Keeping staff safe has never been more important, and the pandemic has shone a brighter light on workplace WHS. When we are judging for these awards if we see breaches of WHS it’s an instant disqualification. We are delighted that we now have an award, which was suggested and sponsored by Glasurit, that recognises businesses which go the extra mile to keep their teams safe. Our inaugural winner is an excellent example of how to set up any shop to make it a place where your team want to work.
Northshore BMW and Macarthur Prestige have a huge advantage having Tammy O’Donnell on the team. She previously worked for over 30 years as a safety consultant in both government and private industry. Their safety system, including policies and procedures can be adapted to any panel shop although a range of factors would need to be considered following a site inspection and risk assessment which is a critical part of developing the framework.
“Collision repair is a high risk industry,” says Tammy, “you have to find the money if a staff member or a customer gets injured; so it is a small investment first up to be proactive rather than reactive.”
By setting up a safety board at each workshop, staff are fully involved in forming the policies and procedures used at each shop. To begin the process Tammy set up a Risk Register. Every piece of equipment, every job task is listed on the register, then a risk category is assigned to each item.
Strategies are then designed for the use of each bit of equipment or in the carrying out of each task that minimises or prevents injuries to either staff or customers. Over time they have developed over 60 safe work procedures for the in-house equipment including Covid sanitation processes.
Triple accounting is used whereby safe work practices, policies and procedures are written for staff, customers and the environment. All personal protective equipment is listed and Tammy’s register has flags that pop up when a PPE’s use-by date has been reached.
For the staff there are incentives to follow the proper work practices and an open door policy if anyone has a suggestion to make things better. “Staff appreciate management taking their health and welfare seriously,” says Tammy.
Glenn and Tammy O’Donnell at the Northshore BMW shop.