InfraBuild’s commitment to environmental, social, and corporate governance was celebrated at the inaugural 2023 ASI Steel Sustainability Awards. The road to sustainability through good health and safety initiative has reshaped InfraBuild’s culture across its several worksites. The program took out the award for company or project initiative – large business.
Prioritising health and safety is crucial for achieving sustainability. A workplace that prioritises health and safety cultivates a culture of trust, care and responsibility, fostering teamwork, reducing the likelihood of incidents, and promoting overall wellbeing. Employees are more likely to be engaged and feel valued, which contributes to job satisfaction and long long term commitment.
Between 2019 and 2022, over 400 World Steel Association members lost their lives because of work-related incidents.
CEO and Executive Director of InfraBuild Francisco Irazusta believes the health and wellbeing of people within the company is paramount.
“At InfraBuild, we believe one injury is one too many. No task, target or activity is more important than the safety of our team. At InfraBuild, we take psychosocial safety just as seriously as physical safety.”
InfraBuild took matters into its own hands. In 2020, the company began a transformative journey towards a better workplace culture. To drive this transformation, a comprehensive roadmap was developed, known as the WRIB (We are InfraBuild) Safe Way.
Underpinning this are four strategic pillars with the overarching goal of creating a world-class safety culture and safety performance:
- enabling performance
- critical incident prevention
- interdependent safety culture
- fit for work and fit for life
“We’ve been on a journey to reshape our safety culture since 2020. It is about the behaviour, it’s our approach to safety that is most transformative,” Irazusta said.
The company has reported a 300 per cent increase in the number of interventions from 2021 to 2023.
“We did this by giving our team the tools and the training, 95 per cent of employees have been trained in our behavioural safety program, Safety Connect.”
Internal leaders delivered the Safety Connect program to all levels of the organisation across a series of face-to-face seminars. It focussed on the impacts and mechanisms of incidents, and the lines of defence in how to prevent or respond to situations that may end in an error.
An automated electronic report is sent to all leaders daily, with all relevant safety entries from the previous day for them to discuss in the pre start meetings, including at risk behaviours, unsafe conditions, and incidents.
The daily report focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘what’ rather than the ‘who’ to emphasise the organisational learnings and avoid any perception of blame.
The intergenerational nature of the program puts the onus on all members of the organisation. It supports InfraBuild’s five-year plan to achieve premiere safety performance by 2025.
Irazusta said employees at all levels are using their confidence to speak up, listen, intervene, and take part in the pursuit towards ongoing development.
“No matter who you are in the organisation, we have created a culture of trust where people are empowered to speak up and intervene if they seek someone working unsafe or at risk.”
More employees are reporting potential situation in which an error may be on the cards. As such, the company has recorded a 51 per cent spike in the number of hazards reported proactively year-on-year.
Sixty-four per cent of people reporting error-prone behaviour are identified as ‘unique’. This means more people are reporting risks more frequently, whether they are leaders, or work floor operators.
“I’m very proud of what the team has achieved. I am very humbled for obtaining this award from the ASI; we really appreciate it,” Irazusta said.
