Deloitte invests in safety leadership business

Deloitte has announced it has invested in a new safety leadership and culture change business by merging its sustainability and workplace health and safety businesses.

“A combined Deloitte Sustainability Services will make sure our clients can identify and de-risk their supply chains, their legal, financial, social, and labour and environmental risks long term,” said Deloitte Sydney Managing Partner Dennis Krallis.

“It’s about being able to help organisations meet their obligations to society, to the environment and their finances in a sustainable way. That’s the game changer.”

Managing the organisational culture change arm is Jane Magree, who will be responsible for guiding organisations through transformational change to improve business and safety performance and leadership capability.

“The Work Health and Safety Act is not just focused on physical safety, it’s also about stress and mental health issues,” said Magree.

“In fact, white collar businesses are increasingly under the pump when it comes to wellbeing. Executives need help to regenerate and recharge. You can only do this through top down visible leadership commitment and empowering front-line staff members to manage rather than escalate.”

She said workplaces like banks are starting to run resilience programs, while insurance companies are promoting ‘healthy you’ programs to help combat the potential cost burden of not addressing employee wellbeing.

“Given that one in six working-age Australians live with mental illness including depression, that is costing Australian businesses at least $11 billion dollars each year, this is a growing area,” Magree said.

She added that change is also needed in the way we manage and measure safety.

“Boards are judged on fatalities and lost time due to injury (LTI). If this measurement isn’t changed, the focus will stay on numbers and ‘what shouldn’t happen’ rather than ‘people and what must go right’.

“We need new ways of thinking about the future and visualising what we do want with everyone living safely at work, home and play, not on zero harm.”

Krallis said the timing could not be better for this new team.

“Open any news source today and you can see a multitude of reports on organisations that are feeling the consequences of failing to meet their obligations to society, the environment or their employees,” he said.

“Companies are facing class actions from customers, court cases due to workplace injuries, supply chain failures, environmental disasters, inadequate triple bottom line reporting and poor stakeholder management.”

Deloitte estimates it costs Australia’s GDP $60.6 billion¹ each year due to not getting work, health and safety right.

“The Deloitte national team has again found the scale to transform its successful safety and sustainability practices into an end-to-end integrated Sustainability Services business,” said Krallis.

“The team is determined to mobilise in a way that combines sustainable behavioural change, environmental and workplace need and innovative leadership.”

1 The cost estimate includes direct costs (payment of wages and medical costs) and indirect costs (lost productivity, loss of future earnings and social welfare payments). Under the methodology adopted, workers compensation premiums are not considered as a cost to the employer but treated as a burden to the community as compensation payments are redistributed to injured and ill workers.

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