18/11/2022

Regional councils, manufacturing businesses and the state’s most iconic sports ground are among the winners of a SafeWork SA competition calling on organisations to host events to celebrate National Safe Work Month.

Every October, SafeWork SA encourages all South Australian businesses to take part in National Safe Work Month by hosting a work health and safety themed event.

The 2022 ‘Organise Your Own Workplace Activity’ provided workplaces the opportunity to share their creative and industry specific initiatives in building safe and healthy workplaces.

A diverse range of businesses registered original events and activities that addressed the risks particular to their workers. Activities were awarded points by a judging panel made up of WHS specialists, focusing on:

  • WHS relevance
  • employee engagement, and
  • originality.

This year’s competition generated dozens of high-calibre activities that provide the judges a challenge in selecting the gold, silver and bronze awards from a $2000 prize pool.

The winners are:

  • Yorke Peninsula Council
  • Ashborn Industries
  • Public Transport Projects Alliance Ovingham
  • Kingston District Council
  • Built Environs
  • Adelaide Oval SMA

SafeWork SA Executive Director Martyn Campbell said the competition gave organisations the opportunity to contribute to the wide range of activities during National Safe Work Month.

‘Thank you to the South Australian businesses who dedicated time and effort to host an event. You have raised awareness of workplace safety, motivated your staff to look out for one another and promoted wellness within your employees,’ he said.

‘I am impressed with the creativity shown in the activities created and how they have tailored events to be specific to their workplace and industry.’

Gold Award winners

Yorke Peninsula Council

Yorke Peninsula Council scheduled a month-long program of activities to raise awareness around safety. These included skin screenings for staff, healthy cooking sessions, safety showbags and decorating workspace sessions to promote wellness. The events culminated in the premiere of a video demonstrating how Yorke Peninsula Council’s Community Woodshed provides a safe, inclusive, accessible work environment and guidance for workers and volunteers.

Ashborn Industries

Despite being a small manufacturing business of less than 100 employees, Ashborn Industries put on a big program of activities throughout October at its regional and city offices. These included mental health, nutrition and exercise workshops. As well as developing an interactive ‘Let’s Fix It’ form encouraging workers to take control of their safety, identify risks specific to their work and collaborate on implementing safety solutions.

Silver Award winners

Public Transport Projects Alliance Ovingham

Public Transports Alliance Ovingham provided employees with a program of WHS activities focussing on different themes each week. A unique feature of this program was to recognise and acknowledge employees safe work practices and award prizes at the end of each week to workers and teams who promoted safety in line with the weekly themes.

Kingston District Council

Kingston District Council developed an interactive mental health workshop which generated a great level of employee engagement. The workshop focused on increasing mental health literacy for workers, responding to symptoms of mental health problems, developing intervention strategies and meditation sessions.

Bronze Award winners

Built Environs

Built Environs activities focused on addressing mental health risks unique to the construction industry. The activities included utilising the innovative ‘People At Work’ risk assessment tool to survey their staff, identify risks and develop a tailor made strategy to prevent psychosocial hazards. Built Environs also hosted several morning teas and afternoon barbeques for staff to encourage discussions around mental health issues.

Adelaide Oval SMA

Adelaide Oval featured an extensive calendar of events which included skin checks, a mental health wellness workshop, staff ergonomic checks and an engaging hazard hunt activity each day. Staff used clues to find markers around the oval and completed online forms identifying what the hazard was and how to address it. Prizes were awarded to the most diligent hazard hunters.