Four large South Auckland-based companies have joined the 2021 Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) Workplace Wellbeing Ecology initiative.

Independent Traffic Control Limited (iTraffic), Asmuss Steel & Flow Control (Asmuss), Armourguard, and Briscoe Group are all large companies with more than 200 employees, many with a high number of Pacific and Māori workforce.

The ACC Workplace Wellbeing Ecology initiative was originally established in 2018 to identify, test, and refine approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of businesses with a high number of Pacific and Māori employees as they are overrepresented in workplace injury statistics.

“Workplace Wellbeing Ecology uses a mix of systems thinking, critical thinking and design thinking to deeply understand complexity and design around the primary causes of workplace health and wellbeing,” says Tapuvakai Vea, Community Initiatives Manager at The Cause Collective.

“It takes a systems approach to better understand and respond to the complex environments that influence and affect health and wellbeing. We work alongside frontline staff and executive leadership to positively disrupt workplace systems that influence the underlying causes of chronic disease and workplace distress including anxiety, frustration, escapism, disengagement, and demotivation.”

The analysis from the first businesses (Bidfood, Downer, Fonterra Brands and Frucor Suntory NZ, and Spotless) in the initiative found that all these stresses are caused by the workplace ecology or ecosystem, in other words, the relationships between staff (people), people and systems, and people and processes.

“We had several success stories from the first businesses involved, particularly Fonterra Brands’, whose frontline staff felt empowered to demonstrate their leadership and skills in the workplace which led to a reduction in harm caused by workplace accidents and a 20% increase in productivity,” says Tapuvakai.

The Workplace Wellbeing Ecology initiative follows a four-step design phase which involves bringing together frontline staff and executive leadership to co-design innovative solutions by building the evidence (phase 1), designing for change (phase 2) prototype and learning (phase 3), and developing for scale and sustainability (phase 4).

“One significant challenge that many businesses face is growing the diversity of the people, perspectives, and insights in our businesses, at all levels to foster innovation and resilience,” says Francois Barton, Executive Director, Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum.

“Leaders need to demonstrate courage to let go of having the answers, actively fostering trust and curiosity, and deliberately involving all the workforce to build a better business in ways that work for all. The ACC Workplace Wellbeing Ecology Initiative brings those ingredients together.”

About ITraffic, Armouguard, Asmuss and Briscoe Group

Asmuss is a privately owned NZ company who supply a broad range of steel and flow control products across the building, construction, civil infrastructure, industrial and manufacturing sectors. They have been in business for 100 years and have over 230 staff at 14 sites around the country. 

“We are excited to partner with The Cause Collective to focus on improving the wellbeing of our Māori and Pasifika workforce.  We are keen to explore the solutions-based process and get engagement and feedback from our staff, something that is vitally important to ensure everyone has an opportunity to influence change. Our main goals from this initiative are to not only enhance engagement but develop wellbeing and ultimately improve the overall safety of our staff,” says Marita Ansell, Chief Financial Officer.

iTraffic, is a New Zealand Māori and Pacific owned business that specialises in the planning, design, implementation, and management of Temporary Traffic Management (TTM) services for all road levels, for all situations, nationwide.

“iTraffic is committed to growing and developing the skills and capability of our team. We understand that when we develop better people, we get a better business. We believe Workplace Wellbeing Ecology has the potential to support the vision, and help influence change and growth within the organisation,” says Betty Mitrova, General Manager Training and Development.

“The application of critical thinking, root cause analysis, problem solving are things that drive a successful operation, but within a busy organisation we tend to focus on the day-to-day operation rather than the big picture., We believe this unique approach will provide support and knowledge from within the operational team to help drive better structure and decision making from the inside out.”

Armourguard Security provide comprehensive and integrated range of security services for commercial, domestic, industrial and Government organisations all over the country.

“We’re excited to participate in workplace wellbeing to get real insight and feedback regarding the wellbeing of our people. With 1270 employees from various ethnicities and backgrounds, it will provide our management team with data that we can use to enhance their wellbeing within our workplace,” says Pritika Naidu, National Employee Health and Safety & Human Resources Advisor.

Briscoe Group Distribution Centre on Hautu Drive in Wiri, supports the Briscoes Homeware, Rebel Sport and Living & Giving stores.

N.B. The Cause Collective is close to finalising a fifth company to join the ACC Workplace Wellbeing Ecology initiative.

For more information about ACC Workplace Wellbeing Ecology contact Tapuvakai Vea ([email protected] or 021 599 265) Duane Mann ([email protected] or 027 2857324).