Safety Star Spotlight - Pensar

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.

Established in 2000, Pensar designs and delivers infrastructure solutions for a wide range of industry sectors, providing a broad spectrum of technical capabilities to serve the diverse needs of government departments, regional and metropolitan councils, and the private sector. Gina Miller of Pensar discusses how the company’s commitment to workplace health & safety has translated into tangible business benefits.

“The health and safety of our people and our sub-contractors is an integral part of our company-wide culture. It underpins every activity, every day.”

“Our safety programs are designed to deliver more than compliance, they are designed to ensure our people go home to their loved ones at the end of each day.”

Pensar says its company-wide commitment to make safety its highest priority means the company pays well below the industry average for WorkCover premiums.

“Workers Compensation Premiums are viewed as a key indicator of an organisation’s safety performance as they are based on a number of factors including compensation claims. Pensar maintains a premium level well below the construction industry rate due to our proven work place health & safety systems and culture.”

“Safety is our highest priority and our premium rates are evidence of this fact, with Pensar paying 89% less than the industry average for WorkCover premiums due to our claims performance – the industry pays $2.05, Pensar pays $0.21.”

To demonstrate to teams that safety is the number one priority, the entire company shuts down for one afternoon during National Safe Work Month to discuss current safety trends and topics.

“Pensar’s Safety Session allows teams to share knowledge and gives Daryl Curran, Pensar’s HSEQ Manager the opportunity to address the whole company to discuss our safety performance, highlight areas to focus on and encourage teams to continue delivering projects to Pensar’s high safety standard.”

“This event has created real change amongst our teams as they see safety prioritised by the entire company, from the leadership team to the team out in the field.” (Watch Pensar’s 2019 Safety Session and Trivia event here.)

Pensar has also designed Task Cards for their teams on the move. Designed to slip into a hi-vis shirt pocket, Pensar’s Task Cards are small pre-start cards that workers use to outline the intended works, list any required SWMS or Permits and sign onto at the start of each working day.

Pensar also offers all employees unlimited access to daily boxing sessions and weekly strength and mobility training.

“It has been proven that mental wellness is highly correlated with physical fitness and Pensar’s wellness initiatives are designed, not only to improve the fitness of our people but to boost their mental wellness through physical fitness and team building. This has made a real difference to the safety performance of our teams.” (View more Pensar wellness initiatives here.)

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