HSE Community Insights - Grade Westdorp
Page Published Date:
February 25, 2020
We spoke with Grace Westdorp General Manager Health, Safety & Wellbeing at Wesfarmers Industrial & Safety, to gain insights into Grace’s HSE journey to date, what opportunities the sector are faced with and advice on future HSE capability requirements.
What do you think the 3 biggest opportunities that the HSE profession are faced with in the constantly changing world of work?
“I think technology is the overarching opportunity, with so much change happening and so rapidly, from a safety perspective we should really be trying to harness what is going on in this space and three opportunities within technology are;
“Machine learning – an example of this could be using AI cameras to help manage forklift and pedestrian interaction to provide real time alerts, that’s where technology is really pushing ahead, and in turn reduces critical risk in the business”.
“I think virtual and augmented reality is another key area for opportunity, particularly across training platforms, it’s quite amazing that we can re-create a cyber version of ourselves that allows us to test and try new ways of doing things in a totally safe environment”.
“Finally, mobile platforms that allow us the opportunity to reach people in real time moments, empowering people to make better decisions because the information required is there at their fingertips”.
What are the top 3 capabilities required in your view for success in the future?
“I don’t think there is anything new here, it’s more around the attributes of the professional and I believe they are;
Patience, so really taking your time to bring people on the journey with you. Passion, when your passionate about safety, people buy into that and you’ll achieve better outcomes for yourself and the organisation, and of course technical knowledge, so how you deliver a message and unpack to enable those around you to make good decisions and decipher, what’s important and critical”.
Looking back over your career, if you could change one thing, what would that be?
I was a nurse and didn’t really get into occupational health and safety until later in my career and if I had known how much I would have enjoyed this space I would have began in the profession earlier”
What is innovative about the organisation you are working for?
“In the broader Wesfarmers group, we are using the advance analytics centre to help solve safety issues. There have been some trials in our Bunnings stores around forklift use and those that use them. The trials are about being able to use data to work out, how many shifts the operator had been working, how big the store was etc. to enable them to pinpoint important information such as, what stores would be most at risk and what times of the week were high risk and then build programs from there to drive better safety. The objective being, to know how to use data and where to apply it as this is critical for the HSE sector moving forward.”
