JBS Australia, Northern Division
Category seven – Best demonstrated leadership in work health and safety
JBS Australia, Northern Division have designed and built a double deck livestock trailer fitted with a pneumatically operated handrail system, similar to other operational systems on tanker trailers. They built this system following extensive consultation with livestock drivers and Rytrans Manufacturing, a trailer manufacturer.
The handrail system works by allowing the handrails of the livestock trailer to lift up and lock in place when activated. This provides a fall protection for drivers of the livestock trailers when they access the top tier of the trailer. The handrails fold down when they are not in use, making them the same overall height of the trailer when down.
The handrail system is an industry first for livestock trailers and limits the risk of falls from heights, for example when top livestock crates are accessed by the drivers. The handrail system is integrated into the design of the livestock trailer and can be easily activated by the driver in all parked locations.
JBS Australia, Northern Division has demonstrated their leadership and commitment to providing a safe workplace for all employees. The handrail system is being implemented to all livestock trailer fleet. This is the beginning of their risk control processes. JBS are continuing to work towards other safety innovation and design processes to provide a safer working environment.
Anthony Pratt, Chief Operating Officer
JBS is a global business, but focusing here on the Australian arm of the business, we've got a beef business, lamb business, pork business, our Primo value-added business, but you know, our beef business remains the biggest business in this country and one that a lot of resources are focused on every day.
The invention came about because the biggest focus on safety in our business at the moment is the interaction between people and animals.
You've got people four and a half metres off the ground walking along a narrow plank on the top of a livestock crate, in unstable conditions, live animals beneath them, they potentially fall off the side of the truck onto the ground, you know, very dangerous situation and unpredictable, and that's probably, you know, one of the key points is that, you know, trying to provide protection for that unpredictable environment.
So the devices are pneumatically operated by the truck driver, can only be operated while the truck is stationary and it cuts out that ability for truck drivers to fall off the crates and into the cattle, which has been a problem for industry now, you know, really since the movement of cattle began.
Senior management was involved, in the sense that we really did recognise that the interaction between people and animals was a huge area of our business and that if we were really gonna improve our safety performance, that was gonna be one of the top areas that we had to focus on.
You know, the drivers were sceptical, like all people are with change, and, you know, you get that mentality, that, "Listen, we've done it like this forever. Why do we need the change?"
But I think the success was getting them in early with the prototype and getting them to work with us and tell us what worked, what didn't, what will make it easier for them to operate it. That was probably the key to success in that they had that buy-in, you know, it became their idea as time went on.
Their ownership over the final result, I think, was critical in the implementation and ultimately the success. So seeing our team come together and find solutions to issues like this is very rewarding.
You know, we've got a lot of trucks and, you know, we move a lot of livestock, so the implementation of this was not a small investment. So I think that's helped the culture where people look at that and say, "Yeah, the company's fair dinkum about our safety."
We've all got families that expect us home at night and, you know, that's a real commitment that we have within the business, that we need to get our people home at night safely and in the same condition they came to work in the morning.
Seqwater
Category seven – Best demonstrated leadership in work health and safety
Seqwater supply safe, sustainable and secure drinking water to the entire South East Queensland community. It was essential their operations continue during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the protection of their workforce was necessary. Seqwater reviewed their health and safety systems and established a COVID-19 steering committee which reviewed professionals’ recommendations about the pandemic and provided direction through:
- Pandemic Response Plan
- management of COVID-19 in the workplace guideline
- online reporting form of COVID-19 positive cases/close contacts
- leaders’ checklist for consistent messaging
- COVID-19 FAQ page on Seqwater’s Waternet
- HR and leave guidelines page on Seqwater’s Waternet
- revised contractor/visitor health declaration form
- QR check in codes at all sites
- vehicle cleaning and occupancy guidelines
- COVID-safe floor plans and room restrictions
- removal of non-essential personnel from operational sites, to limit the spread of the virus.
Seqwater used a holistic approach to foster an environment where workers felt empowered and supported to take care of themselves and others.
Positive impacts following the strategies that Seqwater implemented during COVID-19 included:
- departmental collaboration
- hybrid work model
- increased focus on mental health
- culture of staying at home if unwell
- other health strategies following the value of personal care highlighted during the pandemic (e.g. flu vaccinations, skin checks, mental health first aid)
- external stakeholder collaboration.
Melissa Williams, GM People, Culture & Safety
Seqwater is the bulk water authority for South East Queensland. We have around 800, 850 staff and a range of contractors on top of that.
We're super proud of our COVID response. Not only did we live our values in all of our decision-making, which is really important, but we kept our people safe and by keeping our people safe, we were able to make sure that we could keep the taps on for the people of South East Queensland.
A key part of our strategy was to keep our people up-to-date and so we had a regular regime of communications. They were both via email and also via webinars with our senior executives in the company.
Some of the things that made us really successful in our COVID response was our ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, our ability to connect with our people through a variety of different formats and also our ability to not take a one-size-fits-all approach. That was really important, making sure we were looking after individual needs.
Neil Brennan, Chief Executive Officer
Foremost, care for our people is at the front for Seqwater from the board and executive down, taking that leadership aspect right to the forefront and really demonstrating that we care for our people.
Melissa Williams, GM People, Culture & Safety
By consulting with our people throughout the pandemic, we really got to understand what their individual needs were which helped make sure that we were delivering an approach that worked for them.
There were many stakeholders involved in our management of COVID, right from our board to our senior management team to our industry partners such as the unions. The COVID Steering Committee played a really important part that was a representation from across the business, helping to guide our decision-making as we made our way through what's been a really long pandemic.
We felt our culture changed throughout the pandemic at different points in time. We measured this through our culture surveys, which showed that our response to COVID was a key factor in building trust with our people and living our values.
One of the biggest things that has happened for us as a result of our approach was us embracing hybrid work and in fact, we've been recognised for our work in that space.
So that's had a long-lasting impact for us and we intend to continue doing that. That's also meant that we've embraced technology and different ways of working and different ways of communicating with our people.