Safety initiatives
Key safety initiatives undertaken across the divisions during the year are detailed below.
Bunnings
Bunnings strives to provide a safe working environment to ensure everyone returns home safely.
Bunnings’ key focus is to eliminate fatalities, prevent work-related injuries, illnesses and incidents as well as protect and promote the wellbeing of all team members. Bunnings’ TRIFR was 17.0 for the period, compared to 16.5 in the prior corresponding period. The decline in performance was driven largely by manual handling incidents.
This financial year, Bunnings launched lifesaving controls to manage and mitigate product falling from heights, customer threatening situations and electrical exposure critical risks. This complements existing lifesaving controls already embedded for forklift and pedestrian interactions across all sites. Bunnings’ leaders verify implementation and embedment of the lifesaving controls biannually. The program and the effectiveness of controls are regularly reviewed to assess and monitor effectiveness.
To address the number of total recordable injuries, Bunnings introduced an improved three-year injury prevention program with the aim of further managing and mitigating injury risk. The program is underpinned by behavioural safety to guide team members and leaders to stop, think and act before commencing tasks that could result in an injury. The program encourages leaders to seek out and rectify injury hazards to make the workplace safer. Injury prevention principles have been developed and underpin cross functional activities to reduce the risk of sprain, strain, bruise, crush, fracture or laceration injuries.
Should a team member become injured, Bunnings is well resourced to provide a strong and compassionate program of support. This includes early intervention access to a nurse triage service, free doctor and physiotherapy services and a team of injury management advisors to promote recovery at work. During the year, Bunnings added resources for the management of workers’ compensation claims and adopted a full self-insurance program of work.
Protecting and supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of team members remains a high priority for Bunnings. Key activities this year included the design and implementation of a new fitness work-focused injury prevention program, the development of prevention-focused tools and resources for Bunnings leaders, and improved access and promotion of its free and confidential wellbeing support available to team members. Bunnings also continued to focus on the prevention and management of psychosocial hazards, with progress being led by cross-functional working groups tasked with monitoring and addressing identified hazards.
In the year ahead, Bunnings will continue to sharpen its focus on the prevention of fatalities, the elimination of work-related injuries and the ongoing protection and support of team member wellbeing.
Kmart
Kmart Group’s safety performance continued to improve with TRIFR reducing 12.2 per cent to 6.5, driven predominantly by Kmart Group’s alignment of safety processes and the introduction of the supported duties program into Kmart. Consolidation and simplification of the Kmart Group safety management system will continue to drive further improvements with a focus on hazard risk reduction initiatives targeting known injury causes.
Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers (WesCEF)
WesCEF strives to minimise risks
inherent in its operations and prioritise the safety and wellbeing of team
members, assets and neighbouring communities by focusing on operating safely,
and the continual adjustment of processes and procedures.
WesCEF’s operations present various
high potential (HiPo) risks which cannot be eliminated. For example, WesCEF
operates sites classified as Major Hazard Facilities, manufactures and
distributes a range of products including Dangerous Goods, handles corrosive
chemicals and relies on heavy vehicle distribution of materials. If the
controls established to manage HiPo risks are insufficient or ineffective, and
an event occurs, it is classified as a HiPo incident.
This year, WesCEF’s total recordable
injury frequency rate (TRIFR) was 2.7 compared to 3.8 last year, and there were
18 HiPo incidents compared to 26 in the previous year.
WesCEF aims to eliminate HiPo incidents through proactive safety
measures, such as having team members complete Critical Control (CC) checklists
before commencing high-risk tasks. Examples of the 63 CCs include
decontamination practices and vehicle pre-start inspections. In April 2024,
WesCEF trialled a Critical Control Verification Program (CCVP) to examine the
systems supporting each CC, such as whether training records are up-to-date or
personal protective equipment is adequate for the task. The CCVP will be rolled
out across WesCEF in the 2025 financial year 2025.
The introduction of positive duties in Western Australia’s Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 provided WesCEF with an opportunity to revisit its measures to prevent or minimise psychosocial injury. This year, WesCEF reviewed its psychosocial risk assessment and added further controls and actions, including implementing the WesCEF Respectful Workplaces Action Plan.
Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety (WIS)
At WIS, safety is the number one priority. The division maintains a relentless focus on providing safe workplaces – measuring safety performance and driving initiatives to mitigate fatal risk, prevent injuries and promote team member physical and psychological wellbeing.
The positive trending of the division’s TRIFR – down to 1.82 in the 2024 financial year from 3.3 last financial year – is evidence of its commitment and the success of its wide-ranging safety initiatives.
