Prue Younger, CEO Message

This month we are all about crew culture. At the safety conference last month in Rotorua, Hillary Bennett, Director at Leading Safety believes the heart of health & safety is around purposeful conversations. On top of that, to build a good culture means building a good work environment that maintains a sustainable workforce and given circular reference this then goes on to build trust, build genuine conversations to feel good and feel valued. If you don’t work to build a good culture, then the flow will look quite different and I would imagine the health & safety results could reflect that. So let’s ask our contractors what their take on crew culture means to them. Check out Safetree for more information around “Growing our Safety Culture” -

Regional Voice

Matt Winmill, Gillion Logging - Oamaru

Crew culture has meant a huge mind shift for our guys but it was a task of taking it bit by bit then opening the doors of communication and on the other side listening to what is being said and action it.

Wiremu Edmonds and Neal Thomas tackled the change in culture for us and demonstrated just how important it is and now that we have embraced it, no one is scared to step up and speak out. I give a huge thanks to Port Blakely who have lead the change from the top.

The whole company reflects a culture that has filtered down and about five years ago they were one of the first companies that made that monumental shift and gave a consistent message to new employees. It’s really giving up that “old school mentality” and changing the environment.

One needs to get with it otherwise there is a chance contractors could lose contracts going forward. If there are crews that are not getting on, it is important to communicate, sort it out or risk losing your staff. We have staff that have been with us for 14-15 years and they understand the value of these tools. Gillion Logging received Contractor Certification and our values are now written on the wall of our smoko room. “Speaking up is certainly allowed to happen here”.

Rob Wooster, Moutere Logging - Nelson

Crew culture is important and although we have improved immensely through the leadership of Dale Ewers, we still have a way to go. Going through the exercise of developing a mission and vision statement and a set of values has created the cornerstone to making decisions. It has got everyone on the same page and rather than looking after oneself, we ensure that the culture is about looking after each other.

We used the DuPont™ Bradley Curve™ which identifies four stages of safety culture maturity:

1 - Reactive Stage - People don’t take responsibility and believe accidents will happen.

2 - Dependent Stage - People view safety as following rules and accident rates decrease.

3 - Independent Stage - People take responsibility and believe they can make a difference with actions.

Accidents reduce further.

4 - Interdependent Stage - Teams feel ownership and responsibility for safety culture.

No one can underestimate the effect of leadership on a great culture and it is key to lead by example.

Many of our foremen and supervisors have been through the Frontline Management Courses run by Competenz. However, just like the shortage of frontline workers, there is a shortage of leaders and maybe we need to be looking for people with different skill sets.

Nathan Fogden, Inta-Wood Forestry Limited – Te Puke

The starting point to a good culture is to be clear on your key values as culture comes from values. Up front we give a s*#t about our people. We acknowledge our people first then it’s processes and systems. Under a pilot programme run jointly by ACC, P F Olsen and the then DOL and facilitated by Hillary Bennett, we worked hard on getting on that right pathway to good culture. One needs to walk the talk when you are the owner, then take that philosophy down to the foreman then the guys will look up to their leaders and they are more likely to learn.

It’s a challenge but the reality is silviculture is a people business, our people must be valued as fundamental assets, no different than the heavy equipment that harvesting contractors employ.

It is important to also ensure crews understand the cause and effect of down time and time off and that the whole crew suffers when short staffed. H & S is not just a tick box exercise, it’s more than that. Being able to talk openly and form clear communication channels, more often at tailgates is when this can be effective on the team culture. Having the right leaders is very important, yet leadership must be embraced to be effective.

Rob Coulson, Bushline Forest Harvesting - Masterton

Crew Culture does not only start with contractors but also the forest owner and it’s about “respect” of each other and others around you. If productivity KPI’s are to too hard to achieve, then that pressure is what literally kills people and it’s detrimental to culture.

Productivity requirements are aligned to our social responsibility and recognising that our greatest assets are the guys who are key to my business. Over and above that are their families and whanau and ensuring partners come home at the end of the day. Every day those in the crews are respected, are listened to and fairly remunerated which supports the effectiveness around H & S.

Despite the public thinking forestry is dangerous, the industry has some strong values, steadfast processes and they take care of their workforce far greater than other industries.

The challenge is to get the public to recognise the good that is going on.

It’s not the right thing to make money to the detriment of others and there should not be the desire to produce the biggest volume - I don’t want to be to the logger that makes that phone call to a family about their loved one, just because I put pressure on. Social responsibility is key to what my wife and I put at the top of the priority list for our staff.