2. IN THIS SESSION
• Background
• Turning point
• The Pāmu Safety Forum
• Every worker
• … and their family
• Closing comments/Q&A
3. BACKGROUND
• State Owned Enterprise, formerly Dept. Lands & Survey
• Dairy and Livestock – from the Far North to Deep South
• Over 100 farms – constantly evolving
• History of marginal land developed into productive farms
• Over 700 workers, dynamic changes through seasonal peaks
• Transitioning to Pāmu Farms of New Zealand
LANDCORP FARMING/ PĀMU FARMS OF NEW ZEALAND
4. BACKGROUND
• We had a Safety Manual. Farmers didn’t have Safety Manuals
• We talked about Safety
• Adopted the ACC Partnership Program
• Started wearing orange clothes. That went down well at the
time
• Even started swapping out some quad bikes for side-by-sides
• Investigated incidents, worried about frequency rates,
harangued people when they got it wrong.
All in all, we were pretty good at the whole Safety thing……
Or at least we thought we were….
WE WERE PRETTY GOOD
5. THE TURNING POINT
• Three fatalities in six months – May 2015
• All preventable, two if a seat-belt had been worn
• What we thought was inconsistent with what we did and said
• We realised we were facing a massive cultural issue
• We had to challenge the belief among our people that injuries
are an unavoidable part of farming
DEATHS AND A SOBERING MOMENT OF TRUTH
“Our organisation went into shock. We had failed our
people and we had a crisis on our hands. As CEO, I felt
ill-equipped to deal with the situation. I was terrified
we could have another fatality and I wasn’t going to
be able to stop it.”
Steve Carden – Chief Executive
*Example only, not from an injury/fatality
6. THE TURNING POINT
1. Make Health and Safety mean something
No sugar coating – face the uncomfortable truths
2. Ensure the staff own Health and Safety
Compliance was not going to work, farmers needed the skills to manage
dynamic risk on the go
3. Focus on Critical Risks
Fix what actually matters, focus investment and effort on the things that hurt
most
4. Implement from the ground up
The old top-down approach had failed, workers needed to own the solutions
5. Maintain the sense of vulnerability
No, we can’t ‘stop talking about safety now’
6. Build a coalition of the willing
Agriculture Leaders H&S Action Group – Even the largest farmer can’t go it
alone
SIX TACTICS TO TURN THE TIDE
“We knew our health and safety
initiatives would only
succeed if they were supported
by farmers. Experience
had taught us that a top-down
approach won’t work
with them”
7. THE PĀMU SAFETY FORUM
• Conscious decision – we needed expertise, attitude, and most importantly,
mana.
• Depth and breadth – we needed leadership, technical, people and support skills
• Selections were ultimately made based on attitude, influence and integrity.
• Active effort to avoid the echo-chamber
• Understand what will/won’t work on farm
• Supplemented voices from Farm with expertise in H&S, Procurement, HR,
Leadership and Corporate Governance
• Natural cycle of membership, no fixed terms or set requirements
SELECTION VERSUS ELECTION – FORUM COMPOSITION
8. THE PĀMU SAFETY FORUM
1. Expensive undertaking – no sense in having our experts deliberate on low-
value issues.
2. Challenging the agenda and output – how does this benefit us?
3. Significant influence on outcome
4. Agenda ultimately flexible, if it feels right, keep going
5. Key Safety Expectations created, owned and championed by the Forum
CONTENT - MAKE IT COUNT, MAKE IT RELEVANT, MAKE IT WORTHWHILE
9. EVERY WORKER
1. 2 day Safety Leadership program for managers
2. 1 day All Employee program for everyone else
3. Focus on behaviour and culture, not on rules or processes
4. Designed to change thinking and attitude while giving skills and techniques to
enable sound decision making
5. Co-delivery model with specialist facilitators
6. Uses a mix of common and bespoke philosophy
7. Organisational Psychology at the heart of the undertaking
8. Positive response far above expectations
9. Developed into Pāmu Academy curriculum
WE COULD HAVE A FEW H&S REPS…. OR WE COULD HAVE EVERYONE
- ‘I honestly thought this was going to be ‘just
another safety course’. Happy to admit I was
wrong, this is great’
- ‘It’s really just good business… I could use this in the
shed tomorrow’
- ‘I was going to call HR to help me manage this
behaviour, I’m confident I can now do this myself’
10. …AND THEIR FAMILY
1. Next generation of farmers – how to encourage participation rather than
exclude, while maintaining appropriate risk management approach
2. Kids on Farm policy developed by Safety Forum
3. Several iterations, trying to strike the right note
4. Realisation that the Farm Manager is only part of the picture, the
parent/guardian at home has an equal or greater responsibility and influence
5. Tested with a selection of mums and dads
6. Leaves a degree of empowerment and authority with the supervising parent
and farm manager, while providing fundamental bottom lines
OUR FARMS ARE ALSO OUR HOMES
11. ARE WE THERE YET?
1. Farming remains an inherently risky undertaking
2. The fight against complacency never ends
3. The underlying feeling has changed, profoundly
4. Seeing ‘Every day safety conversations, at every level of the organisation’
NOT BY A LONG SHOT, BUT WE’RE IMPROVING EVERY DAY
