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Our foundation for managing safety is the premise that all injuries are preventable, and that the only acceptable goal is zero lost time injuries. Our ‘Safety First’ strategic initiative provides the basis on which we will improve our safety culture and performance, towards our defined target of zero lost time injuries. Our HSE Strategy is built on four cornerstones which are leadership, a systematic approach, continually building an active HSE culture and safe workplaces and equipment, as shown below.
We have continued to build on our 2008-2010 HSE Strategy by strengthening our safety leadership capability, fostering a strong safety culture, improving the effectiveness of our safety management system, and managing risks associated with workplaces and equipment.
AGL’s key HSE risks include contact with fixed or moving plant, slips/trips, psychological injury, collisions with moving objects, flammable gas, electricity and customer contact hazards in our retail business. We manage these risks by operational processes and control, and management supervision.
Our HSE management system, known as Life Guard, documents our framework of policies, standards, guidelines and management practices for consistent and continuous improvement in health, safety and environmental performance, and is a key element of our legal compliance. Life Guard is based on the requirements of:
We have a strong continuous improvement culture demonstrated by our responsiveness to internal and external audits of safety systems and performance. Audit findings are reflected in both local action plans and improvements to the management system, strategic direction and safety programs. During 2008/09 we conducted audits at 16 locations, covering six mandatory components of the management system plus components selected by the business unit being audited.
A review of key HSE risks and opportunities for improvement was also undertaken. Nine priority areas were identified for improvement of which seven were associated with Life Guard: risk management, permit-to-work, contractor safety management, incident investigation, injury management, incident database upgrade, and communications.
The remaining two priority areas were safety culture and retail business transformation. Project plans to address each priority area have been developed and will be implemented during 2009/10.
At AGL, strong and developed safety leadership is a cornerstone of achieving our medium-term goal of zero lost time injuries. An effective safety culture requires commitment, accountability and continuous reinforcement from all levels of management, including the Board of Directors.
Safety is the first item in the monthly Performance Report distributed to the AGL Board.
Board sponsorship of safety continues with the quarterly meeting of the Safety, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Board Committee. This Committee has reviewed and provided direction on such topics as audit findings and recommendations, strategic priorities and incident performance. Each meeting has included a site visit to help the Committee members keep in touch with safety and sustainability issues in practice across our operations. The Executive Team meets monthly, with HSE as the first item of business at each meeting. Similarly, senior leadership team meetings in Retail, Merchant, Upstream Gas and Corporate all meet regularly and each discusses HSE as the first item of business. Other leaders are encouraged to include HSE as a starting agenda item for their team meetings.
Strong leadership is necessary to deliver a strong safety culture. During 2008/09 we increased the level of safety leadership capability throughout AGL.
In 2008/09, the AGL Leadership Capabilities Framework was developed to define the requirements for leadership success at AGL. The framework includes two specific safety-related capabilities under the leadership imperative of ‘Protecting People’: demonstrating visible commitment and building accountability for safety. These capabilities are supported by specific behavioural examples relevant to frontline supervisors, leaders and the Executive Team. The leadership capabilities are embedded in AGL position descriptions and leaders’ demonstration of these capabilities is measured through our performance management processes. Capability building has commenced through Leadership in Action training programs, designed to support and improve leadership success at AGL.
In addition, safety leadership skills are included in our leadership coaching program, Coach in a Box.
During 2008/09, AGL commissioned an independent external review of the effectiveness of our safety management system and the structure of our HSE team. The review identified that the existing HSE organisational structure limited our ability to effectively develop and deliver consistent HSE strategy. As a result, Project HSE Reshape was implemented in 2008/09 to restructure HSE roles and responsibilities and to recruit additional HSE capability. Phase 1 of Project HSE Reshape is now complete delivering such benefits as clarified reporting lines, clear accountabilities, and balanced and targeted resources to supporting our key HSE risk areas. Phase 1 has also focused on ensuring that there are relevant skills within the HSE Team to provide operational support to the business and to deliver on strategic objectives.
Phase 2 of Project HSE Reshape centres around the environmental aspects of the HSE management system and the accountability for environmental management across the organisation. Further detail is provided in the Environmental Management section of this report.
Recognising that all employees play a role in managing their own safety, we have continued to focus on our safety culture. In 2007/08 we refreshed our three-step risk assessment called 'Look Think Act', supported by training and communications. In 2008/09, we continued to embed the Look Think Act process and further reinforced personal accountability for safety by extending our practice of undertaking Safety Observations across the whole business. Safety Observations are a simple process of observing people as they perform their work and then engaging them in discussion to reinforce safe behaviour and to understand the reasons for, and change, unsafe behaviour.
