Overview

A heavy machinery dealer experienced rapid growth in the size of their workforce during the Australian mining boom.

Their challenge

The rapid expansion of their workforce meant inconsistencies in the safety values and capabilities of their leaders and teams, resulting in unacceptable injury rates. The challenge was to create a high performance safety culture in which all employees believe that all incidents are preventable and that every employee is responsible for making safe choice.

Our solution – Safety Leadership Culture Strategy

We developed an integrated safety culture and communication strategy to create a shared mindset that all incidents are preventable and that everyone is responsible for making safe choices. The implementation of the ‘Switch On’ safety campaign would take the business on a journey to change the way in which their people think about safety – not just how they do safety.

With clear alignment to the company value of ‘no harm’, the strategy, supported by the ‘Core 4’ model, highlighted to employees the four elements that will prevent harm to themselves, their colleagues, the environment, the company and its customers. These elements are; Switch On, Right to Start, Crucial Conversations and Act.

Fundamentally, the strategy was build upon visible leadership and senior leaders walking the talk. Senior executives attended the pilot workshops demonstrating their personal commitment to safety and empowering them to lead by example. Their commitment added a high degree of authenticity to the strategy, which was a critical element in influencing a large workforce.

The result

The results have also cascaded beyond safety, to the performance culture of the business. Productivity improvements in excess of 50% have been achieved in critical business processes equating to significant financial savings.