October is National Safe Work Month – a time where we deepen our commitment to building a safe and healthy workplace. Being healthy and safe means being free from physical and psychological harm. A safe and healthy workplace benefits everyone.
Each year Safer Together Member Companies, as oil and gas industry safety leadership representatives promoting the highest standards of safety pause to come together in October to ‘Stand Together for Safety’.
This year Safer Together is supporting National Safe Work Month by providing a resource pack under the theme of Listen. Share. Learn. in support of psychological safety in the workplace.
Psychological safety can be defined as ‘creating an environment where staff can speak up, share ideas, ask questions and make mistakes without fear of humiliation or retribution’, in other words, that people believe the work environment is based on respect and equality of contribution - allowing all team members to speak up and be themselves without fear of punishment, disadvantage, or humiliation.
Psychologically safe workplaces allow people to speak up, be themselves, focus their energies in the right place and to actively contribute to safe outcomes in our industry.
Campaign materials are now available to download, and include:
- Campaign video
- Facilitator Guide
- Facilitator Run Sheet
- Stand Together for Safety Presentation (including notes)
- Stand Together for Safety ‘Our Place’ poster (with QR video link) for placement in your workplace
The resources provide Member Companies further understanding of this complex topic, along with tools to open the conversation with their workforce around the psychological environment in their workplace, show them how they can identify reasons preventing colleagues from feeling that they belong, or those reasons preventing workers to speak up about important issues.
The materials can be used for a standalone Stand Together for Safety event or during regular frontline workforce engagement (e.g. toolbox meetings, 'Safety Sundays', etc.) throughout October.
It complements existing Safer Together initiatives including the Industry Safety Induction, Assist and Assure, Effective Safety Conversations and Learning Event Bulletins.
The facilitator pack also includes links to various materials relating to the campaign topic and assist member companies in further exploring this topic - including the SafeWork Australia and Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (WA) Codes of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards in the workplace, and Rio Tinto’s Everyday Respect Report.
The campaign will run throughout October:
- Download the materials,
- Read the Facilitator Guide and
- Start planning your Stand Together for Safety event.
We are Stronger and Safer Together.
Contact [email protected] for further information.