Your event stories

Ash Industries are proud to support Safe Work Week 2011 and Zero Harm at Work.

In support of the week we ran a children's safety colouring competition and a safety ideas contest. This year we had so many good safety suggestions during our contest that an individual winner could not be determined, so the prize was awarded to a full crew.

Instead of using this prize for a Team BBQ, our Pave Crew One decided to donate the prize amount of $150 to "Adopt-Family Charity" for Christmas.

Body Leadership was proud to hold a free seminar on Thursday 27 October in support of Safe Work Week. Hosted by Body Leadership Principal Physiotherapist, Paul Trevethan, the seminar focused on helping guests to start reducing injuries in their workplace. Paul explained that by teaching practical skills at an individual level this information can then be spread through the workplace to lead cultural change and strive towards the Zero Harm at Work goal. To kick off the seminar Paul provided an overview of his career explaining that his passion for sharing his knowledge with the community is what has inspired him to develop Body Leadership's Workplace Injury Solutions. "Each year thousands of Australian's are injured at work costing businesses billions of dollars. Of these injuries, sprains and strains, can be the most frustrating for managers due to their preventable nature. Through education and teaching preventative strategies we can reduce these injuries significantly," Paul said. Lesson One Paul explained is to understand your body and particularly how your muscles work. Paul took the group through the two key types of muscle locking systems, fascia and trigger points, explaining that these are the primary reasons why we feel muscle pain. Lesson Two focused on the importance of core strength. Paul took the group through a simple core strength exercise explaining that by setting your core before tasks such as lifting can help you to avoid straining your body and injury. Lesson Three taught our guests about the four rules of muscles. Paul explained to the group that by using four simple rules, Squeeze, Stretch, Trigger and Move, muscles can be loosened, range increased and in turn simple sprain and strain injuries reduced. Paul has incorporated these rules into a simple yet effective Injury Prevention Strategy - SSTM Everyday that provides a basis for all Body Leadership's Workplace Injury Solutions. Body Leadership would like to thank all guests for attending and we hope that you found the session both informative and helpful. If you would like any further information about our workplace injury solutions please do not hesitate to contact us on 07 3847 8040 or email info@bodyleadership.com.au.

Flexi Care Inc is a not for profit company that supplies services to the Frail and Aged in the Community. We supported 2010's Safe Work Week and decided to continue this year - due to the huge success we had with staff and clients. Our events kicked off on Monday 24th October, where we encouraged our staff to participate in a cupcake competition - WH&S themed. The cupcakes were brought in and proudly displayed. The safety officers painted lines on a stretch of walk way.

On Tuesday the winners were chosen during a WH&S Morning tea. Great cupcakes were submitted - even one of our local safety rep was produced!

The staff in attendance also completed the fun Mal Meninga word search documents and we had a morning full of wonderful discussion around new ideas and suggestions regarding safety in the workplace. The cupcakes were then distributed to our clients - when they were delivered a safety discussion / awareness raising sessions was also incorporated.

On Wednesday we had a refresher day covering the topics manual handling, fire safety and medication.

Thursday saw a "Junk food free day" where the company supplied platters full of wonderful mouth watering free fruit to all the staff, encouraging healthy eating habits, eating in moderation and the wellbeing of staff.

Friday 28th saw all staff dress up in casual clothes and "clean-up and de-clutter" all the offices.

Once again a very successful week where we were able to reach staff and clients with Safety Awareness. We also did up our notice board with various safety issues as well as the Mal Meninga Work Safe Work Week items. Advertising for the events was done via mandatory training nights as well as in our local Flexi Newsletter.

Hope you enjoy our happy snaps! We had a great time!

Holiday inn Brisbane was proud to hold a Health and Safety Expo for the staff on Monday 24th October. The expo was run over 3 sessions covering all required shifts for the Hospitality Industry, which gave the hotel an opportunity to spread the word and strive towards the Zero Harm at Work goal The morning session started at 7am for the end of the night shift. They were greeted by Host Plus and a game throwing footballs through a a Gold Coast Suns AFL wall accompanied by fruit skewers. This was followed by a 45 minute in-house training session of Fire Emergency and Extinguishers, Duty of Care and Manual Handling. After this the staff were treated to a massage from Rejuvenators and a small stretching class by Fitness First, as well as health checks. The next 2 sessions went very well with Host Plus giving away prizes as staff entered were throwing the balls through the hole with ease. To liven the group up before there training session Fitness First had the team jumping, running on the spot, stretching. After the training session the staff were in for a treat from the executive chef teaching them how to make sushi, and fruit smoothies It was great to see the staff so interactive with all the activities and they cant wait for Fitness First to provide the hotel with an average score which will give the team an indication on where we are doing really well and where to make some improvement in our lifestyles.

At Ikcon we decided to focus on a different topic each day.

Initiatives included:

• Building a SAFE WORK WEEK timeline in our boardroom
• Focussing on a different topic each day, relevant to our industry (see below)
• Each morning, staff received an email detailing the topic of the day with the 10 @ 10 Fact Sheets attached.
• Posters and relevant information was displayed on the time line each day and a booklet especially created for each topic, was made available for staff to read
• Photos from each day's topic were also included on the time line
• Our Facebook Page was updated each morning with information on the topic of the day, hyperlinks to the related page on the Dept website and again each afternoon with the photos of the day

Topics were as follows:

• Monday - Slips, Trips and Falls. We purchased two new Warning Signs for our cleaner to use (see photos)
• Tuesday - Sun Protection. Each staff member received a tube of sunscreen to use whilst driving (see photos)
• Wednesday - PPE. We purchased new High Visibility Vests for our sales staff to use and had them embroidered with the company details on the back for ease of recognition on site (see photos)
• Thursday - Electrical Safety. We distributed a pack of 'plug protectors' to each staff member to use at home or pass on to a family with young children (see photos)
• Friday - Occupational Stress - the highlight of our week! One of our staff members attended the breakfast at King George Square and had his photo taken with Mal Meninga (see photo).
We organised a mobile masseuse to come in and offer neck and shoulder massages to all staff. We also hosted a Black and Yellow themed afternoon tea to reflect on the week together (see photos).

All in all, Safe Work Week has been a great success at Ikcon. We achieved our goal of raising awareness of pertinent health and safety issues, not only to our own staff, but to the wider community through our Facebook page. We look forward to expanding on our ideas next year!

The Spinal Injuries Association was proud to again support Safe Work Week through our workplace injury prevention program, SEAT at WORK. The Spinal Education Awareness Team (SEAT) program celebrates its 25th anniversary next year. There’s no cure for a spinal cord injury, so prevention is a very important part of what we do. In early October we hosted a SEAT at WORK presentation for workplace health and safety professionals from a variety of industries. Guests heard the personal stories of our volunteers Robert, Paul, Geoff and Michael, who all spoke about how they sustained paraplegia or quadriplegia (most in the workplace) as well as the lasting effect on their families, their finances and all other aspects of their lives. The audience also gained a much greater awareness of what it means to have a spinal cord injury - it's not just being unable to walk – as well as the main causes and some tips to avoid such an injury. Our presenters don't pretend to be health and safety experts - but they are experts in how one split second decision can change your entire life. We would like to thank all those who attended for their support of the event, and thanks also to many of the guests who have invited us to speak to their employees about safety! We also hosted a stall at Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's King George Square event which was again a great success - and we gave away a lot of key rings reminding motorists to drive safely, featuring the words "don't speed towards a lifetime of using a wheelchair".