SafeWork SA’s annual Organise your own workplace activity competition provides workplaces the opportunity to share some of their creative and industry specific initiatives in building and maintaining safe and healthy workplaces.

Businesses were invited by SafeWork SA to register a workplace event for the month of October with 26 South Australian businesses registering events.

Workplace activities registered were creative and original including a training passport, hazard identification, mock court scenarios, a focus on mental health and wellbeing through activities and a scavenger hunt.

2020 has seen six businesses recognised for their workplace safety initiatives held during National Safe Work Month.

Assessment of all registered events looked at originality of idea, relevance to health and safety and to their industry, promotion of events, and workplace engagement.

Winners were awarded either gold, silver or bronze awards.

Gold award winners

IKEA

(large organisation with over 200 employees)

IKEA went way above and beyond with their month long safety awareness campaign. Promoting different topics each week. Giving special focus to different departments in the organisation, allowing staff to nominate safety champions and offering prizes to make activities fun and engaging.

Sutterby Electrical

(small organisation less than 30 employees)

Sutterby focussed on the link between diet and mental health. With presentations from physical and mental health specialists and buying their staff a healthy lunch!

Silver award winners

RAA

(large organisation with over 200 employees)

RAA produced their own safety video in-house specifically addressing risks and issues which their staff encounter. A great resource that will have a long-life span, and a great effort put in to the production.

Master Builders SA

(small-medium organisation under 100 employees)

Masters Builders asked their apprentices to provide a “safety” motto competition to get them thinking about what makes a workplace safe and how to keep yourself safe whilst on the job.

Bronze award winners

Korvest

(large organisation under 200 employees)

Korvest provided free, onsite and confidential worker health checks for their workers. The checks included:

• Blood Profiling With Cardiochek machine (“pin prick” test)
• Lipid Profile Cholesterol (Total CHOL)
• Blood sugar (GLUC)

McLaren Vintners

(small organisation less than 30 employers)

McLaren Vintners had a snake catcher come out to speak about snake awareness, identification of the different types, how to be safe if you come in to contact with a snake and also first aid.

He spoke about the importance of ensuring your workplace (or home) is set up in a way that prevents snakes from making it their home. All staff found it extremely beneficial not only from a workplace perspective but also taught them how to stay safe at home. They would very much recommend that all workplaces, especially wineries, undertake this training.

Martyn Campbell, Executive Director SafeWork SA said, “I commend the South Australian businesses who registered and participated in the 2020 competition”.

“This year has been a challenging year for businesses, and now more than ever, it is important to keep workplace health and safety at the forefront of people’s mind.

I have been impressed with the creativity and bespoke nature of the winning entries for this year’s competition”, said Mr Campbell.