Safety First

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FEATURE

Safety First AE Smith has redefined their ‘Safety 1st’ company mission by achieving an industry leading national certification – giving the company an all important competitive edge in the current market.

AE Smith recognises that the safety and welfare of its employees is of paramount importance and it is the company’s primary intention to identify and eliminate risks and hazards in the workplace wherever possible. In light of this, AE Smith has adopted a Safety 1st approach in all operations and is thoroughly committed to a Zero Harm outcome for all employees and work partners. This has been implemented through a Workplace Health & Safety Management System (WHSMS) that is focused on eliminating potential risks as well as ensuring all legislative requirements are met.

The first steps were to revise and revamp safety systems and to build a ‘Zero Harm Culture’ across the entire company.

Approximately three years ago, AE Smith embarked on a journey to significantly improve safety practices. In doing this, the company conducted an ‘attitude survey’ of all staff in relation to how they dealt with safety both at work and away from work. Danny O’Reilly, National Safety Manager for AE Smith was surprised to find that 93% of all staff had an ‘ordinary’ or ‘convenient’ relationship with safety, which meant that they would choose to act safely only when they thought that they ‘wouldn’t get away’ with doing otherwise.

Other learning’s included that four percent of the remainder of staff had a ‘strong’ relationship with safety whilst a further three percent had a ‘weak’ relationship and didn’t consider safety aspects in any of their workplace activities. On discovering this, AE Smith immediately set about to train and influence the attitudes of the 96% of staff who did not register in the ‘strong’ category.

Policy and the WHSMS were introduced to all staff and contractors through a program of induction and continuous education. Complemented by a scrupulous internal audit program and ongoing training, AE Smith also put into practice learnings from a variety of second party audits on systems and procedures.

To this end, no project or works of any nature, regardless of size, location or perceived urgency will commence before the appropriate risk assessment and mitigation process has been undertaken.

“Gaining this level of certification has been a challenge but we’ve improved all of our operating processes, enhanced communication across our ranks as a result of the common focus – not to mention a significant reduction in the number of workplace injuries and lost time,” reflects Danny O’Reilly, National Safety Manager for AE Smith.

“The emphasis on improving WHS over the last few years by government and industry has seen a lot of positive energy go into the protection of the safety and welfare of workers,” says Danny. “More recently there has been a definite bias by responsible customers and principal contractors towards engaging business partners who have effective systems to manage the safety of workers and who have positive safety records.”

With their motivated approach to improving WHS, AE Smith have met the rigorous AS/NZS 4801 Australian Standards certification, which sets out strenuous requirements for health and safety systems and assesses how an organisation manages risk and hazards.

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valuable credentials to AE Smith as well as formally recognising their commitment to occupational health and safety excellence.

This accomplishment is beneficial for AE Smith as well as their business partners and has provided the company with an important competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive market.

“Beyond the numbered certification, this confirms our internal WHS Management System is on the right track, plus it demonstrates to our customers and the wider industry that we’re really fair dinkum about the health and welfare of every member of our team,” comments Danny.

With an ever ready eye on the future and a desire to further improve their safety culture, AE Smith is also looking to put in place additional processes to achieve an even higher certification to the satisfaction of the Federal Safety Office and the Environmental AS/NZS 14001 standards.

By implementing further refinements to their current system, AE Smith will be able to ultimately expand their circle of influence.

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“One such refinement is that we are developing a pathway to ensure that we have proactive and positive management involvement in the journey to our goals and objectives,” says Danny. “This pathway will allow us to measure and monitor the ‘ingredients’ that comprise the implementation of systems more so than the measuring of the program statistics in isolation.”

AE Smith is well and truly leading the way within the industry in terms of safety practices with their proactive and constructive WHS system.

“We are pleased to advise that AE Smith as a company and that our staff as individuals, have been recognised regularly by leaders in the construction and mining industries for our positive and effective on-site WHS performance,” comments Danny. “When it is all boiled down, it is the on-site performance that prevents injury that really counts.”

AE Smith is well and truly leading the way within the industry in terms of safety practices with their proactive and constructive WHS system.

Danny O’Reilly