| 11 T T Richard Loader Workplace Safety award reflects commitment Recognising and rewarding team members for being proactive in promoting a safe work environment has been one of ODL’s key priorities. South Canterbury Business Awards: Oceania Dairy “We’ve worked extremely hard over the last five years, and our Health and Safety (H&S) strategy was very aspirational. We’re very proud of what we have achieved during this time.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Being awarded the Alpine Energy Excellence in Workplace Safety Award at this year’s South Canterbury Business Excellence Awards is a reflection of the high level of engagement from all of Oceania Dairy’s staff, says general manager Nera Gordon. “We’re a high-risk, multi-hazard workplace, employing over 400 people, plus many contractors that we need to keep healthy and safe. We’ve worked extremely hard over the last five years, and our Health and Safety (H&S) strategy was very aspirational. We’re very proud of what we have achieved during this time.” Located near Glenavy, on the border of South Canterbury and North Otago, Oceania Dairy Limited (ODL) is a state-of-the-art dairy manufacturing plant producing premium nutritional milk powders and long-life milk. Nera says recognising and rewarding team members for being proactive in promoting a safe work environment has been one of ODL’s key priorities. “We have multiple avenues for our people to be recognised for going above and beyond. There’s a recognition section in our daily operations meeting where anyone can be nominated for showing health and safety excellence. “Recognition nominations go to our H&S committee and a monthly H&S champion is decided, who receives a certificate and $100 voucher for making ODL a safer place to work.” An educational component added to H&S Representative (HSR) meetings focuses on relevant H&S topics to broaden skillsets and allow the HSRs to communicate valuable knowledge back to their teams. Recent topics covered have included emergency response, manual handling, injury management, and fatigue management. Sixteen internal online H&S courses have been developed to educate and support team members to be their safest each day. “We also have a Fit&Well@ODL programme that ensures we support our people in their health and wellbeing,” says Nera. “We have great success and fun supporting national initiatives such as Steptember, Movember, Aotearoa Ride and Shine Bike Challenge, plus many more. For all of these initiatives, we have lots of amazing prizes and get some great photos to share, which we use to promote health and wellbeing across site via our newsletters and posters.” ODL has also developed a robust discomfort management system that ensures all team members feel supported both in and out of work, with a physiotherapist onsite weekly to provide personalised treatment plans for both work and non-work discomforts and injuries. A Medical Response Team (MRT) comprised of people from all departments in various roles has advanced emergency care training. “This team bridges the gap in our site being rurally located. Our MRT can be the first on the scene to provide immediate aid before professional services arrive. “We’re very proud of the way we work to manage potential emergency scenarios on site. We engage with FENZ to support our people’s training needs, while also improving their knowledge of the site. “This allows them to operate without restriction and with confidence of the hazards within our plants. We run multiple emergency response scenarios annually, which helps our people practise dealing with potential events and gives us the opportunity to improve our processes.” Industrial Controls South Canterbury are proud to support Oceania Dairy
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