Businesses share expertise in safety mentoring program

Helping other organisations achieve their safety goals is a big priority for Maria Hooker, the National WHSE Manager for Allied Mills.

She has been participating in the SafeWork NSW Mentoring Program as a mentor for nine years, providing advice and support to mentees from smaller businesses, such as Paul Cronin, founder and CTO of research and development start-up Molten-Labs.

The mentor

Although Allied Mills is a large manufacturer and distributor of bakery premixes, flour and semifinished products, Hooker has been paired with mentees from a variety of industries, including the likes of construction and tourism.

“I have had an average of two to three mentees each year, and have only had four in manufacturing,” she said.

“You need to make the mentee realise that although they are small and Allied Mills is a big company, we have similar safety concerns and the way to address these concerns is the same, except sometimes at a different scale.”

While SafeWork NSW previously tried to match companies according to their industries, it found that was not always achievable given the different types of businesses, nor is it necessary in terms of sharing experience and expertise. Regardless of industry, many businesses face similar challenges and can share great insight, which is a key focus when pairing mentors and mentees.

“It is the common knowledge and desire to improve work health and safety that matters, and feedback we have received from participants is that this method really works for the program. Some of them tell really funny stories about how they were matched up with entirely different industries to their own, but how it didn't matter in the end,” said Jodie Deakes, acting deputy executive director at SafeWork NSW.

Hooker was inspired to join the mentoring program after experiences earlier in her career where having access to a mentor would have been highly beneficial.

“Back in 2003, when I became the national safety manager for Allied Mills, I needed to develop and implement a safety management system to cover all the sites we had around Australia,” she said.

That process began with implementing a user-friendly reporting and incident reporting database, which helped to ensure assessments and investigations were completed with control measures within a specified time frame.

All work processes needed to be risk assessed, while any control measures identified to be implemented were actioned. This was followed up with a safe work procedure, plus an induction and training with the relevant workers.

“Contractors needed to be managed when working at any of our sites, so we developed and implemented a contractor management database. This formed our safety management system,” said Hooker.

“After 12 months all the procedures were audited by myself at each site, and every two years after the initial audit to ensure compliance.

“If there was a program such as the mentor/mentee program back then, it would have made my role a lot easier. I wanted to be able to help small business realise that although it was mandatory to ensure safe systems were in place in their workplace, it could be achieved, in some cases, with minimal cost and resources.”

The mentee

The mentoring program is beneficial because it brings experienced and small businesses together for a period of six months to work on developing work health and safety programs, as well as providing advice on issues such as injury management and workers compensation.

The experience has so far been a very worthwhile one for Paul Cronin, who decided to join because he wanted to gain a greater insight into workplace safety in Australia after working in the United States for 17 years.

“I have knowledge and experience with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States, so I was hoping to get that same understanding of workplace safety in Australia — not only of the ‘letter of the law’, but also the ‘spirit of the law’,” he said.

“The program bureaucracy seems remarkably sensible, encouraging and supportive. You can find information relatively easily, and having a great mentor like Maria Hooker from Allied Mills helps tremendously.

“We speak, email and visit often, talking about their challenges and how to put in the proper processes for a company as flexible as Molten-Labs. I have had the opportunity to travel to two Allied Mills facilities, and will be visiting a third.”

As a broad industrial research and development start-up company, Molten-Labs is exposed to a wide variety of potentially hazardous environments, meaning that its safety challenges can change from day to day.

“It is not like we are in the same business every day, where once we have a particular safety protocol we never have to change. Instead, we are constantly exposed to different industries and hence different safety challenges,” said Cronin.  

“One day it might be high-intensity laser optics; the next day, potentially toxic chemicals or machinery.”  

While the program began with a focus on safety for small business, an unintended benefit has been financial gain for those who participate.

“In many cases, as a result of improvements in their WHS systems we have seen smaller businesses being able to compete for and get more contracts for their business. Not only are their businesses healthier and safer, they are also more productive,” said Deakes.

“These businesses have grown as a result of being in the program, because they have been able to demonstrate they have the systems and processes in place to ensure they will operate safely. This is not something we even realised was possible when we began the program in 2006, but it is an amazing outcome for these businesses as a consequence.”

Cronin can certainly see how these benefits would be obtained by businesses.

“I think if there are any challenges it is a question of time. There are many demands on an SME company, but the greatest of these is time — or lack of it. However, after being in the program for a few months now, I think that the investment of time now could pay off not only with massive time savings in the future, but also cost savings and less productivity loss.

“I think it was CS Lewis who said ‘integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching’. Work safety is similar: we need to act safely even when nobody is watching — and not just the big things, the little things as well,” he said.

The program has grown steadily since its inception in 2006, with 485 businesses participating throughout that time. According to Deakes, 80 companies have taken part in the 2017 program.

“An important element is making sure that those applying to be mentors can in fact support a small business and see the program through to the very end,” she said.

“Sometimes we have people applying to be mentors but they end up being mentees instead. We do assess where each company is at, because it needs to be a worthwhile relationship for both parties and the mentor needs to be able to pass something on to the mentee.”

Overall, Cronin has found the program to be highly beneficial and recommends that other companies get involved. He also hopes that one day he may be able to mentor other less experienced companies himself.

Image caption: Maria Hooker from Allied Mills with her mentee, Paul Cronin from Molten-Labs (middle and right).