The document summarizes CBH Group's journey to transform its safety culture and improve safety performance. With guidance from DuPont, CBH implemented a three phase approach over two years to change attitudes, integrate safety into its strategy and culture, and increase team engagement. This led to a 62.5% reduction in injuries and improved employee engagement. CBH believes safety and productivity can be improved together, and it achieved record harvests while strengthening its safety culture.

1. In the early days of its history, Cadbury Brothers was a family business in the widest
sense of the word with the employees being thought of as part of the family. With
the expansion of the business, a more formal management structure evolved in
1905, and works committees were set up to deal with matters concerning working
conditions, health, safety, education, training and the social life of the workers
Driving Business Results
through Improvements in
Safety Performance
The Highlights
• 62.5% reduction in Loss Time Injury Frequency rate (LTIFR) from 2009 to 2012.
• CBH’s safety transformational journey has brought consistency, standardisation
and process discipline to the overall business performance.
• Effective safety programs contributed to improved workforce engagement.
“I came to learn early on that improving safety at CBH was not about
implementing new rules but it was about changing hearts and minds.
This is a lot harder; it takes time and doesn’t yield the immediate results
you are striving for. As incidents occurred our immediate reaction was to
write a rule. Du Pont helped us understand the responsibility of leaders
and translating good intent into actions and behaviours”
Andrew Crane CEO and Chief of Safety.

2. A Challenging Landscape
The CBH Group2
, one of Australia’s leading grain organisations,
has traditionally prioritised operational excellence though they
faced challenges in balancing productivity and safety goals. Such
challenges are typical within the agriculture industry in Australia,
where workplace incidents can often be viewed as a normal
part of doing business. Despite a collective national effort, the
agriculture industry has shown the least improvement; and this
has been identified as a priority for safety and health improvement
by the Australian Government3
.
When Chief Executive Officer Andrew Crane took tenure of the
executive office in 2009, he informed his team that he could no
longer accept workers being hurt. He set a goal for the CBH Group
to sustain growth and become a world-class safety organisation
by 2014; the vision being to develop a culture where everyone
takes responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their
colleagues. CBH senior managers knew they wanted to achieve a
safety record better than that of industry peers. Despite their best
intentions, achieving the vision to be world-class would not be an
easy journey. The management team had several challenges:
• A general industry acceptance that work place injuries are a
part of doing business.
• The CBH culture was focused on excellence in productivity,
not recognising the impact safety could have on improving
overall business performance, therefore safety was
relegated to a secondary consideration.
• Unpredictable weather patterns affecting the capacity to
produce enough supply and as a result there is a constant
pressure on productivity and volatile production conditions.
• The seasonality of the business and the significant use of a
large casual workforce.
• The management team lacked the required skills and
capabilities to train and coach inexperienced casual workers
during peak harvest time.
The management team acknowledged that a lot of effort would be
required for the task at hand.
2
The CBH Group (CBH) also known as Cooperative Bulk Handling Limited is Australia’s biggest
co-operative organisation. With 80 years of grower-ownership, it is a major force in Australian
agriculture and the biggest employer of the agrarian population in Western Australia (WA).
3 National OHS Strategy 2002-2012 - The National strategy for Occupational Health and Safety is
an Australian Government initiative to improve Australia’s health and safety performance.
“The movement from intent to embedded
behavioural change has led to a continued and
lasting improvement in our safety record across the
business. This change in mindset came in stages;
firstly understanding that we had to put safety
ahead of productivity. Once we did that, we made
some really great decisions that I now believe are
actually delivering better productivity. The second
fundamental change in mindset came with a
genuine belief that all incidents can be prevented
and that zero harm is actually achievable”.
Dr Andrew Crane, CEO and Chief of Safety

3. CBH Transforms Its Safety Culture
To achieve their vision and goals, the CEO took on the role of
Chief Safety Officer, the Executive Team became the Safety
Board and CBH engaged DuPont to work with them to build the
necessary strategies, skills, knowledge and tools. CBH’s safety
culture transformation involved a three phase approach that
spanned two years.
Initially, to understand the attitudes and behaviours of the
employees, including casuals and contractors, DuPont conducted
diagnostic assessments that included the DuPont Safety
Perception Survey and site evaluations. Based on the results of
these assessments, DuPont worked with CBH to:
• Develop a detailed and tailored improvement plan for a
safety culture transformation.
• Integrate safety into the organisation’s business strategy,
structure and culture. The structural changes were
supported by in the field training and coaching that included
conducting safety interactions and quality incident
investigations as well as leadership coaching for CBH leaders.
• Increase team engagement by developing effective
interpersonal and leadership skills to equip managers
with the capability to understand, feel and demonstrate
their commitment to safety.
CBH committed to improve its safety culture by developing
Safety Values, Principles and Life Savings Rules, which reflected
the needs of their business. 40,000 hours of field training
occurred in the first year alone and the business increased its
investment in safety, team resources and a dedicated safety
capital budget. Safety performance was captured and monitored
by CBH’s investment in a new IT system.
Virginia Miltrup, General Manager of Corporate Services
acknowledged that she was challenged by the concept of a
safety interaction that required gaining commitment from staff
“I was really conscious about reinforcing the safety learning,
gaining staff acceptance and agreement to act safely for the
future. This concept was new to me”, recalls Virginia of her first
safety interaction.
The belief that an injury free work environment is possible is
often one of the hardest concepts to accept. “Some people still
struggle with that today. But we never stop trying to get our
employees to understand that it is possible to have an injury
free work environment” says Nigel Gravett, CBH Network
Engineering Manager.
Through a conscious decision to change and visible leadership,
CBH shifted its mindset from a production focused organisation
to one with the belief that business performance including
productivity, can be improved through a high performance
safety culture.

