At AGL, health and safety is central to everything that we do. In fact, ‘safety and beyond’ is one of our four core values, meaning that:
- in our business, safety comes first, because physical and mental wellbeing are fundamental to a successful workplace
- we create a supportive environment, where we feel safe to challenge the norm, to speak up, to say what we mean
- safety is a shared responsibility – by taking care of each other, AGL becomes a better business for all, and
In our team, we start each meeting with a safety moment, where a member of the team shares an observation or experience about safety or wellbeing, to keep our focus on safety. In a corporate office environment, this may be as simple as reminding people to hold onto the handrail when walking down stairs, being mindful of local construction activity when crossing the road to grab a coffee, or reflecting on personal or observed experiences of stress. While discussing such things may at times seem obvious or trivial, from my perspective I can say with certainty that these safety moments have led to positive changes in the behaviour and safety culture within our team.
FY17 safety performance
As a business, we measure and track safety performance using a number of lagging performance indicators based on reported safety incidents. We also track leading indicators to provide insight into trends to inform us on our current and future programs.
The total injury frequency rate (TIFR) for employees decreased from 4.3 in FY16 to 2.0, exceeding our target of 3.9. A stretch target of a 50% reduction in contractor TIFR was set for FY17 (equivalent to a TIFR of <5.5). The total injury frequency rate for contractors decreased from 11.0 in FY16 to 5.4, exceeding our target of 5.5.
The combined TIFR for both employees and contractors decreased from 6.2 to 3.1. The decrease in the combined TIFR indicates that the implementation of the Target Zero Strategic Framework, targeted prevention and leadership programs, and the evolving HSEMS are all playing a part in the prevention of injury and illness in our workplaces. Half of the TIFR-related injuries were lacerations, with the remaining injuries equally fractures, crush or muscular related.
During FY17, we completed 9,859 Health and Safety Walks, 4,254 Environment Walks and 6,142 HSE Technical Interactions. There were also 4,054 hazards (comprising 3,414 safety hazards and 640 environmental hazards) and 1,105 near misses (comprising 850 safety near misses and 255 environmental near misses) reported, reflecting a substantial improvement in reporting behaviour compared to FY16.
To read more about our approach to health and safety, visit our FY17 Sustainability Report.
