Lagardere IPaM film

Largardere is actually a French company we operate travel retail through ports, train stations, airports. We employ everyone from customer service, warehousing, replenishment teams. The daily tasks for our employees are things like moving stock, obviously from that we have soft tissue injuries from
time to time. IPaM originally became involved with Lagardere because of the injuries that we were having, we obviously had a reporting process that was in place for reporting injuries, the problem was there was no one really watching what was happening with that process so a lot of the injuries happening
weren't being reported.

Planning for safety is a proactive approach preventing injuries from occurring in the workplace. When an employee sustains an injury they obviously have to deal with the injury its self but they also have time off work, they may have a reduction in their income for a period of time and this can affect
their financial situation which can have a knock on effect on their family environment.

The concerns were for the safety of the individuals for our employees really, they were the ones suffering from this. On the other side of it though there saw a rapid increase in premiums because of the injuries being sustained as well. So not only we were hurting people it was actually costing us money
as well.

When I first started with Lagardere the main safety issues we encountered were lack of communication and committees set up through the region so we obviously had to implement a consultative process with the team, get them on board and ensure that we had the right safety teams ready to start our process.

What was identified through the IPaM assessment process was that there were gaps in the reporting and planning stages of their systems. IPaM were able to do was facilitate identification of those gaps and actions to close those gaps effectively and make those make their systems more streamlined.

I first met our IPaM Representative 6 months after I started with Lagardere they explained the processes that they wanted to implement that would work alongside of what we already had in place.

Some of the suggestions put forward by the Advisor needed a more robust reporting structure but also we needed a way of being able to assess manual handling tasks and the risks within the business

When IPaM was involved with our workplace they came in and they helped us identify a lot of the risks areas to start with but then helped with forming a safety committee and this also then helped with us identifying problems on a pro-active sense.

Through the planning process we have been able to implement our own safety procedures and obviously use some of what IPaM has shown us to incorporate into our everyday business so from the moment an injury is reported to when the employee comes back it's only a matter of days of implementation rather
than weeks of investigation and follow up

Part of induction we teach the staff that haven't had any experience working in a place like this

Having the IPaM Advisors available when we needed them was fantastic and essential really to the program running effectively.

One of the important messages for safety and something any business can implement is making sure that your senior management team is on board. I think it is absolutely vital that senior management has a part to play in this as well to provide resource to the whole business.

Employers need to consult with their workers when they are making change but workers also need to consult with their supervisors or their employers if they have any concerns or if they have noticed anything that needs to be addressed. It has been extremely beneficial the employee gets involved, the
management team get involved and we make sure these injuries do not occur in our business in the future

A positive safety culture in an organization is one where everyone gets involved in safety and everyone is committed to safety. Having a standard reporting systems is essential to get it right. You need that so you can get everyone on board at the same time, everyone knows what's going on and how it
works, how it is supposed to work to get the best results.

Now that IPaM has come in it has bought has bought safety more to the front. The amount of incidents reported has gone up but the amount of incidents occurring has gone down. Lagardere's safety plan for the future is to always reduce risk and hazards and in doing that we've reduced premiums, reduced
risk, reduced incidents and we have increased moral. My commitment comes from my job and my role in the business is to keep people safe to reduce the potential for injury.

I recommend all other workplaces work on not only what you've got in place but what you can learn from their program and try and incorporate the two to make one collaborative process. This will streamline the entire work health safety process in your business. I have all the confidence in my business
right now that when my employees turn up to work they go home the way they arrived.

Work safe. Home safe.