety Culture Maturity® project wins national safety award in New Zealand

KiwiRail took the supreme award at the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards 2009 gala dinner, held at SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland last night. The awards, in their fifth year, are organised by Safeguard magazine and proudly supported by the New Zealand Department of Labour.

Safeguard managing editor Peter Bateman, who was on the judging panel, says KiwiRail impressed the judges with its commitment to measure its own safety culture by engaging an outside facilitator to conduct confidential focus groups involving staff. The facilitation was undertaken by The Keil Centre's New Zealand distributor, Hillary Bennett, using our Safety Culture Maturity® method.

Said Peter, "This sophisticated project generated an impressive list of roadblocks to better health and safety, but also ways to overcome them. More than this, the process helped to seriously engage staff and management in health and safety concerns and served to underpin the success of other safety initiatives. This was quite a brave project for management to approve, as to some extent it handed over power to an outsider working confidentially with ordinary staff, with no way to control or predict the outcomes. But the outcomes prove the risk was worthwhile."

The winner of the supreme award - the Department of Labour/ACC Best Overall Contribution to Improving Health and Safety in New Zealand - was decided from among the winners of the eight award categories open to organisations. KiwiRail's initiative also won the category NZ Safety Best Initiative to Encourage Engagement in Health & Safety.

June 2009 - 2008 APPEA Health & Safety Innovation Award

Woodside Energy, Australia, has won the 2008 APPEA Health and Safety Innovation Award for developing and implementing their Our Safety Culture framework. APPEA is the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association.

Our Safety Culture is the name Woodside gives to its Health and safety Behaviour Standard, which was initially developed by The Keil Centre for Woodside Energy.

Collecting the award from APPEA Chairman, Mr Eric Streitberg, on behalf of Woodside, was Human Factors Advisor, Emily Novatsis, who said receiving the award was satisfying because it recognises the work of a host of people that contributed to the development and application of the Our Safety Culture framework within Woodside.

"Receiving the award is further evidence that we’re on the right track, but the ongoing challenge is how we continue to reinforce the behaviours in Our Safety Culture framework to drive improved safety throughout our operations."

Woodside’s Our Safety Culture framework defines the positive or effective behaviours that result in excellent health and safety performance and a strong safety culture at Woodside. It also specifies the negative or ineffective behaviours that undermine or result in poor health and safety performance and a weak safety culture at Woodside.

June 2008 - Healthy Working Lives - Bronze Award

The Keil Centre has been successful in achieving the Bronze standard in the Healthy Working Lives Award Programme.

Healthy Working Lives aims to improve health and well-being in the workplace and make this an integral part of Scottish corporate culture. The Keil Centre had to submit a detailed portfolio of evidence, including details of their staff development, health checks, H&S log and company sports events, which received very positive feedback from the HWL committee.
 

March 2008 - Innovative professional development programme in human factors in health and safety launched

The Keil Centre, in partnership with the Institution of Chemical Engineers, have launched a two-year modular professional development programme on human factors in health and safety. This novel programme will alternate between Schipol, Netherlands and Edinburgh, UK.

See the attached programme for details.

June 2007 - Caledonian Challenge completed!

The Keil Overs are pleased to announce their successful completion of the Caledonian Challenge 2007!

The team completed this punishing 54 mile course in around 23 hours, overcoming blisters, tiredness and swarms of midges along the way! The team, supported by Ronny & Clare Lardner, have raised well over £2000 for The Scottish Community Foundation. Many thanks to all those who helped us raise this tremendous amount, with a special thanks to our corporate sponsors, Mansell, WoodGroup & IRW.

If you have not yet done so and would still like to sponsor our team, please either contact Joanne or click here to donate online.

April 2007 - Caledonian Challenge Training

A team of staff from The Keil Centre are currently in training to take part in the Caledonian Challenge on 16-17 June. This event involves over 1500 participants walking 54 miles non-stop along the West Highland Way, with all walkers raising money for the Scottish Community Foundation. SCF is a charity which supports local community groups throughout Scotland, and works with a range of individuals, companies, charitable trusts, as well as voluntary and government agencies.

"The Keil Overs" are Louise, Amy, Richard & Joanne, and they are hoping to complete the challenge within 24 hours, and hopefully raise lots of money along the way.

If you would like to sponsor our team, or offer corporate sponsorship, please either contact Joanne or click here to donate online. Thank you.

April 2007 - Vacancy at The Keil Centre: Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Part Time - 3 days per week

Competitive salary + benefits

Are you looking for an opportunity to use your experience in adult mental health to help individuals, and the organisations they work for, to improve their effectiveness and well-being?

