• An investigation was launched after a vineyard worker fell while using a makeshift ladder to try to mix sulphur in a mobile sprayer.  
• Frustrations were revealed among spray operators, including unreliable gear forcing them into unsafe workarounds, strains/sprains, and process inefficiencies requiring long hours. 
• A new stainless steel mixing bath has replaced the old mixing pots and has removed the need to work at height and most lifting. The job is also much quicker. 
• The new bath chemical mixers use the venturi effect and have no moving parts. Mixing time has been cut by two-thirds. They have been introduced at 17 sites and sprains/strains are down by 70 percent. Spray operators now have a shorter work day during an intense time of year and fatigue has been reduced. 

• In its 16 operating theatres, tissue specimens are removed and put in formalin before going to the lab. Larger specimens require formalin to be decanted. 
• The decanting process exposed theatre nurses to formaldehyde at levels likely to be above the Workplace Exposure Standard. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen, a mutagen, and a sensitiser. 
• Multiple engineering approaches were considered and trialled until a solution emerged: an Italian-made UltraSafe dispensing unit. 
• The project began after a health & safety rep asked a question about the use of formalin spill kits and PPE in operating theatres. A wide range of theatre staff, lab staff, pathologists and the supplier were consulted in the process of coming up with the best solution. The outcome has significantly reduced formaldehyde exposure and is believed to be the first such installation in New Zealand. 

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• A variety of earlier initiatives had helped normalise mental health conversations, but staff were confused about counselling via EAP, and leaders felt unsure and sometimes overwhelmed when supporting people. 
• A Learning Team approach proved cathartic, and from it emerged the concept of a multi-person Care Team to help each worker in need develop a support or rehabilitation plan. 
• Workers struggling with mental health now have better support, leaders are less stressed, and the importance of early conversations is embedded. 
• The Care Team is based on rehabilitation principles: a needs assessment, the right level of support, regular check-ins and reviews, and clear goals. In the nine months to March, 58 people have been supported by a Care Team through periods of poor mental health, and 25 with physical injury or illness. The process has been so successful it has been extended to cover physical injuries too, whether work-related or not. 

• Sixteen high-potential events during 2019 and 2020 (of which seven involved live electricity) prompted abandonment of the traditional top-down safety model and the embrace of workers as experts.
• Over several sessions, experienced live electricity crew members established critical safety controls and helped roll them out to all staff, followed by 1800 field assessments. 
• The previous Stop Work Authority was replaced by a Start Work Authority, giving authority to workers in the field to assess all critical electrical controls and defer work until satisfied all controls are in place. 
• Field crews also helped develop software to monitor the whole system’s capacity to control the critical risk of live electricity. Field crews carried out more than 10,000 pre-work verifications in the first six months of the programme. This framework places accountability with crews in the field and has been so successful in engaging workers that it is to be repeated for other critical risks. 

• A double tracking project on the Trentham to Upper Hutt rail corridor required excavator work close to the busy rail line and near overhead power lines. 
• 3D and GPS technology was used to create digital shields, creating a virtual no-go zone. If an excavator touched the invisible shield it would automatically shut down, protecting the operator and anyone in a passing train. 
• The technology allowed excavators to operate nearer the rail corridor, allowing for more accurate construction and improved project efficiency.  
• The digital shield required intensive collaboration and commitment to a ‘fail fast’ process. Locomotive engineers sat in excavators and excavator operators rode in locomotives to get both perspectives. The project was the first to use digital shield technology in the rail corridor. It has given KiwiRail confidence to let excavators and other mobile plant work close to the tracks, knowing that there will be fewer interruptions to train services. 

• Disenchanted with Zero Harm, behavioural safety and layers of administration, the company looked to the five principles of HOP. 
• During a job to add structural supports to cracked concrete pipe abutments, the crew mis-read instructions to remove the drill if reinforcing bar was encountered. In a no-blame culture, they reported their error. 
• The company had an engineer take a look. The crew had not damaged the integrity of the column, but the abutments were discovered to have been under-engineered when built years earlier. 
• Learning teams were originally used after incidents but have proven so engaging they are now used proactively to review processes and policies. One learning team picked up crucial differences in high-consequence pressure testing between three experienced staff, allowing a better solution to emerge. The HOP principles have seen significant rises in worker engagement and in event reporting, and a 30% decrease in injury rates. 

