Safex Newsletter No.80 May 2024

Welcome to the 80th SAFEX Newsletter. A third of the year has already sped past and SAFEX has been very busy serving the industry.

  • GPG 12 has been completed and posted on our website : English version - Spanish version
  • Webinar 6 – Management of Change – was successfully hosted by EPC Groupe and an article by Thierry Rousse explains the outcome of the Webinar in this Newsletter.
  • A new eLearning Module in Conjunction with ENAEX in Chile, ‘Why we need to do Periodic Hazard Studies on existing plants’ has been developed and now been launched on the SAFEX website.
  • The date and place for the SAFEX Congress XXI was pinned down: Please note this important event, hosted by ORICA, in your calendar.
  • A new GPG on Management of Change is under preparation. The development of an ESP eLearning Module is well advanced, which will also result in the update of the current ESP GPG on the Website. Work has also been initiated on an Explosives Security GPG.

The global explosives industry plays a crucial role in various sectors, including mining, construction, and military operations. However, working with explosives also carries significant risks, which is why safety measures are of utmost importance. SAFEX International is a leading organization dedicated to promoting safety within the explosives industry. With our expertise and resources, we provide training programs, guidelines, and support to ensure that companies and individuals adhere to best practices when handling explosives. By partnering with SAFEX International, businesses can enhance their safety protocols and minimize the risk of accidents or mishaps. So, whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field, SAFEX International is there to assist you in maintaining a safe work environment while maximizing efficiency and productivity.

I hope with this Newsletter that SAFEX manages to assist you to improve your safety offering to our industry !

Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace and Workforce – Incitec Pivot Limited / Dyno

By Diana Ginnane

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing focus by Australian workplaces on creating mentally healthy work environments. There have been recent changes in the Australian WHS regulatory environment around formally managing psychosocial hazards and risks, with the key catalysts for this shift being several high-profile reports, including the ‘Review of the Model Work Health and Safety Laws’ by Marie Boland in 2018/2019 (the Boland Review) and the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact that lockdowns, remote work, health concerns, and social isolation have had on workers’ health and wellbeing have also resulted in a growing recognition of the prevalence and impact of mental health issues in society, including in the workplace. Today, nearly one in six Australian employees experience a significant level of mental ill-health in a four-week period and the Productivity Commission (2020) reporting that mentally unhealthy workplaces are estimated to cost up to $39 billion each year in lost participation and productivity. A psychologically unhealthy workplace can result in increased absences, higher staff turnover, reduced product or service quality, more frequent recruitment, and training, as well as potential damage to an organisation’s reputation.

Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) is an Australian multinational company that primarily operates in the manufacturing and distribution of fertilizers, industrial explosives, and chemicals. The company has a significant presence in the agriculture, mining, and industrial sectors, operating globally across Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, and other countries. The environment in which our business operates has inherent psychosocial risks present including working in regional and rural locations, undertaking high-risk work, operating major hazard facilities and under other environmentally challenging conditions, working in FIFO/DIDO roles, working in isolation, undertaking shift work and nightshift work, interacting with clients and customers, and dealing with the work demands of turnaround and shutdowns to name a few. Furthermore, IPL also acknowledged the diverse nature of our workforce that includes vulnerable and marginalised groups – women, First Nations, remote/rural/FIFO/DIDO, culturally and racially marginalised, LGBTIQA+, graduates, contractors, neurodiverse and people living with disability.

IPL recognises that creating a mentally healthy workplace and workforce is critical to meeting our value of Zero Harm and raising the standard of how we assess and manage psychosocial risk across our business. This approach also supports IPL’s commitment to a high-performance culture and promoting ‘SafeGROUND’ (psychological safety). There are also numerous positive impacts that exist beyond regulatory and legislative compliance, including improved worker wellbeing, productivity and performance, improved worker engagement and satisfaction at work, and creating an environment that attracts, retains, and engages talent. Finally, it has created an opportunity to integrate business and functional strategies across health and safety, human resources, and operations, with the common goal of eliminating or minimising psychological harm to our workforce.

Incitec Pivot Limited have been at the forefront of proactively creating a mentally healthy workplace and workforce, with the IPL Executive Team endorsing the business case for the development and implementation of a mental health and wellbeing program for the Asia Pacific (APAC) Region in May 2018. At the time, a working group with wide IPL APAC business unit representation was formed to define, scope, and establish the IPL Mental Health & Wellbeing strategy to ensure that the strategy established had applicability and was accepted across all business units in the Asia Pacific region. A steering committee comprising cross function business unit leadership members was also formed to provide sponsorship and governance, which has recently been expanded to encompass business units globally.

