Workstream is First Labour Agency to Achieve BuildingConfidence Accreditation
Bicester, July 4, 2011 – Workstream Construction Services today becomes the first ever labour supplier to gain BuildingConfidence accreditation, which has established a position as the highest standard of accreditation for companies supplying the UK construction industry. The BuildingConfidence scheme, founded by Lend Lease and the Achilles Group, is intended to provide a fair, open and transparent process for contractor selection. It also aims to deliver much-needed stability, depth and sustainability to construction buyer/supplier relationships. Based in Bicester, north Oxfordshire and with eight offices across the United Kingdom, construction recruitment specialist Workstream has assigned tens of thousands of freelance engineers and managers, as well as trades and labour operatives, to client projects throughout the British Isles and overseas since the company’s foundation in 1993.
“We have invested heavily over the past decade in systems and processes that equip us to comply fully with legislative and best practice requirements,” says Workstream managing director Keith Alderton. “That investment is fundamental to the way our company works within the supply chain of all our clients, helping us to achieve and develop long-term, interdependent, ethical, environmental and economic relationships to their benefit and ours. Workstream’s BuildingConfidence accreditation demonstrates our commitment and ability to meet client expectations when it comes to industry standards compliance. It also provides us with an extremely useful way to review and enhance our management systems in partnership both with Achilles and with other BuildingConfidence members.”
Philip Foster, director of construction at Achilles Group, comments:
“The BuildingConfidence accreditation scheme is now used by fifteen major construction firms to deliver a widely recognised standard for supplier excellence within the UK construction industry. These include Lend Lease, Shepherd, British Land, Skanska, Mace, Costain, Sisk, Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine. Procurement and supply chain teams using BuildingConfidence accredited companies can be assured they are dealing with suppliers that have met identified performance criteria relating to ethical corporate governance, quality management, staff development, and health, safety and environmental practices. All these elements are fully assessed by Achilles and audited onsite on an annual basis. We are delighted that Workstream has become the first supplier to undertake and pass our new labour supply accreditation process to achieve BuildingConfidence accreditation.”
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About Workstream
Workstream Construction Services is a specialist provider of engineering, recruitment and site logistics expertise to all sectors of the construction industry, including building, civil engineering and railways. The services Workstream delivers encompass site engineering and setting out; CAD services; topographical and building surveys; provision of temporary and permanent site personnel; survey instrument hire; and logistics packages such as waste management, site security and traffic control.
Founded in 1993, Workstream is headquartered in Bicester, Oxfordshire and has a further seven branch offices in Birmingham, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Swindon. The company’s quality of service is underpinned by ISO 9001 certification for recruitment services at its Bicester, London and Sheffield offices. Workstream has also achieved Investors in People accreditation. Regular CITB education for operatives and constant updates to health and safety procedures ensure Workstream’s continuous compliance with statutory and industry-mandated regulations.
About Achilles
The Achilles Group, headquartered in the UK, identifies, qualifies, monitors and evaluates suppliers on behalf of major organisations worldwide. The company builds and supports buyer-supplier communities in many industry sectors, creating unique and powerful global networks. The Achilles Group’s services for sustainable procurement help create opportunities for business and reduce risk in the supply chain.
About BuildingConfidence
BuildingConfidenceis the collaborative supply chain accreditation standard for the construction industry, designed to meet the increasingly demanding risk management needs of construction clients and their supply chains today. Balfour Beatty, British Land, Costain, Davis Langdon, John Sisk, Kier, Lend Lease, Mace, Shepherd Construction, Simons Construction, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska, Swift Horsman, Tarmac and Wolseley are all using BuildingConfidence to significantly reduce supply chain risk and increase performance, whilst reducing the costs of accreditation for the industry through a common shared process.
Based on Achilles’ twenty years’ unique experience in other major industry sectors worldwide, BuildingConfidence provides an effective solution for managing supply chain risk across many areas including safety, sustainability, CSR, quality and financial. The results of accreditation to date have demonstrated clear evidence of how BuildingConfidence suppliers have imp roved year-to-year.
Suppliers who have achieved the BuildingConfidence accreditation standard have provided positive feedback on the value derived from their comprehensive accreditation report, which can be used to make real business improvements whilst enabling them to go through a single process for all members, and any others that join in the future automatically. BuildingConfidence continues to revolutionise the traditional accreditation process; enabling industry buyers and suppliers to raise the bar and drive continuous improvement in a very cost effective manner.