• The challenge was to find a way senior medical students on clinical placement could safely report bullying, discrimination or harassment – as well as areas of excellence. 
• The HOTSPOTS twice-yearly anonymous survey collects data and reports back by areas of concern (Hotspots) and areas of excellence (Brightspots). Individuals of concern are not identified because bullying, discrimination and harassment is acknowledged as a systemic issue. 
• A high proportion of students use the reporting tool and actions taken have generated Brightspot reports later. 
• The Hotspots survey and the mechanisms to keep it operating sees collaboration between the medical school, the Chief Medical Officers forum, the Ministry of Health, trade unions, and others. Students feel safe to report their concerns and to applaud good work, and DHB and departmental leaders take action when large numbers of students report similar areas of concern. The initiative has attracted international attention and could be used in any academic course where students are sent out on placement. 

• A collaboration between the Ministry for Primary Industries, Dairy NZ and Beef+Lamb NZ, the task of eradicating M bovis saw an operational group quickly formed to get boots on the ground on farms. 
• The work environment was high-risk, dynamic and complex, with nine critical risks identified, including psychosocial harm, remote work, and potential for aggressive interactions with farmers. 
• A peer support group was formed to help address psychosocial harm for staff, as well as a support team to help farmers through a devastating event. 
• Bespoke reporting back to the governance group was designed for each critical risk. Reporting of incidents and the desire of staff to get involved in health & safety rose markedly during the programme. The information and innovation sharing between the three parties has been outstanding and has spilled over into areas beyond the M Bovis response. 

• The initial Covid-19 period in early 2020 saw the airline shut down significant parts of its operations, shed a third of its staff, and leaving the rest feeling lost and overwhelmed. 
• It swiftly created a risk-based Covid response plan using the combined talents of its health & safety, aviation occupational health, and strategic wellbeing teams. 
• The plan enabled the remaining operational staff and associated suppliers and contractors to be well protected from Covid, and passengers too.  
• It also launched an online wellbeing check-in tool for all staff globally which has been extensively used. 
• The airline’s pandemic response was at the forefront of the national response to protect the border. The ability of a collaborative team to respond with authority and at pace was demonstrated by the wide mix of different expertise brought together to assess and respond to a complex and evolving set of risks. The airline’s position on the front line of the pandemic was successfully leveraged through multiple networks to influence the response in the private sector and at government level.

• A senior member of the people safety team, he played a leading role in the airline’s response to the emergence of Covid-19. 
• In the early days of the pandemic his knowledge was essential to protect volunteer staff involved in 30 repatriation flights to high-Covid areas around the world. 
• His knowledge contributed to the airline’s decision to extend the government’s border worker vaccination mandate to cover other operational and customer-facing staff.  
• As a risk management practitioner, Ben ensured health risk was at the centre of all the airline’s many decisions to protect staff, contractors and passengers from Covid-19. His visible leadership of the airline’s Covid response via media interviews, staff videos and webinars offered reassurance in the most challenging times. His personal integrity was on display during multiple dealings with government agencies here and abroad, with unions, and with all staff up to the executive team. 

• Usually to be found each day at remote forestry sites helping with tailgate sessions, auditing breaker-outs, and crawling over machinery.
• Assisted a contractor to obtain Safetree accreditation following a fatality, starting from scratch to help them build safety systems and an improved culture. 
• Invited by the Gisborne District Council to help raise health & safety standards with several of its regular contractors as part of a major piece of roading improvement work. There were no injuries in the course of the project.
• Jess has profoundly influenced significant improvement in health and safety standards in companies contracted to Gisborne District Council. She was appointed to the Health, Safety and Wellbeing committee of the Eastland Wood Council and now chairs it. She guided Logic Forest Solutions to be the first management company accredited under Safetree, and helped many of its contractors to do the same. 

