Building a positive health and safety culture
DECEMBER 02, 2019
How are you building a stronger culture of health and safety in your team?
National scaffolding firm Acrow Ltd recently won another award for its internal health and safety videos that made stars out of its own staff members.
Taking home the Mitre 10 Trade Safety Leadership Award at Site Safe’s Evening of Celebration held on 6 November, Acrow Ltd created a series of videos focusing on health and safety, using its own people to talk about the things that matter. The series is called Platform and is released quarterly.
The award judges said the trick was to come up with messages that made a real difference and stuck in the minds of the company’s 400 staff and sub-contractors.
It was important to make the videos authentic and relatable, so actual workers were used to host the videos and create much of the content. As a result of the company auditions, two naturally talented workers - Dan and Arama - were picked and they were given some extra performance training from former Shortland St actress Maggie Eyre.
The award judges said they had plenty of natural charm and that made for professional and engaging performances.
But it wasn’t all health, safety and scaffolding. There was a musical talent quest called Acrow’s Got Talent, where staff submitted their amateur performances shot on cell phones. The best one in each episode won a prize from Acrow.
The videos were commissioned by the previous General Manager, Philip Manning, and produced by Omnicron Productions.
Mr Manning and senior health and safety managers then toured the country showing the videos to help build a stronger safety culture within the company.
“And they’re not just any old videos either,” said the judges.
“They are top quality productions shot in the branches and on site with people out of the business presenting key messages in language everyone understands.
Creative ways to build a positive H&S culture
Mitre 10 General Manager Trade Derek Heard says it’s great to see the creative ways that companies are encouraging positive health and safety culture.
“On any building site, it’s so important that everyone is taking care of each other, and not only our physical health but also mental wellbeing. The creative ways that Acrow has engaged its team in a topic that’s traditionally seen as boring. It just shows that there are many ways to create a culture where everyone is looking out for themselves, each other and their environment.”
They are also good enough to have Acrow staff asking for more.
At the awards ceremony, Acrow Managing Director, Mark Irvine said the videos really got people talking.
“It was a case of trying to do something a little different and get a consistency of messaging across 400 people in many locations around the country.
”The videos are a mechanism for guiding the conversations held on the roadshows and workshops and getting the guys and gals talking amongst themselves.”
The videos also won Gold Camera award at the 2018 US International Film and Video Festival where they were up other films made to educate stimulate or motivate staff.
