I’m pleased to announce that WorkSafe has extended the pilot of Safetree’s Toroawhi/worker engagement champions initiative for a further six months, to the end of June 2021.
This extension is a welcome endorsement of the work the Toroawhi have done since they were appointed at the start of the year, despite the challenges presented by Covid-19.
An independent assessment of their work in the first half of the year showed that despite the Covid-19 lockdown, Toroawhi Richard Stringfellow and Wade Brunt have managed to engage with a diverse group of stakeholders. This includes crews, companies, industry forums, ITOs, community groups and news media.
Feedback is that these stakeholders appreciate their independence, extensive industry knowledge, and ability to work with people at all levels, including new and young workers, and Māori. They enable a safe environment for people to open-up and discuss sensitive issues.
The review suggested focus areas for the second part of the pilot, including more work with silviculture crews, more sharing of insights, and more engagement with Iwi.
These early findings are encouraging and helpful, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else our Toroawhi can achieve over the coming months of this pilot.
If you want to get in touch, please email them:
richard@safetree.nz (Central North Island region)
wade@safetree.nz (Tairāwhiti /Gisborne region)
Safer, smarter fleet management
Watch this video and find out how safer vehicles and tools to encourage safer driving can improve safety and productivity.
Driving is one of forestry’s critical risks. Forestry people drive long distances on varying types of roads.
Newer vehicles have features that help prevent crashes and also protect workers if an accident occurs. The video also talks about smart ways to finance fleet upgrades.
Driver behaviour is the other side of the story. The video talks about software products that can help workers improve the quality of their driving. These tools improve safety and also help cut vehicles costs.
Latest health and safety performance dashboard
See the latest Safetree Health and Safety Performance dashboard for the plantation forestry industry. Note, normally the dashboard is presented quarterly. However, disruptions due to Covid-19 meant we were unable to produce a dashboard in March. So, the latest dashboard covers two quarters.
Review of Safetree Contractor Certification
Our Contractor Certification programme is now a couple of years old. So, we are running a review to look at how we can improve it.
The review will particularly focus on costs, improving the software that supports the programme, and the quality of customer service. It will also look at how we can add a ‘stretch’ element to certification for contractors who want to continuously improve their performance.
We’d welcome your feedback about the programme – email us at info@safetree.nz
Pilot of Phase 2 of Safetree Leadership workshops
We are piloting Phase 2 of our Safetree Leadership Workshops for foremen and other frontline leaders.
These workshops are an opportunity to reflect on the leadership skills discovered in the first session, and to explore new, more advanced skills. This includes introducing real-time mentoring and coaching skills which you can take away into the workplace, family home and community to help influence success.
The next Phase 2 workshop will be 8 – 9th December in Rotorua. We will be rolling out Phase 3 early in the new year.
It you are interested in doing one of the workshops in future please email info@safetree.nz
Sign up for free to the KYND Wellness App
The KYND Wellness App helps empower people to look after their own health. It lets you store your health information on your phone, gives you information on how to look after your wellbeing and sends you notifications about ‘red or orange flags’ that need to be followed up with a health professional.
FISC, with support from the Forest Growers Levy Trust, has provided funding so the App can be used by forestry people by entering this code, N8FISC.
There is a separate code for Certified Contractors – if you haven’t received your code email us at info@safetree.nz
See more about the App on the Safetree website, including now to download it.
Safetree Conference – Connect for Success
The move to Level 1 across the country is encouraging news for the upcoming Safetree Conference – Connect for Success – which takes place in Wellington on 19 and 20 November. We’ve had healthy registrations for the conference, which was postponed from March.
If you’d like to attend, register on the FICA website.
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