;

DOC had been looking for a health and safety product that took the focus away from audit and compliance, and decided to use SafePlus after being involved in the pilot.

One of the things Mike Massaar, Health and Safety Manager liked about SafePlus was that they could see how well they were performing across three key areas: health and safety leadership, worker engagement and risk management. SafePlus also gave the workers the opportunity to get involved, by providing feedback and ideas.

Most of DOC’s key risks are in the field, however DOC wanted the assessment to cover all areas of the organisation so staff at all levels could be involved in the process. The assessment took place over two months across five different DOC sites. Each site received their own report. The report highlighted that while DOC had a strong vision for health and safety; this vision wasn’t aligned between senior leaders and workers. Some workers didn’t want to speak up in case they were blamed for an incident. There was also a lack of focus on staff wellbeing.

DOC has used the results of the SafePlus assessment to review some of their health and safety processes, and improve their performance across the three key areas.

"I highly recommend SafePlus to other organisations – if it is done for the right reasons. If you are genuinely looking for improved health and safety performance and keeping your people safe, then this is for you."

Key takouts from the SafePlus assessment

  • Prepare for the assessment.
  • Brief senior leaders, managers and workers so they know what to expect.
  • Make sure you know what you want to get out the assessment.
  • Be open to the report findings.
  • Plan for improvement.

Thank you to Safeguard Magazine(external link) for allowing us to reproduce this case study. For more information, go to SafePlus.