The beauty of Safe Work Australia Month is that it not only increases the public’s awareness of safe working practices but it also fosters the sharing of innovative ideas. This approach gives employees and employers the ability to form occupational health and safety procedures that evolve with safety laws in the workplace. In one Safe Work Month event hosted by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, Andrew
Campbell from FREDON told a Brisbane audience about how he has pursued a safety culture that is embedded into the very fabric of his organisation.
FREDON is a major supplier of electrical, data, security, air conditioning and communication technologies for the construction sector and works heavily in an industry that is no stranger to injury and even death. As FREDON’s Health and Safety Manager, Andrew is familiar with the process of ensuring the OHS measures outlined in government legislation are transferred effectively into an organisation’s structure. Andrew said that leadership is a key part of achieving safer workplaces but cited a survey in which 50 per cent of respondents stated that senior management was not proactive enough in safe work practices and procedures.
So how can this be improved?
According Andrew Campbell, leadership through consultation with employees can bridge the gap between occupational health and safety laws and safe work practices. Rather than just a series of forms and paperwork needing to be completed, safe work should be enshrined at every level of an organisation. Consultation is a two way street – a dialogue between those who formulate an organisation’s safety methods, those who implement it, those who monitor it and those who work with it. If every duty holder, whether manager or apprentice, is aware of each other’s responsibilities and needs, then a far more cohesive and consistent risk management system can be maintained. Errors can be fixed and ideas that seem appropriate on paper but not in practice can be improved.
Andrew Campbell ended his speech with a warning on the dangers of complacency. Whether it’s senior management or workers on the job, complacency with ineffective safety measures serves as a time bomb slowly ticking towards an incident. Each industry and workplace has different safety demands, and confronting them with an effective health and safety system that is understood by all duty holders is the key to incident prevention.
SafeWorkPro can help with this. It streamlines communication between managers and workers to ensure optimal safety measures are being implemented successfully. You can read more about it on the SafeWorkPro Blog.
