Safety Star Spotlight - Hansen Yuncken

The following is part of myosh’s Safety Star Series. We are putting the spotlight on teams that make a difference to work, health and safety in their organisation. Submit your own story right here.

Adelaide SkyCity Expansion Project

In 2018, SkyCity commissioned Hansen Yuncken to build a world class entertainment complex and hotel. This $330m expansion is set to deliver South Australia a world-class entertainment precinct offering new restaurants, bars, cafes and a luxury hotel and spa.

This highly sophisticated and complex design sees Hansen Yuncken adopt several innovative solutions to manage the construction, logistics, program, quality and project safety. In addition, Hansen Yuncken works extensively with local contractors and suppliers to construct and fit-out the 12-level development.

On the project, Hansen Yuncken have focused on culture and worker attitude in order to drive continuous improvements in workplace safety.

SkyCity Entertainment Group GM of Health and Safety, Pete Hayes, said significant emphasise was placed on selecting a Construction partner who shared SkyCity’s values around health and safety, and that Hansen Yuncken have demonstrated this commitment throughout the project.

“To date the health and safety performance on site has been exceptional with successful independent audits validating compliance to best practice WHS management system standards.”

“Hansen Yuncken have demonstrated across the life of the project an exemplar safety culture where consultation, communication and collaboration are valued. This has resulted in high levels of worker engagement and pride.”

“Our safety assurance activities have been received positively and HY continually explore opportunities to improve their WHS performance. The HY team constructing the Adelaide Casino expansion have demonstrated best in class safety leadership at all levels.”

SKYCITY Adelaide Development Manager Scott Bell said external audits received exemplary feedback that demonstrated HY’s passion and leadership in the safety space that resonated throughout all HY staff members.

“From the outset is was very clear of the investment HY has made in relation to the management systems, culture and technology advancements with superior and user-friendly procedures developed as part of the HYer standard system.”

“HY are always open to continual improvement and feedback through positive consultant, communication and collaboration and regular interaction on safety from SKYCITY’s project team and internal safety reviews.“

Below you will find some key areas of focus for the HY team, as well as links to videos that go into more detail about the project and its site-specific safety initiatives.

myosh would like to thank the team at Hansen Yuncken for sharing their health and safety story.

Hansen Yuncken's Safety Focus

Induction Room

Workers on-site know early on that safety is a priority. HY Safety Supervisor Bobby West says the site’s induction process cleary outlines safety expectations and site-specific requirements, whilst also brining workers into the conversation.

“What we try to achieve is culture, morale, worker attitude, and worker engagement.”

“This purpose built Induction Room has been constantly developing to correctly reflect the safety culture of this project. This room is the first contact new workers have with the SKC Project and establishes the high safety benchmark this project demands.”

During the induction process the animation that was developed at tender is used to provide a great visual reference on the construction complexities of this project and the safety implications they may pose.

Silica Control

The recent resurgence in silicosis cases in Australia has been labelled by some as a national epidemic worse than asbestosis. (see related article).

In February, Safe Work Australia recommended significantly reducing exposure limits for silica and coal dust as part of its ongoing overhaul of workplace airborne contaminants.

The HY site team has reacted positively to the industry movement to better control silica and potential exposure through the following ways:

• Conducting air monitoring in stripping areas
• SafeWork SA conducting audits on sub-contractors
• Milwaukee attending site and conducting site inspections with contractors on tooling issues
• Site resource recovery providing silica-only bins
• Silica Controls included in site induction process

Ongoing Training

HY recognises that its workers are its most important assets and this is reflected in its commitment to ongoing training and development. The team has proactively engaged experts from a variety of fields to ensure workers are up-to-date and fully equipped on site. Training has included:

Drug and alcohol
The Drug Detection Agency provided Drug & Alcohol Awareness, HY DAMP training & reasonable cause training. The HY team also provided assistance to multiple workers for this addiction with mental health first aid training and MIC (Mates in Construction) assist skills.

Metropolitan Fire Services
The project’s height, rescue and recovery plan was consulted, communicated with the MFS and all rescue scenarios were confirmed as achievable. The team also runs regular drills, training sessions, mock runs, and ‘lessons learnt’ review sessions.

Skin cancer awareness
HY engaged an external presenter to provide up-to-date relevant information of skin cancer awareness.

Asbestos awareness
To increase the awareness of asbestos onsite, HY engaged GreenCap to attend site and conduct a workshop on asbestos awareness to key workers. This included: legislation; types of asbestos; photo examples and explanations on identifying asbestos; emergency response; and removal requirements.

Scaffolding
When the team identified an opportunity to implement mobile scaffolding, HY took the opportunity to engage a trainer from CITC to attend site and conduct a training session for key site workers. This included the safe erection and dismantle of restricted height scaffolding and legislation requirement.

Contractor management

Effective contractor engagement and compliance is always a challenge in the construction industry. As well as including subcontractors in its health and safety management system, the project has also implemented a program of informal meetings with senior representatives of our subcontractors, where open and honest discussion is encouraged. The aim of these meetings is to allow both parties to air any concerns or difficulties that are being experienced and also to build on positive trends and behaviours.

Morale and wellbeing

The HY team on SkyCity make worker morale and worker engagement a priority. This has included extensive Mates in Construction training for key workers, as well as morale boosting functions as part of R U OK Day. The team also engaged Mark Aiston (Media Personality and R U OK Day Advocate) for an on-site presentation with Project Director Scott Brumfield (HY).

“You see it, you own it”

Each worker on-site is issued with a handy, user-friendly tool to add to their toolkit, which has been hugely successful. It can and is used to achieve: Issue resolution; worker accountability; hazard ID; risk assessment; note taking.

Watch the video

View the presentation