• An A-grade butcher and boner at the Takapau plant, when Covid arrived he volunteered to go into a support role, explaining the necessary health measures and putting everyone at ease. 
• Following a hand crush injury in his department an external machinery reviewer was brought in. Bevan demonstrated every machine in the department and its risks, and encouraged others to speak up. 
• He is a facilitator for rural mental health organisation GoodYarns and has run sessions with more than 200 workmates. 
• Bevan represents the plant at the company’s annual Runanga, where safety reps from each plant are brought together to meet the executive and board. At Runanga 2021 he was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Manaaki Award. He also organises fundraising motorcycle rides to support mental health and military veterans’ charities. 

• Neroli has created and driven a holistic wellbeing programme called Got Your Back. 
• It is based around the four pillars of the Te Whare Tapa Whā model and includes speakers, website resources, training sessions, gift packs. 
• Session topics have included mindfulness, parenting skills, bullying & harassment, financial awareness, melanoma and suicide awareness.
• Challenged the executive team to move out of their physical wellbeing comfort zone, including changing policy to achieve two Got Your Back days each year. Is acknowledged to have achieved a significant change in the company’s culture, normalising a wide variety of topics that would never have been discussed before. The Got Your Back programme has extended into the wider community and has become a key part of the company’s recruitment, retention and reputation. 

• Championed the Critical Risk Observation programme to ensure the executive leadership team better understands work-as-done. 
• With the arrival of Covid-19 he authorised a 50% increase in membership of the safety and wellbeing group to better support frontline staff. 
• Placed the senior H&S role as a member of all executive-level committees, including Finance, to ensure a technical safety lens over all decisions. 
• Sponsored development of the Critical Control Protocols and devoted significant funding to them, deferring expenditure in other areas to do so. Has taken on the role of mental health champion and has made available videos of one-on-one conversations between himself and other staff members at all levels. Other public sector organisations now look to Te Ara Poutama as an exemplar on all matters health, safety and wellbeing.

For campaigning to make mining and other heavy industry sectors acknowledge the specific health needs of female workers, including PPE that fits and provision of acceptable toilet facilities so that workers didn’t have to suffer constant UTIs due to avoiding drinking. In 2018 she launched ‘She’s Free To Be’, a business-turned-movement making available a toolkit of menstrual cups, urination devices, and advice for managing remote work. Businesses on both sides of the Tasman have come on board. Kristy died from cancer earlier this year, but her work to support women in heavy industry carries on.

For giving its mainly Samoan staff a voice and in doing so helping to raise morale and H&S engagement. It began voluntary, confidential 15-minute one-on-one catch-up sessions with the H&S advisor. Four questions are asked, including ‘What can be improved at TYKE?’. A translator is also provided at regular safety meetings, opening another line of feedback. Gift packs are given twice-yearly to each person, at the start and end of daylight saving. Morale and engagement has risen significantly and sick days have declined by 25%.

For recognising that children of first responders often suffer significant anxiety about their parents’ safety whenever they leave for a shift. Children’s author Avril McDonald was commissioned to write a picture book to ally their fears. Called The Wolf Was Not Sleeping, the book has been distributed to staff with a flyer with guidance about suggested conversations. The book has since gone international with first responder organisations in Canada and the UK.

For a raft of small improvements – including incident reporting, vehicle maintenance, tractor travel on public roads – which has seen much higher H&S engagement among the four permanent staff and 20 RSE workers from Tonga and Vanuatu, whose mental wellbeing is now acknowledged with conversations and counselling. These initiatives are now influencing change at other orchards within the group.

In making this award the judges look for initiatives with the potential to transform health & safety performance beyond the needs of a single organisation.

The use of digital shields to prevent excavators intruding into the rail corridor was one illustration of how this project made use of cutting edge Building Information Modelling. Another was to invite 450 local primary school children to use virtual reality headsets to ‘walk’ across the yet-to-be-built new level crossing. Use of headset eye tracking enabled improvements to be made to safety fencing. The judges hope this project will encourage others to look at novel digital solutions to some persistently challenging workplace risks, including mobile plant vs pedestrians.