THROUGH a focus on the safety, health and wellbeing of its 7000 employees, logistics services provider Qube Group has reduced injuries by over 40% and won an icare Aware Award.
“Qube’s story is a great example of how creating a culture of wellness, coupled with good safety practices, can help prevent accidents and injuries at work,” icare’s injury prevention manager Jennifer Cameron, said.
Recognising the implications of an unhealthy workplace, Qube has been on a journey over the past five years to reduce injuries and illnesses at work by continuously improving the health and wellbeing of its people.
Over that time, Qube’s lost time injury rate has dropped by 65% and, where an incident has occurred, employees are returning to work faster with the average days off work dropping by over 17% since 2016.
The company has also seen a substantial drop in workers compensation claims across some of their high-risk sites, with the total number of claims dropping by more than 40% over the past two years.
“Like many employers, the combination of an aging workforce and deterioration in community health and lifestyle standards can pose a significant risk to workplace health and safety”, said Qube’s group manager health and wellbeing, Joe Toohey, said.
“Put simply, people are working longer than ever before because they need to. This calls for a cultural change to highlight the importance of work and the positive impact it has on someone’s health and lifestyle”, he said.
In consultation with its people and with the high-risk areas in mind, Qube introduced QubeCare, a program of initiatives across its 130 sites, addressing challenges such as mental health, physical fitness and managing fatigue.
One of QubeCare’s recent initiatives – Step Up to the Qube Challenge – invited employees across the company’s Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia and China operations to participate in a six-week step competition. Close to 40% of Qube’s 7000 employees participated in the competition, including the managing director himself.
“We’re still learning about what works for us at Qube. Some of our programs have landed better than others with our employees but that’s all part of the process. It’s not set and forget,” Mr Toohey said.
