At Chandler Macleod, we are absolutely clear on one thing – “Safety is our first priority”. In our day to day roles, we all have multiple priorities to manage, but if safety clashes with any one of those other priorities then safety should come first.
When I recently asked our employees what safety meant to them, one employee replied, “The standard you walk past is the standard you set”. While most of us have sat through at least one induction video in our time that coined this popular phrase, it’s still as valid now as it was then. Often, it’s not what you do, but what you don’t do that leads to a safety incident. On occasion, our Staffing Services team here at the Chandler Macleod Group have walked away from a client due to safety concerns.
As managers, we all want to keep our teams (and ourselves) safe. But is safety at the forefront of your mind each and every day? And can you say the same about each of your employees?
Prevention is key.
Making sure you have the right people in the right roles reduces the risk of physical injury. For example, in a role that involves fast paced repetitive process work we know that the right employee needs to possess a high level of hand/wrist dexterity. But how do we identify the candidate we need?
It all comes down to assessment, and specifically a Mobility Assessment test. This means applying an extra layer to our recruitment processes and it allows us to identify the range of physical movements of a potential employee to keep them safe, and to keep your organisation productive.
Equally as important, is ensuring you conduct appropriate risk assessments of the workplace. Whether you operate in an office environment or on a mine site, it is critically important that you commit to ongoing reviews, safety observations, and identification of hazards and ensure that your employees understand exactly what their role involves, and what it doesn’t. Injuries often occur because employees undertake duties that they aren’t prepared, trained or inducted for.
Creating a Safety Culture.
For many organisations safety is the domain of experts within the WHS team. Everybody looks to WHS for safety advice and WHS are given responsibility for driving safety outcomes.
However, in order to develop a consistent safety culture, the reality is that safety needs to be adopted as a shared responsibility throughout an organisation.
For example, at the Chandler Macleod Group our goal is to embed safety within our systems, our values and our beliefs – it is fundamentally important to our organisation and to all the people within it.
Safety is simply too important to not make it a priority.
Is safety your first priority?
You can take an active role in ensuring the health and safety of yourself and your team by:
- Observing your internal policies, processes and procedures relevant to creating and maintaining a safe workplace.
- Communicating your organisation’s expectations and requirements in relation to WHS (including your policies and procedures) to customers, suppliers, contractors and other people you come into contact with in the course of doing business.
- Promptly reporting all potential hazards and work health and safety incidents to your manager and your WHS team.
If you have something to say about this topic, please submit your comments below or contact the author at QuentinHearn.blog@chandlermacleod.com.
To connect with Quentin on Linkedin, click here.
