HSE Community Insights - Kylie Fraser
Kylie Fraser – Head of Workplace Safety at McDonald's
Kylie is an experienced Senior HSE Manager with an extensive breadth and depth of knowledge, backed up by excellent business acumen and the ability to tackle the long-standing and neglected complex people and system problems. An intuitive people leader, coach and connector who develops, supports and stretches people to be their best.
What do you think the 3 biggest opportunities that the HSE profession are faced with in the constantly changing world of work?
1) Commercial & Business Acumen
I think its imperative that an individual understands the industry and environment they are operating in. It is very difficult to put solutions in place if you don’t have a strong grasp and understanding of the dynamics of your business.
2) A balance of confidence and humility
You need to ensure that you have confidence in your own knowledge and abilities in order to gain respect and be heard across your organisation. At the same time, you also need to be humble enough to listen to and partner with those around you.
3) Be open minded to new challenges
The profession is constantly evolving and changing and so does the risk profiles across different environments. Therefore, be open to and seek new ways of doing things.
What are the top 3 capabilities required in your view for success in the future?
1) Strong influencing and relationship building skills. In our profession we need to convince others to follow us and gain merit in our ideas. The most effective way to do this is having the ability to build strong relationships.
2) The ability to translate your technical knowledge and understanding to a diverse audience. It’s the balance of analytical thinking coupled with a risk-based approach and applying those methodologies.
3) Being able to operationalise your approach. It’s great to have the technical knowledge and understanding but also having project and change management skills. Also, you need tenacity!!
Looking back over your career, if you could change one thing, what would that be?
If I had to give advice to my younger self now, it would perhaps be around being brave and courageous in the decisions that I perhaps made. The only person that can hold you back is yourself and not your organisation.
What is innovative about the organisation you are working for?
Our change, project and process management cycles. We move fast, and expect our restaurants to move fast with us. Our Business Improvement Processes ensure that any changes that we make are right for every one of our restaurants.
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