Safety is everyone’s business.
October is the month of the year that promotes workplace awareness towards safety and wellbeing. Safe Work Australia is an organisation that works on developing and maintaining an evidence base to inform work healthy and safety procedures and standards. According to their website, 99 individuals have died at their places of work in 2024 alone and 139 000 worker’s compensation claims were filed from 2021-22. We strive to constantly train and educate our team members on safety procedures, whilst also providing support and listening ears if physical trouble isn’t the only form of harm they might be encountering.
Worker Fatalities by State/Territory, 2023
This October, Caledonia Group is proud to share that we are participating in Safe Work’s campaign to encourage organisations to prioritise safety and wellbeing in a professional and personal setting. As a company, we actively believe that the inclusion and integration of thorough and consistent WHS practices will not only improve the quality of our workplaces, but also foster a healthy and welcoming environment for our team members.
We understand that working in construction on large-scale projects can be incredibly stress-inducing and because of this, we as a group are committing to a future of risk-controlled environments.
Proactively Managing Work Health & Safety Risks:
Safety is a conscious decision that requires day-to-day, sometimes minute-to-minute thought and reflection. Working in a very labour-driven and physically demanding industry can raise many questions and concerns in terms of measures being taken to ensure security and welfare. It is important for anyone involved in a workplace to be considering their role in WHS and ensuring that risks are eliminated as they are found. There is a step-by-step approach to managing WHS risks:
- Identify hazards
- Assess risks
- Control risks
- Review control measures
Communication is a key form of ensuring that WHS is spotlighted as a precedent/prerequisite to be considered before any form of work takes place. At the beginning of each workday, we aim to complete a risk assessment that tells us how severe a risk is, how effective our control measures are, which action we need to take and how urgently.
Consulting Coworkers:
Consulting your coworkers and teammates is a legal WHS requirement. Caledonia Group prides itself on the openness of their work environments and the collaborative spirit that it sparks. However, no matter the greatness of your workplace, there is always room to improve in terms of preventing work-related incidents and accidents. Our employees have vast and different experiences in the industry and can provide different perspectives on steps our team can take to protect themselves and others. We find that it’s always best to practice patience and open-mindedness to stay in line with industry guidelines.
In line with our dedication to this, we have implemented site ‘toolboxes’ that contain resources on how to stay mentally, emotionally and physically safe during and outside of work. Our site supervisors and state managers are in constant contact with not only our site teams, but also our admin and office teams to ensure that they are being provided support in times of need, and also guidance in terms of WHS requirements.
How We Train Our Team to Stay Safe at Work:
Caledonia Group is a national and international company with many locations to watch over and maintain. In compliance with WHS standards, we have appointed Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Advisors that ensure our teams are cooperating with protocols and complying with state-mandated WHS policies and procedures. See below to understand what Caledonia Group does to ensure their employees are fully trained, as per Safe Work Australia.
