October marks National Safe Work Month, when Australian businesses, workers and employers are asked to commit to building a safe and healthy workplace.
The theme for 2022 is Know safety, work safely – encouraging everyone to make health and safety in the workplace a priority.
It’s a great time for everyone in your business to focus on your safety program – what’s working, what’s not and what are the opportunities? But it doesn’t all have to be serious because it’s also a time to celebrate and have fun!
If there is one thing we have learnt providing safety services over the past 10 years, it’s that people are capable of amazing things once they have some direction on how to bring their safety practices to life. So, here are our top five tips for a successful Safe Work Month:
- Plan
We all know that a goal without a plan is just a wish. Start a conversation with your teams and develop a schedule. Starting now will allow you to build excitement. Put up some signage. Get talking!
- Listen (…then talk) Identify ways to interact with key stakeholders.
For workers, schedule a Safety Month event – morning teas and BBQs are often well attended; otherwise, you can incorporate into an existing team meeting. You might ask: “What opportunities are there for us to improve our safety, or the safety of our customers?” – then listen (and take notes).
Reach out to clients via a survey (online or at reception). Ask them to rate your approach to safety. For example “How would you score us for safety, given our past interactions?”. Give them an opportunity to provide comments.
- Do
Safe Work Month is a great time to schedule safety activities. You could:
- Review your Safety Manual (and documents). Does it reflect the work you do? Yes – *Tick*. No – You need to decide: (i) Do you update the document to reflect the work? Or (ii) Do you change the work to reflect the document? Or (iii) Can you take a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.
- Safety Walk-through Inspection – is signage, line marking, lighting, walkways, and equipment in good condition? When you look actively, you will see things that you miss when you look passively.
- In a group, make a list of the ‘things’ that could injure workers and/or customers. Once created – note down the things you are doing to prevent the injuries. Is there more that you could, or should do?
- Schedule annual training or communications – for example, re-inductions for workers and/or contractors.
- Upskill
Safe Work Australia and your state regulator (one of: WorkSafe, SafeWork, WorkCover) will have a calendar of events during Safe Work Month. ‘Look’ and ‘Book’ now – the earlier the better!
- Search for ways that you can make safety a part of your business as usual.
Cloud-based platforms such as Safety Champion Software have taken off over the past two years, and allow you to schedule, report and track your safety activity.
Get started with your National Safe Work Month planning and download Safe Work Australia’s National Safe Work Month Campaign Kit.
