Competition Day Demonstrates Outstanding Dedication to Safety at GSK

The annual Environment Health and Safety (EHS) Day competition took place at GSK’s Montrose site in Angus recently and showcased the global company’s focus and commitment to safety on a number of fronts.

Over 150 volunteers from the pharmaceutical firm’s sites and offices across the UK, Ireland and Belgium took part in the Fire, Emergency Response, First Aid and Risk Assessment competitions.

Watched by an invited audience of around 200 senior leaders, the competition teams were tested against the clock on their competency, skills and knowledge of how to respond to emergency situations, treat casualties and assess risks across a series of real-life scenarios.

Showing great dedication to improving and honing their skills, in the months leading up to the event the competitors completed almost 80,000 hours of training between them – a voluntary sacrifice above and beyond their core roles, which range from quality, technical, operations and engineering through to strategy, logistics and administration.

Paying tribute to the dedication of the teams, Montrose Site Director Les Thomson said, “The amazing thing is that every competitor does this not because it’s part of their ‘day job’, but because they want to take on the extra challenge.

“Voluntarily taking on the additional challenge and pressure that the competition brings demonstrates our expectations of courage, accountability, development and teamwork at their best.”

As always, the competition was extremely tough, with all teams performing magnificently and the two Scottish sites (Montrose & Irvine) did themselves proud by winning 7 gold medals between them.

Read more about the skilled and dynamic workforce of Scotland’s life sciences here.