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FARRA - Succeeding in safety strengthened the business
Although it exports its products overseas, it is very proud of its local roots and is committed to Otago. It’s a big part of what makes the Farra team who they are.
Specialising in contract manufacturing, access machines, and maintenance, repairs and overhaul (MRO), you will find Farra’s work in aerospace, in trains, on the top of skyscrapers, in mines, and energy generation.
‘‘In 2022/23, we saw an opportunity to improve efficiency in our rapidly-expanding contract manufacturing business while keeping our people safer by addressing some key industry risks,’’ managing director Gareth Evans says. ‘‘We took a comprehensive look at the situation and identified three areas for improvement: forklift movement, manual and double handling, and welding risks. We found that better workshop flow was needed and the team were deeply involved in the design of a purpose-built workshop extension.’’
The outcome is highly engaged staff who take ownership of their space and a work environment with a more streamlined flow, reducing risk, and improving efficiency.
‘‘A quality-first strategy and work processes led to better practices, quality systems and process improvements, and better supervision and training, resulting in greater worker participation and engagement in speaking up and reporting,’’ Gareth says.
‘‘Our industry body awards recently recognised us for Leadership, Quality, and Education in this space and our ACC levies were halved. That's a pretty powerful endorsement.’’
Visit our website: https://www.farra.co.nz/
POWERNET LTD - Leading the way from the deep south
PowerNet Ltd has been recognised as a leader in workplace safety.
Based in Invercargill, PowerNet builds, maintains, and manages electricity assets across Southland and Otago on behalf of its joint venture shareholders The Power Company Ltd and Electricity Invercargill Ltd. PowerNet won the 2020 Electrical Engineers Association Workplace Safety Award.
‘‘We’ve led the way in New Zealand’s electricity industry by introducing a Critical Control Framework (CCF), bringing safety, consistency and clarity to managing and making all decisions relating to critical safety points in all operational work,’’ health, safety and environment general manager Rangi Solomon says.
‘‘CCF is crucial to our success, a significant step in achieving consistency in safety practices in our industry.
PowerNet is one of only a few New Zealand companies using a framework like this to manage operational workflows. Achieving desired outcomes meets our requirements for coverage and consistency in managing critical risk in the work environment across all operational workers and projects and meets regulatory obligations.’’
PowerNet is the fourth-largest electricity management company in Invercargill and also has offices and depots in Balclutha, Lumsden, Te Anau, Gore, Palmerston, Ranfurly, Frankton, and Stewart Island. It manages more than $1 billion in assets and investments and provides services to more than 75,300 customers.
‘‘Workplace health and safety is our greatest priority and a critical success factor — we’re committed to a ‘safety always’ culture and continuous improvement actions,’’ Rangi says.
Visit our website: https://powernet.co.nz/
SELECT RECRUITMENT - Looking after them while they look after you
Working in a safe, caring environment is everyone’s ideal.
Staff at Select Recruitment, at 330 Moray Pl in Dunedin, know their company is prioritising their own health, safety, and wellbeing while they provide staffing solutions to other businesses across Otago.
‘‘We identified that our workforce was at greater risk of injury/harm when they experienced a change in duties or did not feel safe to perform the tasks asked of them,’’ business manager Stacey French says. A health and safety campaign endorsed by Select Recruitment’s parent companies Accordant Group and AWF began in September last year.
‘‘We upskilled our internal staff and reached out to our client partners to reinforce this message onsite,’’ Stacey says.
‘‘We wanted to change the behaviour of our workforce to feel supported and confident to speak up.
We created two professional videos for our workforce and clients in addition to supporting promotional content.
Videos were distributed via direct emails to our workforce, incentivised with a quiz and $250 prize draw.’’
Reminder emails, text messages and information on payslips encouraged staff to watch the video and enter the draw. ‘‘Our audience found it engaging and relevant,’’ Stacey says.
The emails attracted 200% of the AWF average click-through rate — 10 times the industry average, and the video viewing time of more than two minutes soared above the YouTube average of a few seconds.
