Kia ora and welcome to this edition of our OneStaff OneSafe Health & Safety update.
People often ask me why I like Health and Safety so much, as it’s just a “box-ticking” exercise. Is it though? To me, the premise of having someone go to work and then get home at the end of the day healthy and safe, should actually be non-negotiable.
New Zealand’s rate of fatal work-related injury is still higher than in Australia, the UK and Sweden. Last year (to June 2017), 73 people went to work and never made it home to their families. At more than one person a week, these are horrific statistics and as employers, it is certainly not something we should be tolerating. It also highlights how very crucial it is that we each play our part to get our colleagues home safe every day.
So, why do I like Health and Safety? Because there is still so much we can all be doing to make a real impact!
One of the things I wanted to highlight in this edition is to focus on the 3 Ps.
Preparation, Performance, Post Injury:
- Preparation – Is the person fully fit for this task? Do they understand the risks involved and the controls in place to manage those risks?
- Performance – Check in with your people, how are they going on the job? Perhaps it’s time for a reminder about regular breaks and correct lifting technique.
- Post Injury – Follow up and make sure your injured person is fully fit to resume their duties. Really drill down to the root reason of what caused the accident. Can we do anything to stop it from happening again?
There are several things at OneStaff that I’m proud of. Our team show true care and compassion for the people that work for us (and with us). We align with clients that do the same and together we work collaboratively; to engage our people, to care about them and to commit to getting everyone home safely and in good health, every day.
We regularly acknowledge our temporary employees who are showcasing great Health & Safety performance within our Employee of the Month awards, which you can access here. We also share stories internally, particularly the Health and Safety heroes from our organisation. This month’s well-deserved winner was Ken Tobias from our Auckland team, for the care he showed towards one of our employees. What our Health and Safety champions have done may be big or small, but the outcome of their actions will be a positive contribution to H&S. If you would like to pass on any positive feedback regarding the commitment to Health and Safety shown by our employees, please get in touch with me.
While we certainly don’t do it for the accolades, we were thrilled to be recognised for our H&S efforts, winning the RCSA Award for Excellence in Safety and Risk Management. Through shining a spotlight on Health and Safety, it brings more visibility to our initiatives engendering further support and buy-in from all our stakeholders and any focus on H&S is a good one, as far as we’re concerned.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our next Health and Safety newsletter!
H&S in the News:
Here’s some further reading of interest:
Fatal Interactions Between Forklifts and People
Creating a Healthier and Safer Work Environment
