Health, safety and wellbeing

Our safety culture

We continuously analyze our safety programs for commitment and compliance to eliminate, minimize and control risk. We have cultivated a culture within the organisation where health and safety are entrenched and everyone takes responsibility for keeping each other safe. We have improved performance across all our safety metrics and, since 2014, we have had zero lost-time injuries to employees and contractors. This success can be attributed to a combination of communication, training, clear guidelines and expectations.

Shared responsibility for safety

Our safety-first culture starts with our leadership and is based on a premise of ‘see something, say something’ that encourages safety-first thinking. Modelling and instilling a high level of engagement and personal accountability has created safe workplaces throughout our organization. We equip our employees with the know-how and resources to make informed, rational decisions that help improve the safety of their work and home life.

Continual improvement

Our safety approach relies on non-complacency and continual improvement. Since 2018, we have invested over $1.9 million in capital initiatives for safety enhancements. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic showed us we could do more to provide cleaner air to our people, so we invested in improved ionic air filtration to achieve this. We focus on high-risk areas, always seeking to optimize our pedestrian walkways for safety and looking closely at dust mitigation safeguards and electrical safety.

ABFI Safety and Recognition

As part of the wider ABFI group, we follow the ABFI Safety Essentials. Our PGPI safety procedures align with and expand on this framework specific to our sites’ risks and needs. All operational managers are trained to help ingrain behaviors and ensure that safety continues to be automatic and habitual.

PGPI is proud to have received either a Most Outstanding or Outstanding award for Safety every year since the ABFI Health, Safety and Environment awards were created in 2018. It is well-deserved recognition for individuals and teams in PGPI who go above and beyond in championing and implementing safety practices.

Risk management and hazard identification

All our employees are trained on the appropriate PPE and risk management while managers and key personnel participate in advanced risk training. This covers safety practices and explores opportunities to close gaps and review procedures. In particular, the program enables our managers to adjust internal training according to different employees’ learning styles and abilities. The Health and Safety team have also used the international NEBOSH approach to better identify hazards and assess risks across the business.

We seek to simplify auditing processes by using digital tools like iAuditor, which supports real-time information sharing.

Improving employee wellbeing

We take the mental health of our employees as seriously as their physical health. We train our employees on dealing with domestic and workplace violence and all our people have health plans with access to an Employee Assistance Program, an external organization that provides confidential support and advice. Additional examples of the programs offered are: weight loss, smoking cessation, and the ‘Lark’ program, which includes a sleep and movement tracker, digital scale and a motivation coach.

Enhancing working environments

Our employee wellbeing approach goes beyond putting the proper support in place in times of need. We have re-modelled our Woodland office to be more welcoming and collaborative. More activities that bring our people together on non-work-related events have ignited a community spirit among staff and encouraged a healthy work/life balance.