The Keil Centre works with organisations to achieve excellence through their people by providing innovative applied psychology solutions. With a strong reputation built over 23 years, we offer expertise in the areas of wellbeing and stress prevention, assessment and development and human factors in health & safety.

This part-time job will involve 3 days per week (negotiable) providing assessment and treatment for adults with a variety of mental health problems as well as liaison with their referrers. There are also opportunities to design and deliver workshops for organisations on mental health and well-being issues. If you have the ability to deliver medico-legal assessments or consultancy projects in stress prevention, coaching or team effectiveness as well, the role could develop in the longer term.

If you are Chartered, enjoy autonomy as well as being a part of a professional, friendly team and want to contribute to a growing, successful commercial business please email your cv with a covering letter to amanda@keilcentre.co.uk

March 2007 - Ergonomics Society Registered Consultancy

The Keil Centre has been included in the Ergonomics Society's Consultancy Register. The register is an authoritative list of organisations that meet the high technical and commercial standards of the Ergonomics Society in the provision of ergonomics advice to clients. We are proud to be able to call ourselves an Ergonomics Society Registered Consultancy!

If you would like to know more about our ergonomics services please contact Richard Scaife.

February 2007 - Fed up of stress?

Many organisations find that the focus on stress is too negative and too reactive. The Keil Centre now runs courses on psychological wellbeing at work that focus on building optimal performance and resilience, using your strengths and improving motivation and satisfaction.

Previous delegates have commented on the delivery of these workshops:

- Very impressed with the content
- Clear, concise and to the point
- Very helpful
- Very knowledgable
- Excellent presentation
- Friendly, approachable, easy manner and able to respond to the audience's questions

Sharing our knowledge

It has been confirmed that three separate papers on human factors in health and safety will be presented by The Keil Centre's consultants at Loss Prevention 2007. This triennial event in Edinburgh, Scotland, organised by the Institition of Chemical Engineers, is one of Europe's top health and safety conferences for the process industries. Please click here for more information.

January 2007 - Investors in People

After recent re-assessment, we are pleased to announce that our Investors in People status has been awarded for the third time.

The IiP assessor particularly commended our strengths in the following areas:
- the sense of ownership and personal responsibility that is encouraged amongst staff at all levels;
- the quality of induction process and training for new employees;
- the use of our own tools in-house (eg. SCMM, StressTools) for the benefit of our staff and business
- the depth of our business plan and the performance and development review process .

December 2006 - HSE Research Project

The Keil Centre has recently completed a research project, jointly funded by the UK Health and Safety Executive, investigating the links between psychological ill-health at work and safety. The report answers questions such as:

- how can stress at work affect safety?
- how can feeling anxious affect your safety performance?
- what should organisations be doing to minimise these risks?

Please click here to find a copy of the report and contact Chiara Amati for more information.

November 2006 - Johnny Mitchell

The Keil Centre is pleased to welcome Johnny Mitchell to our team of Occupational Psychologists.

Johnny is an Occupational Psychologist and will be working as part of The Keil Centre's Human Factors team.

Current work includes delivery of Safety Culture Maturity® projects, developing and implementing safety leadership competencies, and the design and delivery of workshops for improving shift handovers.

If you would like to contact Johnny, please email Johnny or telephone 00 44 (0)131 667 8059

November 2006 - European Ergonomist

Richard Scaife has been registered as a European Ergonomist - a professional qualification issued by the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE), which is an officially recognised certification body of the International Ergonomics Association. To obtain his certification, Richard's training and experience was peer-reviewed by fellow professionals in Europe, who have agreed that Richard meets the required levels of expertise and professionalism.

August 2006 - Mansell Award

Mansell Plc, a construction company that is part of the Balfour Beatty group of companies, has been using the Keil Centre's Safety Culture Maturity® Model (SCMM) to help them to understand the safety culture within their organisation, with a view to putting in place a behavioural safety programme tailored to their safety culture.

As a result of this work, Mansell were a finalist in the Building Magazine Health and Safety Awards this year, in the category of best building contractor's safety initiative. A delegation of Mansell, Balfour Beatty and Keil Centre staff attended the awards ceremony in London in June, where Mansell were runners up in this award category, a great achievement in and of itself. 

