Safety 360 Conference – 14th-15th March – Auckland, New Zealand
This week saw Kelvin TOP-SET tutor Jamie Simpson represent the company at the Safety 360 Conference in Auckland. Kelvin TOP-SET was proud to be sponsoring the biggest Health and Safety event in New Zealand which took place at the SKYCITY Convention Centre on the 14th-15th of March.
The conference was a comprehensive event that encompassed The Business Leaders Safety Summit, The HSNO Safety Summit, The Occupational Health Summit and The Health and Wellbeing Summit. Over 600 delegates were in attendance along with a number of exhibitors from various companies in the Asia Pacific Region.
New Zealand – You are 6 times more likely to be killed at work here than in the UK
New Zealand may only have a small population of less than 4.5 million people but it has the staggering statistic that you are 6 times more likely to be killed in the workplace here than in the UK. To try to reduce this shocking statistic, the New Zealand Government is introducing sweeping new Health and Safety legislation. Understandably, there is a lot of fear and confusion within businesses in anticipation of these new changes in legislation.
Improving Safety Systems
Through a series of talks, seminars and open discussion groups, the Safety 360 conference helped to allay some of these fears, and demonstrated that the top executives of the major companies in New Zealand are committed to improving safety systems and ultimately to making it a safer and more productive nation to work in.
Essentially, this strategy of improving safety systems sits very well with what Kelvin TOP-SET has been championing for over 30 years; that a robust health and safety system not only helps to improve safety but also increases productivity, business performance and profitability. As Process Safety expert Trevor Kletz often said “There is an old saying; f you think safety is expensive, try having an accident.”
New wide-ranging laws being implemented on the 4th of April, offer New Zealand business leaders the opportunity to develop new and improved safety systems in the country. It was mentioned several times that Kiwis are recognised as being innovators, and several of the presentations suggested that, driven by the need to comply with the new legislation, there is an opportunity for New Zealand to propel itself to the forefront of Health and Safety around the globe. There is also the opportunity to look at the mistakes other countries have previously made whilst implementing new systems, and to learn from these, in order to save time and to then create superior systems.
Top Presentations at the Safety 360 Conference
Notable presentations at the conference were;
- Trish Kerin, Director of the IchemE Safety Centre in Australia who spoke about the purpose of safety leadership. Trish has an extensive background in process engineering and looked at detailed examples from major incidents around the globe.
- Brett Haskins from Caterpillar Safety Services gave a great presentation on building total safety accountability and presented information in a simple jargon-free manner, something Kelvin TOP-SET would whole-heartedly recommend.
- Mike Masaar from The Department of Conservation delivered an informative presentation on the use of potential consequences as a performance indicator. Kelvin TOP-SET regularly emphasises the huge benefits of using potential consequences in incident investigation and Root Cause Analysis. This use of potential consequences highlights that even when an incident appears to be of minor significance, there may still be a need for a comprehensive investigation.
The Safety Leaders’ summit was chaired by Francois Barton, the Executive Director of the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum, he expertly summed up all the information and ensured that delegates were engaged at all times throughout the conference. Discussions were very beneficial and it was extremely invigorating to see a fresh approach to safety.
Kelvin TOP-SET helping New Zealand to achieve new Health & Safety goals
Every delegate at the conference also received a free trial of our e-RCA online learning course which offers a simple and economical way to roll out Root Cause Analysis training across any organisation. http://www.kelvintopset.com/e-learning
In summary, this was a great event which Kelvin TOP-SET were very pleased to have been invited to sponsor. We hope to be able to offer our 30 years of experience in this area to assist some of the companies who attended the event and in turn to play a part in New Zealand’s advances in Health and Safety in the future.