Enhancing Safety, Health & Wellbeing

1. Contractor fatalities
2. Lost Time Injury Incidence rate is (the number of LTI/Ds divided by the number of employees) x 100
3. Severity rate is (the number of LTI/Ds that resulted in 60 days or more lost divided by the total number of LTI/D claims) x 100
4. Return to work within 13 weeks is (number of LTI/D with a RTW outcome within 13 weeks divided by the Number of LTI/Ds reported) x 100
5. Return to work within 26 weeks is (number of LTI/D with a RTW outcome within 26 weeks divided by Number of LTI/Ds reported) x 100

Our Safety Performance

Our top priority is ensuring the safety, health, and overall well-being of our employees, the contractors working with us and the people who work on our network across the state. We aim to develop our safety, health and wellbeing capability and strengthen our safety culture.

Sadly, two contractors working on our projects died during the year and we extend our deepest condolences to their families. It is a reminder of the dangers in delivering works in a challenging environment. We have renewed our focus on safety in the workplace and acknowledge that as we begin to transition to in-house delivery of road maintenance, there will be an increase in staff numbers as our maintenance works are no longer contracted out. We will continue to provide SHW advice to support the transition and deploy safety resources throughout the state.

Lost-Time Injury Frequency Rate

Over the past 12 months our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate has remained stable and is aligned with the result from the previous year and our target of 1.0. Our Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate (TRIFR) is also below target of 6.03 coming in at 5.2. We will continue to focus on mitigating actions for our critical risks and our demonstration of safety leadership across the organisation.

The following tables below show our top three critical risks over the last 12 months and the root causes enabling us to focus our attention on the areas that matter the most.

Workers Compensation and Injury Management

There was a total of nine workers compensation claims lodged with three linked to a work-related Lost Time Injury and another claim pending. All workers apart from the pending claim returned to work within 13 weeks.

Safety Banner Alerts

We regularly communicate alerts across the organisation and to our contractors’ providing lessons learned from serious incidents. A more collaborative approach to investigating contractor safety has been encouraged, with an increase in the quality and clarity of investigation reports. In the last 12 months we released 148 Banner Alerts.

Preventative Health & Wellbeing

Mental Wellbeing Plan

As featured in our case study we have engaged with our staff to develop a new Mental Wellbeing Plan in support of our aspiration to create a work environment where everyone feels supported, valued, and encouraged to reach their full potential. The new plan is built on significant consultation, including our Thrive at Work Survey, an anonymous suggestion box, a mental wellbeing event, and our psychosocial risk workshops, where we heard from staff and managers across our business. We also established a new mental wellbeing committee with representatives from across the business, with the aim of ensuring the plan resonates and is relevant.

A strong emerging theme is the critical importance of high-quality manager-employee relationships for mental wellbeing, and we heard that where these relationships are strong, mental wellbeing and productivity flourish. To deliver the plan, a key action will be to support managers with tools and skills to have resonant leadership conversations about things that matter, such as mental wellbeing, work demands and coping, career aspirations, as well as giving staff the opportunity to raise anything that’s concerning them.

We have also been implementing actions that were identified early in the consultation process. A need for mental health education was highlighted, and nearly 100 staff have completed accredited Mental Health First Aid training, which builds our collective skills and confidence to support others. To offer greater support to staff experiencing work or home related difficulties, we have established a new Peer Support Program that provides emotional support. We are focused on continuing to expand this new network.

World Café Event

As part of our consultations for the new Mental Wellbeing Plan, we hosted a collective conversation in the World Café format to deepen the conversation around how we can really make a difference to mental wellbeing in our organisation. The event was hosted by Dee Roche, a Senior Management Consultant from AIMWA-UWA Business School and focused around the five key areas of priority identified in the Thrive at Work survey. The event was open to everyone, and participants rotated in groups between different tables to contribute to each of the areas, allowing the different aspects of mental wellbeing to be explored in significant depth. There was overwhelming positive feedback following the event.

Psychosocial Risk Workshops

This year, we have delivered psychosocial risk workshops across all areas of the business, to systematically ensure each area understands and is managing the key psychosocial risks affecting the mental wellbeing of our staff. The workshops were strongly supported by our leadership team with each workshop opened by the area’s Director or Executive Director. We partnered with Stephanie Winterton from Talogy to guide participants through both the local-level results from the Thrive at Work survey, and the risk assessment methodology. Participants worked in groups to clarify the causes and potential consequences of each of the risks identified by the data, and to generate mitigations measures that could be put in place to address the risks. Workshops were meaningful and well received, with strong attendance by our staff and management teams.

Employee Assistance Program

Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) encourages employees and their families to access registered psychologists to help them cope with work and home related challenges they may face. In addition, our managers are supported by a Management Coaching and Development Program that provides guidance to managers overseeing employees with mental health related concerns.

As part of our increased focus on mental wellbeing, we have expanded the number of sessions that staff are able to access and have brought a psychologist from the EAP into our head office on a monthly basis. The on-site visits make the EAP more conveniently accessible and allow us to connect staff, who may not otherwise have accessed the program. We have also continued to promote the EAP regularly to increase awareness and familiarity with its services. Data on the rate of usage of the program indicates results from these promotional efforts.