Marine division VCU certified

20 February 2013

Tuesday the 29^th of January was the date marking the VCU certification for Atlas Services Group Marine. Like it’s sister company Atlas Services Group Energy, Marine is also now certified.

Nothing new
For a while now, upon request of our clients, we have been supplying employees holding a VCA diploma. The main policy was to familiarise account managers and management of Atlas Services Group Marine with the industry safety standard of VCA (VCU is the equivalent standard for temporary employment agencies), which is widely adopted within the Dutch construction industry. Every new member of Atlas Services Group Marine is signed up for a course, followed by an exam, leading to a ten-year valid diploma. Prior to the audit by Bureau Veritas, the corporate QHSE manager Kate Knott performed an internal audit at a Marine office at Urk: “We did this to identify possible gaps standing in the way of the VCU standard. We concluded that the established procedures and working practices within the office had prepared them well for certification to the VCU 2011/05 standard”, advises Kate.

Self check
In order to qualify for the VCU certification, a few already used practices were further formalized and documented. Paul Steeghs, manager of Atlas Services Group Marine, says: “A good example of these practices is the communication with employees before and after a job, to make them aware of relevant safety issues of the project where they are going. After returning home we again speak to the employee, to find out whether indeed everything was ‘up to spec’ and in accordance with what we informed them of up front. These communications are registered in our HRM system. “Besides the fact that this is a necessary action, it is of course very good to maintain the personal contact with the employee and to find out whether we are doing our job properly”, says Hiske Pasterkamp, administrative assistant from the office at Urk.

Proof
Besides our already existing accreditations for ISO 9001:2008, NEN 4400-1 and MLC 2006 and memberships to prominent associations such as KVNR and NBBU, this again shows how seriously we take our business, assuring that we are supplying the best possible standards to our clients.