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 delivering 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.
At our HSER Forum in October, HSERs will enjoy a presentation on our new campaign supporting psychological safety in the workplace – including a walk-through on how their organisations can use this toolbox talk at their workplace.
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 campaign poster (with QR video link) for placement in your workplace
The resources provide Member Company HSERs with the tools to open the conversation with their workforce around the psychological environment in their workplace, and how to identify reasons preventing colleagues from feeling they belong, or those reasons preventing workers to speak up about important issues.
The Listen. Share. Learn. campaign materials will assist HSERs and Member Companies in further understanding this topic and how it applies to their organisation. It complements existing Safer Together initiatives including The Industry Safety Induction, Assist and Assure, Effective Safety Conversations and Learning Event Bulletins.
The recent publications of 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 are other useful resources highlighting workplace culture as a key indicator of safe operations.
We encourage HSERs to take the time to download and consider these resources prior to conducting the Listen. Share. Learn. talk in their workplace.
Contact [email protected] for further information.