“They are people we know. We work with them every day. Of course we want them to be safe. The same goes for people who come on to the farm for whatever reason, contractors – whoever.”
It’s a no brainer to the Wills then that they should warn them where the dangers are and make it clear what behaviours will keep them out of harm’s way.
Ross and Gina are 26% sharemilkers for Dairy Holdings (DHL), peak milking 760 cows and they’re completely behind the corporate’s desire to lift the focus on health and safety, putting it at the top of the list when it comes to management of its farms.
Ross has been a volunteer firefighter and Gina a registered nurse and they unashamedly admit some people might think they’re over the top when it comes to the subject.
“It doesn’t matter what people think about our approach, it’s how we do it, how we’ve always looked at it,” Ross says.
They’ve both seen first-hand what can happen in accidents and fires and Ross says he’d be utterly devastated if anything happened to anyone on the farm and he hadn’t done everything he could to ensure their safety.
From the minute you drive up to the gate there’s no missing the priority they and DHL place on health and safety.
Signs stipulate that all visitors and contractors must sign the register at the farm dairy office and report to the management.
The manager’s cellphone number is listed on the sign and as they drive to the farm dairy signs also point out where the manager’s and sharemilker’s houses are.
Gina and Ross Wills – health and safety is a priority right from the front gate.
Health and safety meetings are held every month as a specific part of the staff meeting and any issues staff bring up are discussed and recorded. If necessary, new policy is written and included in the health and safety policy manual.
Any new hazard must be reported and recorded on the health and safety board as soon as it’s spotted so health and safety discussions can be taking place at any time, not just in the formal setting.
Incident sheets are kept in the farm dairy office so any health and safety accident or near miss is also recorded and reported and will be discussed at the monthly meeting.
The record of the event is kept in the health and safety folder but is also recorded on the DHL portal.
Just as children aren’t allowed in the workplace Ross and Gina don’t allow anyone to work alongside staff if they’re not employed.
“They haven’t been inducted by us so it just can’t happen. They can come on as a visitor, sign the register and go through the process other visitors go through so they can be taken out on the farm for a look around but they can’t work with them.”
If a staff member doesn’t adhere to the health and safety policy and it’s not a serious breach they’ll get a gentle reminder they’re expected to do something a certain way because it’s the safe way.
If they continue to flout the rules they’ll get a verbal warning followed by a written one.
“It becomes a disciplinary issue and we follow that procedure,” Gina says.
“But our staff take health and safety very seriously. They see we do – it has to come from the top down,” Ross says.
Log gives insight
About one in five health and safety incidents recorded on DHL’s online farm portal system involve motorbikes, chief executive Colin Glass says.
The company began lifting the focus on health and safety about five years ago and more recently instigated a system where managers and sharemilkers on its 56 dairy farms and 19 support blocks log near misses and health and safety incidents on a web-based portal.
Data from the online system was giving the company better insight into where it could target training resources and Glass had been surprised at just what proportion of incidents motorbikes were associated with.
DHL began its health and safety refresh with an honest, “warts and all” review by Fegan and Co.
“While we had policies and procedures in place and were doing the basics well – by comparison ahead of many others – we did want to go further,” Glass said.
They acted on Fegan’s recommendations, talked to their own staff as well as other corporates and developed policies and procedures not only for their own staff but anyone going on to a farm.
They took an “in your face” approach right from the farmgate with stand-out signs and requirements to report to the farm dairy where, again, the health and safety board was a focal point of the farm dairy office.
It was important for visitors, contractors and staff to clearly see not only hazards and procedures required but the emphasis DHL put on the subject.
“We don’t say we have all the answers but we’re not shying away from the topic.
“Other sectors are tackling the issue head-on and as an industry farming has to do the same.”
Proposed legislation meant liability for staff safety extended beyond contract milkers and sharemilkers back to board members even though, technically, the contract milkers and sharemilkers were the direct employers.
But Glass said regardless of the legal issues a good health and safety culture was imperative not only as a moral issue but good work practice with improved staff engagement.
Kids on farm
Gina and Ross Wills know it’s a difficult topic and families will have their own opinions but for them the farm is a workplace and it’s not appropriate for children to be free to roam around.
Childcare has to be at the house with an appropriate caregiver.
“If someone wants a farm where they can have the kids bringing in the cows or coming down to the shed after school then this isn’t going to be the job for them,” Ross says.
Gina agrees and says taking children to work just isn’t on.
That doesn’t mean they can’t feed a pet calf at the calf pens and be exposed to farming life but activities like that are strictly supervised and done in defined areas.
Quizzing staff
Health and safety isn’t about ticking the boxes for Canterbury lower order sharemilkers Ross and Gina Wills but anyone working for them can expect the occasional pop quiz on the subject.
It’s an innovative way the couple use to check their staff really know what’s in the farm’s health and safety policy.
They borrowed the idea from another farming couple who felt that sharing the concept would be an advantage for others.
Ross and Gina agreed and implemented it right away.
They called it an awareness questionnaire and Ross and Gina came up with the questions themselves based on what’s in the policy.
Each question has three multi-choice answers for staff to choose from and the results form the basis for a one-on-one discussion with each staff member and show Ross and Gina where more training could be needed.
“You can give someone new the health and safety policy to read, go through it with them and then ask them to come back to you later if they have any questions – most won’t.
“The questionnaire brings it to life a bit, gets them taking more notice of it and quickly shows us if there’s something they don’t get,” Ross says.
Done every three months, it can give even long-serving staff frequent refreshers.