4. Improved Safety Performance
Drives An Increase In Productivity
The leadership and safety
commitments demonstrated by the
management team and staff led to
a significant improvement in injury
and incident rates, as well as CBH
business performance.
CBH has achieved a 62.5 per
cent reduction in Loss Time Injury
Frequency Rate (LTIFR) since 2009
and has been able to sustain it.
There was also an increase
in reporting and accurate
categorisation, resulting in
an increase in the Medically-
Treated Injury Frequency
Rate (MTIFR) as reflected in
Figure 2. Further to this, the
focus on reporting and the
implementation of effective
corrective actions and
effective communications of
the learning from incidents
have ensured sustainable
improvements in MTIFR since
quarter 3 of 2012 (Figure 2).
“I have learnt that you cannot get high productivity unless you
do it safely. Safety has got to come first. Before, our productivity
was good, but now our productivity is better because we are
doing it a lot safer”
Colin Tutt- General Manager Operations
Figure 1 CBH Safety Data from 2009 – June 2012 (LTIFR)
Figure 2 CBH Safety Data from 2009 – June 2012 (LTIFR and
MTIFR by month)
Jun
2013
2009 2010 2011 2012
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LTIFR
Linear (LTIFR)
DuPont Engagement starts
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00

5. CBH’s achievements are the result of the belief that each
individual in the organisation is responsible and accountable for
the safety of themselves and each other i.e. of the collective.
The visible action where employees have direct ownership and
responsibility for safety outcomes is a demonstration of ‘felt’
leadership, which is a term DuPont defines as an individual’s
public proclamation of an organisation’s commitment to
caring about people. This kind of leadership nurtures trust,
engagement, and relationships among employees, shareholders
and the wider communities4
.
CBH also introduced a values-based management program
called One CBH. One part of which integrated safety as a value
into the CBH values framework. Combined with the one CBH
program; the safety transformation program resulted in a 40%
improvement in employee engagement from 2010. Safety was
frequently cited by employees as a key engagement driver.
Although CBH considers their safety improvement as modest,
the improvement occurred while CBH was managing its largest
harvest on record in 20125
. CBH achieved a year in which good
safety and good business went hand in hand. “It is no accident
that the sites that are most safe are the most productive sites.
They know where the equipment is, they know their operations.
It makes for better business” says Andrew Crane – CEO.
The results of improved safety performance have also
extended to the improvement of CBH’s supply chain efficiency.
“This safety journey has helped us bring more consistency,
standardisation and process discipline to our workplace; it helps
bring some more operational discipline to the overall business
performance” says Colin Tutt - GM Operations.
Continuous improvement for future growth
There is a strong desire and belief that the organisation
can sustain the great results it has achieved. Whilst CBH
acknowledges that there are still more improvements to be
made, the leaders and senior executives have begun to realise
the significant benefits of an integrated safety culture.
In just over two years, CBH has cultivated a culture with a
strong value for safety. Furthermore, there is a shift to line
management accountability where there is a willingness to
strive for improvement from the top down.
“We have come a long way in two years, but it is still early
days. With DuPont’s guidance, we have put the building
blocks in place and we have got the vision to take us there.”
Andrew Pittway, Group Safety and Environment Manager.
“We are grower owned cooperative,
therefore we need to return value and
one way we do that is by demonstrating
our value for safety, and helping our
growers improve theirs.”
Mick Daw – Esperance Zone Manager
4
Melodie A. Schweitzer- Creating a safety culture through felt Leadership
5
In 2012, CBH received and handled 15 million tonnes of grain.

6. Copyright (c) 2013, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. All rights reserved. The DuPont logo, DuPont(TM) and the miracles of science(TM) are registered trademarks of DuPont.
“Never stop trying and never
think that we have got to the
level that you think it is okay
to sit back and relax; because
the day we do that, would be
the day we hurt someone”
Nigel Gravett Network Engineering Manager
To discuss how DuPont can help
improve your business operations, please contact us:
Toll free: 1800 252 992
+61 2 9923 6111
Email: dupontsustainablesolutions@dupont.com
Or visit our website at:
www.sustainablesolutions.dupont.com
Driving Business Results through Improvements
in Safety Performance
About The CBH Group
The CBH Group, established in Western Australia about 80
years ago, is integrated grain storage, handling and marketing
co-operative controlled by growers for their benefit and the
benefit of the grain industry in Western Australia. CBH is
Australia’s biggest co-operative and a leader in the Australian
grain industry, with operations extending along the value
chain from grain storage, handling and transport to marketing,
shipping and processing. Owned and controlled by around
4,300 grain grower enterprises, the core purpose of the CBH
Group is to create and return value to growers.
Visit CBH: www.cbh.com.au
About DuPont Sustainable Solutions
DuPont Sustainable Solutions is a global consulting, training
and technology licensing business that helps transform
workplaces and work cultures to become safer, more efficient
and environmentally sustainable. As an owner-operator
company, our real-world and owner operator experience is
manifest in our capability to inspire and facilitate the cultural
changes and productivity improvements required to achieve
the goals for over a thousand clients world-wide.
“We have come a long way in two years, but it is still early days.
With DuPont’s guidance, we have put the building blocks in place and we have
got the vision to take us there.”
Andrew Pittway the Group Safety and Environment Manager.
The CBH Logo is a registered trademark of CBH
®