Underpinning its safety performance is the division’s First Aid First program – a robust early intervention and recovery program that has had a positive impact on team members and the business. Feedback from team members is that they feel supported in the workplace, with appropriate treatment provided and improved recovery rates for first aid-treatable injuries. This program features:
- annual internal support training for 170 first aid officers
- training tools, such as injury profiles for the most common workplace injuries, which provide information on signs and symptoms, causes, recommended first aid, pain management, expected recovery times and additional tips and suggestions
- annual internal frontline leader injury management training to enhance leader confidence regarding the division’s First Aid First approach
- quarterly safety newsletters and quick reference guides.
The division has adopted a Safety Interaction program that promotes visible safety leadership, engagement and behavioural improvement. Safety interactions have provided the senior leadership team with a measurable program that supports the safety agenda by facilitating team member conversations, coaching and risk mitigation opportunities.
Wesfarmers Health
The safety, health and wellbeing of team members is a priority at Wesfarmers Health.
In the 2024 financial year, Wesfarmers Health improved its performance through continued refinement of its systematic Risk Management Framework (Framework). The Framework aims to control risks inherent in operations to support team member safety and minimise risk exposure by focusing on the principles of people, process and place.
- People – empowered team members that proactively manage their wellbeing and apply safe behaviours to reduce risk
- Process – best practice systems that are guided by business needs and continuous improvement
- Place – an environment that sustainably supports safety and wellbeing for all team members and customers.
As a result of Wesfarmers Health’s focused efforts in applying the principles of people, process and place, fewer team members have been injured than in the previous financial year. This translates to a TRIFR of 4.6, which is a 30 per cent decrease from the 2023 financial year’s result.
Examples of key initiatives employed to achieve these outcomes include improvements to the Lead Indicator program and the commencement of a Critical Risk program.
- Lead Indicator program – Lead Indicators are designed to reduce recordable injuries by identifying, controlling and reviewing risks before incidents happen. In the Lead Indicator program, quality assurance processes were developed for key Lead Indicators across all Wesfarmers Health business units. These processes introduced tangible measures of quality to key Lead Indicators to ensure they are as effective as possible at managing risk and reducing recordable injuries.
- Critical Risk program – The Wesfarmers Health Critical Risk program was implemented in the 2024 financial year to catalogue, assess and confirm the risk controls that are critical to preventing ‘high consequence, low frequency’ events. The program creates a targeted layer of risk protection for team members required to complete tasks with a high level of inherent risk, such as those involving pedestrian/forklift interaction and working at heights.
The most common causes of recordable injuries in Wesfarmers Health during the 2024 financial year were lapses in attention resulting in injury and musculoskeletal injuries due to long-term repetitive actions.
A safety, health and wellbeing leadership program was completed across the API Wholesale business to improve safe behaviours and leadership through enhanced communication, coaching skills and a risk-focused approach to daily activities. The commencement of the program during the 2024 financial year forms part of a wider behavioural safety program being developed for the 2025 financial year.
Recordable musculoskeletal injuries were typically associated with long-term industry tenure in completing repetitive tasks over many years. Controls were implemented to address this trend, including the introduction of new equipment to reduce load on the body, revised break schedules and a 'dynamic stretching' program for team members. Injury trends will be monitored to assess risk control effectiveness.
OneDigital
OneDigital is committed to the health, safety and wellbeing of its team members and creating an environment where team members are safe and supported in their health, safety and wellbeing.
After a positive first half with no recordable incidents, the key safety measure, total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) for Catch was 10.01 in the 2024 financial year. The change in Catch TRIFR was driven by seven incidents in the second half, combined with a near-halving in worked hours over the reporting year compared to the prior year. TRIFR remains at zero for OnePass and OneData.
Achievements in the financial year include:
- Traffic management plans across Catch fulfilment centres were updated to improve separation between pedestrians and mobile plant vehicles, and team member retraining on correct use of mobile plant, including updates to pre-start checklists
- Improved housekeeping practices leading to fewer trips and slips at Catch fulfilment centres as a result of actions undertaken through the Lean Six Sigma (Continuous Improvement) Accreditation program.
- Creation of new online training modules to support Catch team member understanding of hazards, near misses and incidents.
- The introduction of a task rotation program to minimise repetitive movement injuries, as well as a manual handling training program led by an on-site physiotherapist.
- OneDigital partnered with Medibank to deliver seven Work Better, Live Better sessions focused on supporting team members’ personal health and wellbeing. Themes included mental health, high performance strategies and financial wellness.
- Other safety and wellbeing initiatives included flu vaccinations, first aid training and the Employee Assistance Program, which offers a confidential employee assistance counselling service available 24/7 to team members and their immediate families. OneDigital also provides team members access to a wellness hub with parents room facilities at its headquarters.
GRI 3-3, GRI 403-2, GRI 416-1