Star program sees safety success

The National Safety Star Program was developed by the Australian Reinforcing Company (ARC) to encourage safe team behaviours and celebrate success in overall safety within the business.

Each month, sites are awarded or deducted points based on specific behaviours taken to improve workplace safety including identifying and reporting injuries or hazards as well as the actions taken to address these. These points are tallied month to month and well-performing sites are recognised with a formal framed plaque containing safety stars, which are awarded in bronze, silver and gold through to double diamond. Sites receiving a star are rewarded with a formal presentation from ARC senior management and a team barbecue.

ARC General Manager Rob Crawford said the program has been successful because it gets everyone thinking about safety: “ARC has always gone to extraordinary lengths to put safety first. By focusing on rewarding positive behaviours, we are making a cultural shift in how we do our job. The incentive nature of the program engages all employees, contractors and casuals to remain focused on safety. As the program is an accountable, measured approach to monitoring and rewarding safety, staff can easily identify how their site has performed compared to others, giving them a greater sense of pride in their achievements.

“All businesses in the steel reinforcing industry face the challenge of maintaining a safe workplace. When you consider that in the past 12 months, 27 people within the reinforcing industry were injured to the extent that they lost a shift or more to recover, the fact that ARC in Victoria and Tasmania has had no loss of time due to injuries is outstanding.

“An idea like this can easily be translated into any workplace. The team approach of the Safety Star program focuses on the site’s success in contributing to safety, not just by identifying safety issues but also by addressing them. It also recognises and measures timely corrective actions to any of the safety issues identified. It encourages positive safe behaviours in ARC like regular safety communication forums and documenting them. The program also encourages people to proactively identify and address hazards as well as conduct regular ‘safety conversations’ with employees, contractors and casuals through the safety observation process.”