October is National Safe Work Month – a valuable opportunity for workplaces across Australia to spark conversations about health and safety and consider what more can be done to keep people safe at work.

For Simon Tomkinson, HSEQ Advisor at Element Logic ANZ, National Safe Work Month is also an opportunity to reinforce a much broader message: safety cannot be confined to a single month.

Drawing on more than 15 years of experience across health, safety and risk management, Simon works with teams across Element Logic to help embed safety into the way we work, from our own operations through to the projects and solutions we deliver.

For Simon, this year’s theme, “Safe work is for life”, reflects a fundamental principle: creating a safe workplace comes from the decisions, conversations and actions we take every day.

Safety is something we all contribute to

As Simon explains, policies, procedures and systems all play a key role in workplace safety, but a strong safety culture also depends on people.

Every person has a role to play, whether that means following safe work practices, identifying a potential hazard, speaking up when something doesn’t look right or simply looking out for the people working alongside them.

The decisions we make at work can affect more than our own safety. They can also have an impact on our colleagues, contractors, customers and others around us.

Creating an environment where people feel comfortable raising concerns and talking openly about safety is therefore an essential part of preventing incidents before they occur.

More than a compliance exercise

Our people are our greatest asset, and that makes their health, safety and wellbeing an important part of every decision we make at Element Logic.

For Simon, a strong approach to health and safety means looking beyond WHS as a compliance requirement or a box to be ticked. It is an opportunity to add real value by creating safer ways of working, reducing risk and ultimately delivering better outcomes for our people, our projects and our customers.

Safety adds the most value when it influences decisions early, rather than becoming something we assess once the work has already been designed or process is in place.

Simon Tomkinson, HSEQ Advisor, Element Logic ANZ

By considering safety early and embedding it into the way we design, plan and deliver our work, we can make better decisions about how risks are managed and, wherever possible, designed out from the beginning.

“It’s why good safety practice isn’t separate from doing good work. It’s an important part of it,” says Simon.

Keep the conversation going

One of the key opportunities presented by National Safe Work Month is the chance to bring safety into everyday conversations.

It is a time to ask questions. Is there a safer way to complete a task? Have conditions changed? Is there something we should speak up about?

These conversations do not need to be complicated to make a difference.

Often, it is the fundamentals that matter most: staying aware of your surroundings, following established controls, reporting hazards and looking out for your workmates.

It is this kind of ongoing engagement that Simon sees as central to building a strong safety culture, where people understand that they have a role to play and feel empowered to speak up when something doesn’t look or feel right.

Beyond October

For Simon, that is ultimately what National Safe Work Month is about: creating conversations and behaviours that continue long after October.

At Element Logic, our teams work across manufacturing facilities, construction and installation sites, offices and operational warehouses. The environments may be different, but the principle remains the same: everyone should be able to go home safely at the end of the day.

That requires an ongoing commitment from all of us.

Because safe work isn’t just for October. Safe work is for life.