We use these Safety Observations to promote behaviour consistent with our HSE policies and procedures, underpinned by our leader Safety Observation training which will continue during 2009/10.
Our new employees and contractors are introduced to the safety culture at AGL through the delivery of induction and HSE management system (Life Guard) training. In the 12 months to June 2009, 2,376 (over 99%) of new employees, transferees and contractors completed the on-line HSE induction.
AGL establishes annual HSE action plans for each business unit to facilitate the implementation of AGL’s HSE strategy at the business unit level. In 2008/09, these action plans covered:
100% of the actions within the 2008/09 HSE Action Plans were completed. HSE action plans for 2009/10 have been established.
In 2009/10, we will measure our base-line safety culture through an independent safety culture survey, and will track performance of safety culture development through quarterly self assessment against five leading indicators. These are: safety observations, behaviour trends, behavioural management, incident investigation and safety committees.
In addition managing our HSE systems, culture and leadership, we also need to manage the physical risks in our work environment. Workplace risk assessments have been undertaken at operational sites, resulting in significant capital expenditure to reduce and mitigate risks. Examples include the installation of gates to restrict access to hazardous areas at Torrens Island Power Station, replacing heavy gates to reduce risk of musculo-skeletal injury, the adjustment of safety barriers and/or tools associated with managing equipment to reduce the risk of inadvertent contact with live electrical terminals, and investment in ergonomic work stations in offices.
At 30 June 2009, there were seven HSE Committees in place with 27 employee representatives. From time to time other HSE committees will be formed for the duration of construction projects.
AGL has taken an organisational approach to promote the value of good health. The Wellbeing @ AGL program incorporates six key wellbeing areas – physical, emotional, social, financial, creative and spiritual.
Through this program, employees are supported in the management of their health and wellbeing and are provided with access to a comprehensive range of programs, services and benefits.
The Wellbeing Strategy links the Wellbeing @ AGL program to the AGL Values, People and Culture initiatives, HSE Action plans and contributes to employee engagement. An employee survey was conducted during the year and is proving valuable for identifying future initiatives to enhance the program.
This year, a six-part Wellbeing @ AGL manual was sent to all employees with topics ranging from emotional, nutritional and physical resilience, work life balance as well as time and sleep management. Workplace-based weight loss programs proved popular at six sites with two sites running a second program. An AGL walking challenge was a success with over 850 employees from all AGL sites participating in the six-week team based challenge.
The continuation of the employee assistance service, provision of workplace fruit and financial discounts on private health insurance were well utilised by AGL employees. The annual flu vaccination program was well received with over 750 employees participating in the 2008/09 program. All sites are enjoying the AGL Book Club, which offers a 50% discount on nominated new releases books every two months. Over 300 titles have been ordered during 2008/09.
AGL uses a company-wide on-line incident reporting system, IRIS, which reports and tracks work related injuries and illnesses, as well as near misses, hazards, motor vehicle, property and asset-related incidents. Although this reporting system has served us well in recent years, more comprehensive incident management software is now available to help understand the nature and cause of our injuries and assist in our prevention efforts. Planning has commenced to install an upgraded safety database, which will offer improvement in root cause analysis of incidents and tracking of aspects of the incident management process. This will be complemented by a wider review of safety IT systems to enhance our ability to capture and track other safety performance measures.
Our safety performance is measured using trailing indicators, based on reported safety incidents. Our safety performance during 2008/09 comprised:
AGL has a medium-term goal of achieving zero lost-time injuries. As a step towards this goal, AGL set and exceeded a target to reduce the LTIFR to 3.0 for 2008/09 from 3.6 in 2007/08. This sets the stage for a further reduction in LTIFR in 2009/10 to 2.0.
Analysis of incident characteristics over the last two years has identified that the increase in duration rate reflects an increase of ‘emotional related’ incidents.
We have continued the delivery of Emotional Wellbeing, Fair Treatment and Life Guard training courses, and we are continuing to promote the use of the Employee Assistance Program as a key benefit, which provides personal counselling support for employees and their families.
The number of medical treatment injuries at our high-risk sites has stayed constant, but there has been an increase of three medical treatment injuries in our retail business. These injuries were ergonomic related. This is being addressed by a range of activities including undertaking ergonomic assessments for all new employees and including ergonomic considerations in office design.
There has been no common factor in these incidents to suggest an increase in the risk associated with the physical work environment. As such, the increase in physical injuries in office areas is thought to be indicative of the decrease in risk awareness by individuals as a result of ongoing organisational changes.
In 2009/10, AGL will also track behavioural safety management against lead performance indicators.
1Average number of days lost across 12 months.
