November 2009 Safety Message

Of the same "Mindset"

 

In a perfect world we would carry out business with owners or mining companies that have the same mindset that we have here at Cementation. It is obvious that in our business to date, many of our successes have been built on relationships with clients that have the same mindset or mental attitude towards situations that develop along the way in a project life between contractor and owner. The definition of mindset is “a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations” No doubt working for a client or owner with a different mindset than the one we are trying to establish within our company can often lead to challenges in our business.

The same applies to our workers and the mindsets of our workers in terms of safety performance. First of all I would like to reinforce that our health and safety management system is built on a “zero injury” mindset philosophy. We endeavour to pursue our business with zero injuries to our people. Our challenge is to establish that same mindset in every one of our workers, supervisors, and managers and one that will recognize and respond to a situation in the workplace the same way each and every time to prevent injury, no matter what project, job site or office.

In order to develop those same mindsets within our fellow workers and colleagues, our managers must lead the way by setting good examples and facilitating good working practices. We must continue to emphasize commitment and participation at all levels of the company to ensure that all employees perform in a safe manner. We must contribute actively to reducing risk in our workplace and taking action when undesirable conditions are observed. There is no doubt we want our company to be associated with a proactive health and safety culture and worker relations characterized by respect, trust and concern for others. We must demand that our workers take the necessary time to evaluate risk in the workplace and ensure that the right safeguards are in place to prevent incident or injury. We expect everyone to act as safety leaders and “stop” when unsafe behaviours or conditions exist. We require participation and contribution from the whole workforce for continuous improvement and we must maintain transparency as one of the best forms of injury prevention.

It is up to all of us in the group to help in developing the same mindset in every one of our workers that will allow them to recognize and respond to unsafe conditions and reducing incidents causing injury.