Category four – Most significant improvement to work health and safety performance
Mendi Construction is a second-generation civil construction business. Over a period of two years, the family owned business noticed injury numbers were increasing in number and severity.
The company committed to changing the trend and employed a team of experienced health, safety and quality professionals. The team had a very strong focus on employee engagement. They wanted to give workers a voice and encourage all levels of the business to get involved in discussions, offer ideas and express their views honestly.
Strategies to achieve this included:
- increasing the number of toolbox talks
- creating a sense of belonging through team building
- holding daily pre-start meetings across all sites, with regular management attendance.
Workers started to feel their perspective was valued and they were speaking out about safety. Issues were being addressed early and Mendi Constructions quickly saw the benefits with business increasing by 30 per cent within 18 months.
In 2019 the Mendi Group reached a significant milestone by working 1000 days without incurring a lost time accident.
