Our safety evolution

There is no doubt that health and safety across Monadelphous and the resources industry has changed significantly over the years, in terms of legislation and technological advancements as well as greater awareness and expectations around human behaviours.  

Back in the 1980s, there was less focus on safety across the industry, with even the basics such as PPE a far cry from the standards we have today. Over time there was a shift towards a compliance-based approach, which guided people on what they could and couldn’t do in the workplace. 

In 2005 our Maintenance and Industrial Services division introduced an annual safety conference and annual HSE awards as part of building a stronger safety culture. In 2009, there was a Group-wide safety culture review, which led to the implementation of a simple policy message to help take our performance to another level: The Safe Way is the Only Way.   

The focus across the division then broadened to safety leadership and the important roles that leaders play in driving outcomes.  From here, an emphasis on human factors and human behaviours has evolved and in 2019, we launched our safety behaviour framework Delivering the Safe Way.  More recently Fatal Risk Control has been an increasing focus, contributing to our improved Serious Incident Rate. 

Over the past 20 years the Maintenance and Industrial Services division safety statistics have been trending in a positive direction. In 2004/05 our TRIFR was 25 as a division, while in 2022 it was under 3.  

HSEQ Manager Abigail McPherson said that, although we have made great progress with our TRIFR over the years, we are still on a journey to ensure our people remain safe at work. 

“Everyone along the line, down to the person on the tools doing the job, has a responsibility and ability to influence safety outcomes,” she said. 

“There are a number of factors that influence our approach to health and safety as it is not an exact science. 

“Across the division, when implementing change, we firstly look at what the data from events tells us, as well as what is happening across our industry, what our customers are doing and what is happening legislatively.  

“There is then some customisation that needs to happen as it is not always a one size fits all approach – how safety initiatives practically apply can vary, with different challenges in oil and gas environments compared to those in mining and minerals, for example.”  

Abigail said that our overall safety culture has continued to improve significantly and an important part of this is promoting positive behaviours and leading by example.  

“As always, The Safe Way is the Only Way.  It is important that everyone is empowered to stop work if they identify an unsafe situation and find a safe way to proceed,” she said.  

“The next evolution in terms of health and safety that we are seeing is around psychosocial risks, with a greater emphasis on mental health and psychological wellbeing, which links directly to our behaviour framework.”