August 2006 - Human Factors Methods of Improving Performance in the Process Industries

A 2 year project for one of our team is about to come to an end. Phil Joyner has been the chairman of the human factors sub-committee of CCPS, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Center for Chemical Process Safety. The committee, made up of staff from industry and consultancies, has been busy writing a new concept book 'Human Factors Methods of Improving Performance in the Process Industries', something Phil has a very keen interest in. It has been written as a comprehensive but simple to understand guidance book for designers, plant staff and managers. The book is currently being prepared for printing and should be available to purchase from the AIChE website in late autumn.

October 2005 - Best Practice Series

The Keil Centre are organising a series of 1/2 day workshops on key people-management issues for March & April 2006. The workshops are on the following topics: -

• Tackling stress at work
• Managing Change
• Managing Performance
• Managing Absence

The workshops will provide delegates with up-to-date knowledge of the theory and best practice approaches in tackling common people-management problems. For more information, please contact Joanne.  

September 2005 - Road Safety Award

Lothian and Borders Police have awarded The Keil Centre a prestigious Fleetsure award, in recognition of our efforts to manage the health and safety risks arising from occupational driving.

September 2005 - Positive Psychology

The Keil Centre has been taking part in the Vanguard Programme - a high profile intervention to improve maximise Scotland's human potential. Through this programme, our psychologists have learnt more about Positive Psychology and how this can be applied in organisations to increase wellbeing and performance. For more information, please contact Chiara.

September 2005 - Scottish Ergonomics Forum

Richard Scaife has recently taken on the role of Co-ordinator for the Scottish Ergonomics Forum (SEF), a group of people in Scotland actively involved in, or interested in, ergonomics. The SEF represents the Scottish region of The Ergonomics Society and organises an annual programme of events for ergonomists and non-ergonomists alike. If you are based in Scotland and you have an interest in ergonomics, please contact Richard so that we can keep you up to date with forthcoming events that may be of interest. Richard is also keen to hear from anyone who has suggestions about what they feel The Ergonomics Society should be doing in Scotland.

July 2005 - Career Resilience

The Keil Centre has launched a new Building Career Resilience Programme - the programme is designed to provide participants with techniques to enhance their ability to take control of their own careers and retain focus on their contribution, in a context of increasing organisational complexity and ambiguity. For more details of how this programme could help your organisation in this key aspect of talent management, contact Louise Clarkson.

July 2005 - Ergonomics

The Keil Centre is pleased to announce that Richard Scaife, one of our Chartered Occupational Psychologists, became a Registered Ergonomist with the UK Ergonomics Society in July 2005. Becoming a Registered Ergonomist has similar requirements to becoming a Chartered Psychologist, in that the applicant is required to demonstrate to the UK Ergonomics Society that they have reached a specified level of competence in professional practice.

Contact Richard for help with:

• Design and evaluation of equipment and systems to optimise usability and reduce the risk of errors in operation;
• Design and evaluation of the workspace to optimise working posture and reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, eyestrain, and other potential occupational injuries;
• Design and evaluation of the working environment to control the impact of environmental factors such as noise, temperature and lighting on operator performance;
• Design and layout of information to make interpretation of visual displays, signs, procedures, etc. easier and less prone to error.

July 2005 - Managing Traumatic Experiences - Article in People Management

As a result of the recent bombings in London, The Keil Centre, in conjunction with the Office of Public Management, was asked to write an article on the psychological effects such traumatic events can cause. The article focuses on ways in which employers and employees can provide support to those who are suffering either directly or indirectly from trauma and resulting anxiety. To view this article, please click here: How To Manage Trauma

The article is focused on techniques to manage symptoms that are relatively mild and short lived. If symptoms are severe or persist it is best to advise individuals to see their GP, and be offered counselling for support. In cases where the individual has witnessed a terrible event it is likely that they may experience symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). There are a variety of methods to reduce symptoms, of which EMDR is one of most effective.

For more information on how to support individuals please contact Alicia Peña 

May 2005 - Going For Gold On Safety

Following a Safety Culture Maturity® assessment by The Keil Centre, and a great deal of hard work by their staff, Unilever's Purfleet manufacturing site has won a RoSPA Gold Award for safety improvement. Over a two-year period the site, led by Neil Grocock and his team, have taken steps to strengthen the site's safety culture, and have seen a dramatic reduction in accidents and injuries.

April 2005 - Returning to work

We have developed our services to help organisations manage absence effectively. When staff are absent from work due to stress, anxiety or depression, employers need to help them make a safe return to work. Individuals may need support to restore their health and to manage their concerns about how to return to work and stay well.

