Rosond's Safety Drive adopted by all employees for reduced risk
Rosond – a company focused on providing fast, efficient, safe and cost-effective drilling and grouting services – has taken its risk mitigation to a whole new level. Launched on 1 November, Rosond’s Safety Drive is a targeted project that parallels the safety initiative announced by client Anglo American for the same period.
“We model our OHS efforts on those of our high-end mining clients so it made perfect sense to commit ourselves to a niche safety programme that would not only complement what we enforce on a daily basis, but further enhance our aggressive approach towards proactively addressing this issue,” says Rosond’s Operations Manager, Ricardo Ribeiro.
Ribeiro says that although the company has exhibited a sterling performance in terms of reduced lost time injuries (LTI), there is always room for improvement. “Until such time that we have a rating of zero LTI, we will continue to push harder to achieve improved safety standards. And, even when we achieve zero injuries, we will then need to maintain this level so the pressure to reduce risks is ever present.”
Ribeiro says that November was an ideal month in which to launch the Safety Drive. “People are tired as they head towards the last few working weeks in the year, and the temptation to take shortcuts is ever present. By encouraging our employees to carefully and safely assess each situation before making risky decisions, we believe we will be further able to decrease our LTI.”
Ribeiro says that Rosond’s safety team, in conjunction with senior management and on site staff, spent the first two weeks of November visiting sites to conduct scheduled presentations of the benefits of the Safety Drive to the employees. “These interactive sessions have been extremely successful and we have had positive and enthusiastic interaction with a number of employees,” says Rosond Safety Manager, Andre Kleynhans.
“The presentations, which were taken to 26 sites, took approximately an hour and we found that dialogue, rather than monologue was the order of the day. Most employees said that similar programmes should be instituted on a regular basis to optimise momentum and passion. Some of the sites raised specific issues that they felt could help to improve safety in terms of engineering and system changes we could make,” Kleynhans adds.
As an indication of their commitment to the Safety Drive specifically and a safe culture in general, all 1 900 Rosond employees wear a red bracelet emblazoned with the words ‘Rosond Safety’. “The red bracelet, which was given to the employees during the safety overview sessions, is a visual cue for employees to stop, think and assess before they act. It effectively serves as reinforcement to the information shared with them during their audiovisual presentations,” says Ribeiro.
Ribeiro adds that although the wearing of the bracelets is not compulsory after November, the feedback received from many of the employees is that they will continue to wear the bracelets with pride. “We were encouraged by the optimistic input from our employees and we are pleased that this Safety Drive is a concrete testament to our efforts to exhibit site safety leadership, both for the benefit both of our staff and our clients,” he concludes