Since 2018, IPL, with a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing Specialist working alongside our health and safety team, human resources team and business units, have been focused on designing and implementing a mental health and wellbeing strategy to meet organisational risk factors, key regulatory and compliance requirements, and the changing external environment impacting on worker mental health and wellbeing. This has been based on the four pillars of our mental health and wellbeing: promotion, early intervention, support, and prevention. Highlights of the program have included:

  • Extensive training delivered across APAC including general mental health awareness, mental health for leaders, and Mental Health First Aid accreditation.
  • The implementation of Mental Health Councils and on-site mental health professionals and peer supporters at our high-risk work sites.
  • Development of our “Flourish with IPL” program based on positive psychology and Martin Seligman’s multi-dimensional PERMAH framework for good mental health and wellbeing, including monthly site safety toolbox talks and lunch and learn sessions.
  • Greater cross-functional collaboration between HSE, HR and operational teams.
  • Development of the APAC Mental Health Guidelines as a resource for the business.

As a key component of IPL’s mental health and wellbeing strategy has been our psychosocial risk management program. IPL has developed and commenced a systematic psychosocial risk management program to identify hazards, assess risks, control risks, and review control measures for effectiveness, both site-based and function-based. This has been a large piece of work given the large and highly complex and diverse nature of the work undertaken by the IPL workforce across a large organisational footprint. There has been a particular focus on identifying control measures to prevent psychological harm (e.g., good work design, managing work demands, resourcing and leadership capability) and upskilling our Health and Safety teams and leaders in the psychosocial risk management process to ensure timely and accurate assessment of key hazards and risks across all levels of the business. Key activities of the program to date have included:

  • Development of Psychosocial Risk Management guidance materials in consultation with the business encompassing HSE, HR and Operations (including assessment checklists, assessment templates, worker consultation guidelines, a screening tool for prioritising high-risk areas of the business and a WRAC template including current appliable control measures and risk matrix).
  • Development of processes to meet mandatory reporting requirements.
  • Briefing and upskilling of the Board, executive team, and leaders within the business to understand psychosocial risk management and their obligations and role in this process, as well as the part they can play in creating mentally healthy workplaces.
  • Commencement in the undertaking of risk assessments across the Australian business including key operational areas.

The response to the psychosocial risk management program to date has been overwhelmingly positive, with IPL leaders demonstrating a strong commitment to addressing risks identified through the assessment process. This has been demonstrated in actions already in the process of being undertaken, for example changes to work design, the span of control of supervisors, and strategies to increase communication and reward and recognition. As IPL rolls out this program across workers across all areas of the business have been highly engaged with the consultation process, showing a strong willingness to provide feedback around the sources within the workplace that impact on their psychological wellbeing and personal safety.

Learnings that IPL have taken from the process to date include:

  • Start from the top and ensure executive team buy in and ensure that they are modelling the behaviours and creating a mentally healthy environment within their own teams.
  • Align psychosocial risk assessments and management with your current risk management framework as much as possible - the same risk management t principles apply.
  • Consult with your workers at all levels of the business, across different modalities (one on one, focus groups, informal conversations) as wide and as deep as possible - this information is invaluable!
  • Don’t assume to know what the psychosocial risks are - consultation, data analysis and looking both internally and externally to industry trends and data points is important to understand all relevant hazards and risks.
  • Take a multi-disciplinary approach - working with Human Resources and operations is imperative to the success of psychosocial risk management.
  • Be clear on your framework and processes before you begin but also be willing to be flexible and iterative when it comes to the process.
  • Be prepared to take actions - this is important to building psychological safety.
  • When it comes to controls, consider both quick wins and longer term strategies and consider controls to mitigate against multiple risks (remember psychosocial risks don’t exist typically in isolation from one another).

Moving in to 2024, the continuing focus of our program will be on the mental health and wellbeing of our workers, including continued adoption of proactive strategies that mitigate against psychosocial risk factors, and promotion of workplace protective factors, early intervention processes and support and help-seeking. IPL’s goals for 2024 will see an expansion of the predominantly APAC-based program, with a One IPL Mental Health framework set to align IPLs mental health and wellbeing strategy across all regions globally, with the purpose of increasing engagement and empowering all IPL employees to proactively build a resilient workforce, identify and manage psychosocial risks, and continue to imbed mental health and wellbeing into the culture of the organisation across all areas including leadership, human resources, and health and safety.