Our approach: In addition to providing individuals with psychological support to develop effective coping strategies, we also provide a facilitation process to help employers and employees manage the return to work process safely and confidently. We maintain employees' confidentiality while managing communication with managers, health professionals, HR and Occupational Health. Employers and employees benefit from a positive communication process that increases the potential for successful reintegration to work.

For more information contact Alicia Peña

March 2005 - Vacancy - Project Co-ordinator/Administrator

Are you able and willing to …

Provide daily project and administrative support to our professional staff? · Plan, prioritise and coordinate around changing project requirements? · Build and maintain telephone relationships with customers? · Manage key suppliers on behalf of Directors? · Maximise use of our networked IT system, and liaise with our IT contractor on a day-to-day basis? · Learn and develop as part of a flexible team of support staff?

You'll be based in Edinburgh, and working for Scotland's leading firm of Chartered Psychologists. Contact us for further details on 0131 667 8059 or email mary@keilcentre.co.uk. An assessment day is scheduled for Tuesday 12 April 2005.

March 2005 - DOP-Scotland

The 28th January 2005 saw the formal inauguration of DOP-Scotland, a regional group of the British Psychological Society's Division of Occupational Psychology. DOP-Scotland will provide an essential resource for Occupational Psychologists in Scotland, enabling better communication with each other, with employers and significant representative bodies, such as the Scottish Parliament.

The Keil Centre is proud to have been able to contribute to the formation of this new group and Chiara Amati is currently serving as DOP-Scotland Secretary.

For any information on DOP-Scotland and their activities, contact Chiara at chiara@keilcentre.co.uk

January 2005 - Conference Update

As promised, a quick update from the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference. In the stress field, research has started to examine in detail which management behaviours help their employees prevent and manage stress at work and how these can be built into a competency framework to help managers develop their skills in this area. This is reassuring, as at The Keil Centre we have been focusing on management development as an effective stress intervention with some of our key clients - the research backs us up here! In the field of management assessment some research indicates that highly motivated candidates are more likely to be judged as being competent. This brings us to question: how many panels pick the more motivated candidate rather than the more competent one? At The Keil Centre we have developed a simple Information Pack with tips for assessment panels to use when interviewing - this is one way to ensure the candidate selected really is the 'best person for the job'.

January 2005 - Phil Joyner

The Keil Centre is pleased to welcome Phil Joyner as a Human Factors Advisor working with Ronny, Richard and Chiara.

Phil is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers who joins us after a career spanning 28 years with BP. He has recently specialised in Human Factors at work and has extensive practical experience of interventions to improve safe behaviour at work. If you would like to contact Phil please email phil@keilcentre.co.uk or telephone 00 44 (0)131 667 8059

January 2005 - Division of Occupational Psychology Conference

The Keil Centre is always looking out for relevant research that will help us improve the service we provide to our customers. Every January the British Psychological Society Divison of Occupational Psychology organises a conference for academics and practitioners to learn and share best practice. This year one of the key areas is stress at work - a field The Keil Centre specialises in - watch this space for updates from the conference!

November 2004 - StressTools

The Health and Safety Executive has published its new updated stress management standards. This is a call to all organisations to review how they are tackling stress. Using StressTools (www.stresstools.com) helps organisations to comply with the current Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance on work-related stress in a straightforward manner with targeted action and minimal repetition of effort.

September 2004 - StressTools - Demos

The Keil Centre has been busy organising free demos of their new updated comprehensive stress risk assessment toolkit - StressTools. Demos have included a chance to quiz our psychologists about their experience in helping organisations tackle stress as well as free trials of the risk assessments. Delegates have also found this a valuable networking opportunity. To arrange a demo for you and your colleagues or your sector, please email Chiara Amati or telephone 00 44 (0)131 667 8059.

July 2004 - Catriona Young

The Keil Centre is pleased to welcome Catriona Young to our team of Occupational Psychologists.

Catriona has expertise in a wide range of learning and development areas and has experience of working with individuals and groups to develop their effectiveness in both personal and professional contexts. Recent work includes design of performance management systems, providing career and educational guidance, providing coaching to develop personal effectiveness, design and delivery of training in soft-skills for managers. If you would like to contact Catriona please telephone 00 44 (0)131 667 8059

July 2004 - Richard Scaife

Congratulations to Richard on achieving Chartered Psychologist status. Richard is now a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and is applying for similar recognition with The Ergonomics Society and the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists. Richard specialises in Human Factors in health and safety. For more information email Richard or telephone 00 44 (0)131 667 8059.

