CBRE

CBRE’s Health and Safety team (QSHE) write detailed incident reports to prevent incidents escalating or repeating. As well as protecting people and infrastructure, professional reports are central to avoiding reputational damage. For the reports to be effective it’s crucial they are as clear as possible. Tight deadlines and a lack of agreement on style meant that this wasn’t always the case.

The challenge

Incident reports are a serious business. They can even be produced in court at a trial. It’s vital that they are as clear as possible without swamping readers in unnecessary detail. Over the years, different approaches to completing the reports had become the norm. The template structure was not being used consistently. And the writing style erred on the unnecessarily complex.

What we did

Training

Ran workshops with the team to create agreement on the templates and build confidence around writing in a clearer, simpler way.

Templates

Rewrote the templated documents to make them easier to use and more consistent.

Guide

Created a guide that could be used throughout the business and aligned the Tone of Voice with the corporate values.

Included techniques that made the advice easy to use and put into practise.

Advice

"I've had other written skills training previously but I have learnt much from this one, thanks!"

Ravi Govindaradjalou QHSE Manager – DCS

Before

Incident statement

Following an accident, the line manager is to ensure the entirety of the area has been made safe, obtain details of any witnesses, and collate witness statements.

They should also take photographic evidence and/or generate sketches as soon as possible after the event and inform the QHSE representative immediately.

The results

Anecdotally the team have all improved their writing. The guide and report templates were commissioned on the back of successful sessions of the workshops.

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