Our business is founded on the deeply held value of Zero Harm.
Zero Harm is embedded in our culture and is fundamental to our future success.
Our Zero Harm culture is built on leading and inspiring, managing risk, rethinking processes, applying lessons learnt, and adopting and adapting practices that aim to achieve zero work-related injuries and minimise environmental harm. Achieving Zero Harm requires strong leadership and relentless commitment from everyone at Downer.
Our approach to Zero Harm enables us to work safely and responsibly in industry, and we firmly believe that our work can be conducted with zero harm to our people, the environment and the communities within which we operate.
We conduct our business in a way that is sustainable, taking into account a range of factors, including climate-related risks and opportunities. Developing and delivering environmentally sustainable solutions for our customers is a priority. While focusing our attention on managing our risks associated with environmental management and climate change, we also take advantage of the commercial opportunities this presents for our business.
Our commitment to Zero Harm is visible across our business. It is expressed through the behaviours of our leaders and workers and in our Zero Harm performance.
Downer is proud of the strong and resilient Zero Harm culture we have established. We continue to focus on maturing this culture to prepare for the workplace of the future.
Our senior executives and managers actively empower our people to maintain safe, responsible and sustainable working environments and to perform work without harm to ourselves, the environment, or others.
We achieve our Zero Harm culture and strong performance through:
- Visible, caring, informed, involved, evidence-based management
- Setting clear leadership Zero Harm expectations and accountabilities, developing and involving our people, acting with integrity, and ensuring a “just” culture for errors and non-compliance
- Active engagement and involvement with our workforce, with supervisors leading Zero Harm on site
- Information, instruction, training, mentoring, coaching and supervision for competency
- Identifying opportunities for improvement and empowering our businesses to implement initiatives that improve the safety of our workforce
- Culturally embedded risk management and planning, with consideration of Zero Harm in design, manufacturing, importing, supply, installation and construction
- Encouraging our employees to expand commitment to safety outside of the workplace – we encourage our people to share experiences of working safely at home or in the community
- Widespread knowledge of our critical risks – those that have the potential to cause the most harm, and identifying, supporting, improving and monitoring the controls that manage that risk
- Consolidating, enhancing and focusing work practices around critical risk controls
- High level of reporting and benchmarking, with a focus on lead indicators and communication about lessons learnt
- Continuing to improve and simplify our management systems to increase our efficiency and allow our businesses to focus on the safety needs of the business
- Auditing implementation and effectiveness
- Fighting complacency and fostering “chronic unease”.
COVID-19 Response
We are minimising COVID-19 transmission risk while continuing to deliver safe, reliable and high-quality services to our customers. This includes many increased cleaning services for our customers’ sites, such as public transport and community spaces, to help keep the community safe.
Senior managers from across the Downer Group meet regularly to put in place appropriate control strategies, which also includes complying with all Government regulations and advice in relation to COVID-19.
We are also communicating regularly with our employees to keep them informed.
Control measures across our offices and sites include:
- Increased cleaning of site amenities and facilities, including availability of hand sanitiser on all sites
- Reducing face-to-face meetings, toolbox talks and pre-starts to as few employees as possible – and practising appropriate social distancing measures when these do take place
- Implementing plans for office staff to work remotely where possible and increasing social distancing measures in all offices
- Restricting visitors to our customer sites and locations to only necessary employees and contractors
- Implementing temperature testing procedures at sites
- Banning all non-essential business travel
- Applying all current Government mandated guidelines relating to travel and self-isolation
- Regular communication with employees reinforcing correct hygiene, self-isolation and social distancing practices.
We also have in place a number of strategies to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on our people and the communities in which we operate, including:
- Increased focus on mental health support and activities for our people
- Establishing a hardship program for affected workers
- Establishing a redeployment and retraining program for displaced workers
- Implementing initiatives to support vulnerable communities.
We are committed to working closely with our customers and partners to minimise the impact on our operations while keeping our people safe.
