Ansie van den Berg, Safety Manager of Reid & Mitchell (R&M), is not only very passionate about safety in the workplace, but she has a lively, innovative approach to it.
She believes all staff-members from top to bottom need to be actively involved to minimise risks of injury to ensure that the division’s safety rules and procedures are adhered to.
“My key duty, as I see it, is to keep all the staff in touch with what safety is about, to enable them to fully understand its importance and how they can contribute continuously towards keeping everyone at work safe. It’s essential therefore that the safety programme be all-inclusive, involving the willing participation of all staff,” she says.
The short answer to Ansie’s abovementioned summary of how to establish and maintain a safety programme successfully is that she has achieved just that – with the full support of top management – since joining R&M as Safety Manager in March last year.
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Rene Rajzman, R&M’s Operations Executive, has been especially helpful in assisting her to establish a new safety programme based on her innovative approach. They started by putting their heads together in developing a set of Safety Values for the division.
These comprise, in brief, three values, which are: Take Responsibility, Show Respect and Be Reliable. Each of these Safety Values is explained more fully on the special poster that was printed and put up on the walls of the workshop and offices of the division for all staff to read for basic guidance relating to safety.
The new programme got fully under way with the launching by Ansie in June last year of her first monthly “Safety Drive” in the form of a newsletter distributed by e-mail to all staff – with hard copies being printed by managers and supervisors for staff-members who don’t have direct online access to them.
Ansie has produced and issued a “Safety Drive” every month since then as her main vehicle of communication with staff on safety matters. Each issue is devoted to a specific topical theme. For example, the theme of the July issue this year was “Let’s review what we’ve learned in the first half of the year”, followed in August by “In case of emergencies and incidents”.
In the meantime Ansie and Rene moved the safety programme forward into a new stage by drawing up six “commitments” around safety which they sought to convince R&M’s entire staff, comprising a total of 168 people, to commit themselves to.
To do this they devised an impressive strategy guaranteed to get everyone’s attention and participation. They arranged to hold an event on Friday September 1 to celebrate the beginning of the Spring season, consisting of getting everyone in turn to place green leaves on painted bare brown trees that had been painted beforehand on the wall of the passage linking the workshop with the main office building, with staff-members dipping their hands in green paint and “printing” the leaves on the trees from them.
After everyone had imprinted the leaves on the trees on the “wall of commitment”, as it’s called, they all got together outside for a braai lunch.
“It was great fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. Not only did it help to get across the importance of safety and what it’s about, but it strengthened team spirit among employees at all levels,” Ansie commented.
She explained that the six commitments are not confined only to safety matters, as they also encompass other important aspects of the business that complement it. Consequently, in addition to the commitment “We are dedicated to our Safety Values” they include such pledges as: “We are devoted to Continuous Improvement”, ”We embrace Creativity & Innovation” and “We build a Positive Team Environment”.
“The six commitments demonstrate our approach of customising our safety programme to fit our corporate culture and place of work. They also seek to get the message across that everyone’s opinion is important,” Ansie said.
The September “Safety Drive” she produced towards the end of the month was a bumper issue with the theme “We commit! It’s a new season – goodbye to old habits”. In it the Spring celebration and introduction of the “wall of commitment” in which the whole staff had taken part on September 1 was prominently featured.
Elaborating on her approach, Ansie said: ”I try to make it entertaining and interesting for the staff by getting them involved in various activities, including safety competitions and games, rather than lecturing to them, or only supplying them with endless figures about safety targets and the like, which the average person finds boring.
“By getting involved in doing things together, they can learn what they need to about safety while getting involved in activities and enjoying themselves at the same time. Also we get most of the content of every issue of our monthly ‘Safety Drive’ from our own people, which also helps to keep them interested and remain involved,” she added.
R&M has consistently maintained a good safety record over the years, with it gaining a top 5-Star rating by the National Occupational Safety Association (NOSA) over the past two years.
Early in November this year NOSA notified R&M that it had again been successful in achieving a 5-Star rating in the current year.
Earlier, at the end of September, NOSA held an awards presentation at which Ansie received, for the second year in succession, the 2nd Place prize in NOSA’s International competition for Safety Excellence by individual safety managers.