To celebrate National Safe Work Month throughout October, Australian Industry Group is proud to showcase members committed to creating safe and healthy workplaces.
This week, we’re shining the spotlight on food manufacturer Nestle Australia, where the psychological safety of employees is just as important as physical safety.
“People are the heart of our business, and their health and safety are our top priority,” says Phillip Georgiou, Manager of Nestlé’s Campbellfield factory – where KitKats, Quick Eze, Soothers and Butter Menthols are made.
Within the framework of Nestlé’s safety culture, there are four pillars of safety:
“There are more than 400 employees at the Campbellfield site, which is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation,” Mr Georgiou, pictured, said.
“My role is overseeing the total operation and performance of the factory, as well as the safety of all the people who work here.”
Over the past three years, Nestlé has invested about $5.5 million in technology to make manual and repetitive tasks such as lifting safer and easier for people at its Campbellfield factory.
“People don't want to be mopping floors or lifting boxes — they want to be working smarter,” Mr Georgiou said.
“It’s our job to be able to give them the technology and types of systems to be able to do that.
“Among our initiatives is the installation of a robotic floor cleaner that can operate at night in areas that aren’t busy. Mopping chocolate off the floor isn’t easy.”
“Equally important is the psychological side of safety, and this means taking care of the wellbeing of your people,” Mr Georgiou says.
“Where there are people, there’s variability. Everyone has something going on in their personal lives. It might be an elderly parent to support or a teenager facing the stress of Year 12 exams.
“Not only that, but the Campbellfield factory is very multi-cultural, so we are very aware that based on life experience, risk means different things to different people.
“That is why it is super important for the leadership team to build a personal rapport with everyone on the shop floor.
“It allows people to open up, so you can have the right conversations with them to make sure they’re present and safe in the workplace and if not, remove them from any potential safety risks.
“If you can understand what's happening with your people, you can create trust, which is why the factory leadership team invests time outside of normal dealings on the floor to take time to talk with everyone.
“You've got to be there to help, so they’re in the best possible mindset to be able to perform their tasks safely.”
Another important initiative Nestlé embraces is: ‘Safety Starts With Me’.
“It’s about everyone having a responsibility for their safety and the safety of others in their work environment,” Mr Georgiou said.
“As an organisation, we can have every standard, every policy and all the guarding in the world, but it all means nothing if people don’t take responsibility.
“At every meeting, we ask: ‘Who does safety start with? Safety Starts With Me.’
“It’s not just a pledge for those on the factory floor; it’s a pledge across the whole business, including those in our corporate and field sales teams when they are in a car.
“When we have conferences or meetings here, there’s an expectation that you don’t leave laptop cords trailing on the floor or your backpack in the middle of the room for people to trip over.
“There’s an understanding that you’re looking out for yourself, as well as others.
“‘Safety Starts With Me’ is a super powerful mantra — for everyone in the organisation.”
Nestlé also embraces the concept of My Safe Space.
“This refers to the 3m x 3m ‘bubble’ surrounding you at work,” Mr Georgiou said.
“So, when you're present in your work area, have you thought about the risks associated with your bubble?
“Have you identified the potential risks within that bubble, and have you put controls in place to reduce your risk of getting hurt?
“Sometimes, in the factory, you may have two people working near each other; there might be someone doing a task here and someone moving a pallet behind them. You need to be aware of those around you and think about whether your actions might create a hazard for someone else.
“It’s about being present in that 3m x 3m space around you.
“We’ve all had times when we’ve zoned out for a minute or two while driving because there’s so much going on in your mind.
“It’s why we place so much emphasis on encouraging our people to stay present for as long as possible in the tasks they’re performing in the area they’re in.”
“No one goes to work thinking they’re going to have an accident — but statistically in Australia, it happens,” Mr Georgiou said.
“We don't want anyone to be that statistic coming out of our workplace, because it not only impacts them, it also impacts their families and the community, too.
“It has such a flow-on effect, and that's why we spend a lot of time talking about safety — to make it real and to hammer home that so many people are impacted by workplace accidents.”
My Safe Space was one of several safety changes borne out of a three-day market workshop with Nestlé leaders and factory managers across Oceania.
“We're always looking at how individually and collectively we continue to improve safety in our factories and distribution centres,” Mr Georgiou said.
“It's critical that our safety approach and the experience for our people to feel safe and valued is consistent across all our factories in Oceania."
“I look at my people as a measure of success,” Mr Georgiou said.
“You can have state-of-the art equipment but at the end of the day, you win through your people.
“The key thing that tells me all the elements are coming together and having an effect is that the voice of the employees is stronger than ever.
“People are speaking up. If something's not quite right, they’re flagging it. They won't accept it anymore, whether it’s something that I – as a representative of the organisation – may need to fix for them or whether it’s the behaviour of a colleague.
“We encourage speaking up, as everyone is responsible for our culture of safety and health; preventing work-related incidents and protecting ourselves, our colleagues and external workers when they are at a Nestlé site.”
Earlier this year, Nestlé launched RespectX, a new system for flagging unsafe behaviours in the workplace to help prevent them from escalating.
RespectX compliments Nestlé's SpeakUp program, another channel for reporting behaviours against its Code of Business Conduct.
“It’s great to see our people taking control of their workplace to make it a better place to work and leveraging our initiatives to have good conversations in a proactive way,” Mr Georgiou said.
Australian Industry Group offers a range of WHS Consulting Services to help you practically manage WHS matters in the workplace. Find out more here.
Members can also register to attend our WHS Connect Roadshow, half-day events for WHS professionals to come together, share insights and explore best-practice solutions to today's safety challenges.
The roadshow will take in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney during the month of October. Contact Andrew Campbell for more information.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at Australian Industry Group.
A former journalist for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK, she is passionate about giving businesses a voice.
