Aligning Safety Within the Business

2nd February 2016 – Penelope Twemlow, CEO, Energy Skills Queensland spoke on, “Aligning Safety within the Business,” in an interview Digest feature for the upcoming OHS Leaders Summit, taking place on March 15 – 17 at the RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast.

During this interview, Penelope elaborated on the importance of building a culture of transparency and accountability and outlined the four key elements that she has defined as requirements for aligning safety within the business that include:

1. A safety strategy that outlines safety culture, safety talent and safety processes, with the most crucial element being safety culture as it is ultimately responsible for sustainable safety performance.

2. A well-defined culture approach which outlines leadership drive, commitment and personal involvement, employee participation and ownership, systematic safety integration into and alignment with business processes, tools and decisions and a drive to eliminate risks.

3. Embrace and understand the role of driving safety within the organisation; in order to do this, define the current state of affairs and outline what future state you wish the organisation to achieve and map tasks accordingly. Ensure that safety professionals are seen as change agents or motivating leaders and not simply an enforcer or ‘compliance-based cop’.

4. An implementation plan that enables engagement with stakeholders and drives change; to drive early success in aligning and integrating safety with the business, focus on roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, business planning, recognition and reward and discipline.

Penelope suggested her personal insights, for individuals looking to improve their culture, claiming that, “The first step for an organisation looking to improve its culture is to match strategy with culture. Too often, company’s impose strategy from above so it is at odds with the ingrained practices and attitudes of the organisation’s culture as a whole. As they say ‘Culture trumps strategy every time’.” She spoke on the fundamental aspect of transparent communication within the workplace, sharing the strategy at Energy Skills Queensland, which includes accountable behavior, consistently displayed by all members of the organisation.

To read the full interview with Penelope Twemlow, CEO, Energy Skills Queensland, please click here.

About Penelope: Penelope is eminently qualified and experienced to assist the mining, energy and telecommunications industries build a skilled workforce. Penelope has over 15 years of operational and strategic management experience in national and international high risk environments, including the resources, oil and gas, construction and energy industries. She brings a unique combination of deep industry knowledge and global management experience to the Chief Executive Officer role, having consulted at senior levels in the energy industries and the Australian Navy before joining the Energy Skills Queensland team.

About the OHS Leaders Summit:
The OHS Leaders Summit is invitation only and intended for Australia’s most key though WHS Leaders to gather for a strategic two day event in order to discuss the challenges currently facing the industry. If you are interested in attending this event, please register your interest here.

About Focus Network:
Focus Network organises business to business events across a range of industries throughout Asia Pacific. MCI brings senior decision makers together with suppliers and organises a series of roundtable discussions, face to face business meetings and keynote speaker sessions. These events give senior leaders of many industries the opportunity to learn about the latest technology and service offerings along with understanding and exchanging ideas with their peers on relevant industry topics through targeted workshops and sessions.

For further information, please contact:

Jennifer Hoch
Marketing Manager
Focus Network
Suite 2, Level 2,
2-10 Loftus Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

Email: jennifer@focusnetwork.co

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