August 2003 - Effective Communications (Assertiveness) Course

The Keil Centre is offering a course in effective communications for individuals who wish to develop skills to manage professional and personal communications more effectively. The next course is due to start at the end of November 2003. To obtain further details please contact Alicia Peña

June 2003 - StressTools demonstrations

Organisations recognise that acting to remove the causes of work-related stress makes more sense than dealing with the consequences. We have recently held a demonstration session of StressTools in our Edinburgh office and are considering organising one in Glasgow. Are you are based in Glasgow? Would you be interested? Please e-mail Chiara Amati for more details of this session or to organise a demo at your offices.

April 2003 - UK National Information Network

The Keil Centre is pleased to announce its membership of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work's UK National Information Network

April 2003 - Psychology in Business

After a very successful run, the Psychology in Business seminar spring series has come to a close. We are, however, gathering interest about a new series of topics to start in the autumn. If you are interested in this new series or would like to suggest a topic, please contact Chiara Amati.

January 2003 - New Zealand distributor

The Keil Centre is delighted to announce it has appointed PsychAssessments Ltd, a respected Auckland-based firm of business psychologists as the sole New Zealand distributor of StressTools, our simple stress risk assessment software.

September 2002 - Richard Scaife

Richard Scaife joins our team in September 2002. Richard is an Applied Psychologist with ten years experience gained in defence and air traffic control. He specialises in human factors, particularly human safety analysis (including human error) and the design and evaluation of equipment to meet user requirements. Prior to joining The Keil Centre, Richard spent six years working for National Air Traffic Services, latterly as the head of human safety in their Human Factors Unit.

March 2002 - Alicia Peña

The Keil Centre is pleased to announce that Ms Alicia Peña, a dual qualified Counselling and Occupational Psychologist is joining our team in early 2002. A native of Chile, Alicia has worked in the UK as a counselling psychologist for the past 5½ years in the NHS primary care sector. She has a strong interest in training and the application of counselling skills within organisations. Prior to training as a psychologist, Alicia was a teacher.

January 2002 - PRISM Seminar Success: European Human Factors Safety Drive Launched in Edinburgh

The first of a series of PRISM seminars designed to promote best practice in human and organisational aspects of health and safety was held in Edinburgh in January 2002. Organised by The Keil Centre, this seminar was attended by over 60 delegates from 11 EC countries. Through combining a mix of expert input, industry case studies and hands-on activities, delegates gained insight into three key human factors areas: safety culture, team-working and behavioural safety.

The event was judged a success by delegates, who particularly valued the engaging, interactive seminar format and opportunities to network with European colleagues. For further information on the PRISM human factors network, contact Ronny Lardner at our Edinburgh office or visit www.prism-network.org.

December 2001 - The Keil Centre Wins BP Helios Award

A joint entry by BP's Forties Pipeline System and The Keil Centre won the top gold award in the Performance category of bp Grangemouth's Helios Awards. This award was for a safety culture/employee involvement project conducted at the BP Dalmeny tanker loading facility. For further information contact Ronny Lardner at our Edinburgh office.

February 2001 - Craig Simpson

Craig Simpson, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, will join The Keil Centre in May 2001, adding to and strengthening the team with his expertise in adult clinical psychology, treatment of post traumatic stress disorder and low self esteem. Prior to joining The Keil Centre Craig worked in the National Health Service and also ran his own private applied psychology practice.

January 2001 - Chiara Amati

Chiara Amati, Occupational Psychologist, has joined The Keil Centre to work principally with Ronny Lardner on Human Factors projects. A native of Italy, Chiara studied psychology at Edinburgh University and subsequently worked as a research associate at the Koestler Parapsychology unit, investigating human willpower and volition. Chiara is currently completing a Masters Degree in Occupational Psychology at Strathclyde/Heriot Watt University. She can be contacted at our Edinburgh office.

December 2000 - Investors in People

The Keil Centre was awarded Investors in People status, which demonstrates the commitment the organisation has to aligning training and development activities to business goals. The independent assessor commented 'training and development is integral to the running of The Keil Centre. Directors work very closely with their staff, training and developing them on a daily basis. Staff are fully involved with all aspects of the business and as such are fully aware of its aims and objectives. Their development needs and the impact that training and development is having on the business.'

July 2000 - Cultural & organisational factors project

The Keil Centre has been selected as a co-ordinating partner in a major EU funded project to promote and disseminate best practice in Human Factors in process industry. The Keil Centre will act as co-ordinating partner in collaboration with John Ormond Management Consultants for the topic area 'Cultural and organisational factors'. This three year project will commence in April 2001.