This month, our teams across the nation have been taking extra steps to ensure the wellbeing and safety of those our community.
October is National Safe Work Month, a timely reminder for all organisations to commit to improving workplace health and safety.
This year’s theme, Work Health and Safety through COVID-19, acknowledges and reflects the wide-reaching impacts of COVID-19 on Australian businesses, employers and workers. Despite COVID-19, there are always important reflections to be made on the safety and wellbeing of staff, and visitors into a workspace.
The Compliance and Safety team proudly leads the organisations’ proactive approach to health and safety. Compliance and Safety Manager, Benita Williams, spoke with us about how they are acknowledging National Safe Work Month – and all the initiatives in place to support staff to be proactive safety ambassadors in their own centres.
“Affinity Education’s number one priority is to maintain the safety, health and well-being of all children, educators, families and visitors at our centres”, explained Benita.
“A safe and healthy workplace not only protects workers from injury and illness, it also increases quality care for children and raises employee morale. Safety is everyone’s responsibility and is important that we empower our educators and head office staff to understand how safety impacts them and those around them, to create a safe environment.”
Workplace health and safety is a normal part of day-to-day operations for employees at Affinity Education. With weekly meetings, training opportunities and regular safety alerts – safe practices are embedded into all processes and procedures. But safety is more than just physical hazards.
“Safety is a holistic approach to ensure that all employees and visitors feel safe, secure and happy while attending our centres or offices. Some aspects of this include mental health and wellbeing, transportation safety when out in the community, food safety, managing emergency situations, risk assessing the physical environments, as well as much more”, said Benita.
There are many ways, year-round, that employees are supported to be safe at work, including:
- Ongoing resources and guidance from the Compliance and Safety team, and People and Culture team
- Internal Policies, Processes and Procedures to mitigate risk
- Regular training opportunities
- Holistic auditing of our procedures, and how they are implemented
- Mental health support and guidance 24/7, through Lifeworks
Learn more about the supportive culture at Affinity Education Group, or visit the National Safe Work Month website for health and safety resources.