Health & Safety in action!
Transpower STAR awards recognise excellence in health and safety in the electrical industry. Northpower prides itself on health and safety and this year we received nominations in three categories: our Live Electricity Working Group was nominated for the Team Safety Award, our Kaitiaki Network for the Hauora Wellbeing Award and Matt Iorangi, our Learning and Development Delivery Manager, for the Thought Leadership Category. Northpower is proud of all our nominees, and excited that Matt Iorangi not only won in his category of Thought Leadership, but also took out the event’s highest honour, the Supreme award.
In announcing Matt’s win, the judges confirmed he was a relatable role-model to all his colleagues, an enabler and facilitator for middle management, and has a reputation that gains the confidence and trust of senior management. His work fosters safety participation and leadership from the ground up, encouraging collaboration as teams solve problems and innovate to mitigate critical risks. The past year has seen Northpower regroup around how we address safety, right across the business. It has seen us increasingly place emphasis on enabling safety participation and leadership from the ground up, as opposed to a “top down” model. This encourages collaboration as teams to solve problems and innovate to mitigate critical risks at a local level.
A key driver of safety at Northpower is the National Safety Forum. It brings together groups of people from operational teams all over the business, who use their skill, expertise and insight to test and develop operational practices through a health and safety lens. Matt Iorangi was nominated to the Chairperson of our National Safety Forum in 2019 and has been instrumental in making it a success for Northpower. Prior to taking on his management role, Matt was a valued member of our Transmission team, and is a qualified line mechanic. This invaluable ‘on the tools’ experience gives Matt a great insight into the everyday challenges and health and safety issues, with the ability to relate to teams all across Northpower. “Matt has worked incredibly hard right across our business to earn the trust and respect of our teams,” says Lloyd Richards, General Manager HSQE and Operational Excellence. “His personal growth has been immense, and he is not afraid to challenge when he believes there is a more effective way of achieving a safer outcome. “Matt’s efforts and the restructuring of our Safety Forums have made a tangible difference in increasing engagement and buy-in to health and safety across the business. The new structure of our Safety Forum means we have a ‘bottom up’ approach as opposed to a ‘top down’ one. It promotes issues identification and problem solving at a local and teams level, empowering all of our people to take responsibility for safety leadership.
It’s also underpinned by our four behaviours, which are widely recognised and valued across Northpower – we see them in action every day by our people:
• Be mindful, be present, be safe / He taonga ko tahi manaaki tautau katoa
• Act as one / Kotahitanga
• Earn the trust / Kaitiakitanga
• Own the outcome / Kia mau te kaupapa Engagement and participation at our Safety Forum has grown, resulting in highly relevant topic choices and powerful discussions. The restructuring of the Forum, combined with the excellent leadership and stewardship of Matt Iorangi means Northpower’s safety journey is on an extremely positive trajectory. We look forward to continuing the progress we have made so far and further impact on creating the safest workplace we possibly can for our people.