Article 9 December 2022

‘Keeping People Safe’: Competition entry brings our LiveSafe culture to life

As part of our first Parents and Carers Month, our Parents and Carers Network, sponsored by Alice Woodwark, arranged a competition asking all children of Mitie colleagues to get creative, and show what a day in the life of a parent, guardian or carer looks like.

In the 5-10 years category, Harriet, aged 6, jumped at this chance, as she loves drawing and is fascinated by her mum’s job. Mum, Catherine Beales, has always explained her job to Harriet as simply ‘keeping people safe’, as clearly explaining the responsibilities of a QHSE Manager would be a tricky task. The simple notion of ‘keeping people safe’ was more than enough to interest Harriet, and ever since then she’s endless questions to learn more about her mum’s work life!

Mum (also known as Catherine) said: ‘Harriet asked lots of questions about masks during the pandemic, and this led on to conversations about other kinds of protective clothing and equipment. As we live on a new build housing estate, she could see workers in their PPE every day and quickly learnt about its importance. I believe there is great benefit to discussing safety awareness through conversations with young minds. When I asked her why people need PPE at work she said, “People wear special clothing and things to keep them safe from germs and getting hurt.”’

As luck would have it, Catherine’s family live on a new build estate, where construction is ongoing, so several of the concepts that she has shared with Harriet have been brought to life around her, such as teams working on ladders or wearing PPE. This meant that when it came to the competition, Harriet was able to easily draw a day in her mum’s work life, based on everything they had talked about and seen!

As a result, Harriet pulled together a brilliant picture of all the components that go into ‘keeping people safe’ and Catherine’s job, as pictured above. She was awarded afternoon tea vouchers for the Lygon Arms Hotel as her prize!

Harriet’s vision perfectly captures our LiveSafe culture. The safety of our employees is our number one priority, and we continue to embed this in our culture so that everybody at Mitie goes home safely to their families. Our goal is simple… zero harm, to our people, our customers, and to members of the public passing through the facilities we take care of.