Synlait Safe | Making people care about health and safety
There’s a pretty simple science behind all communications or PR campaigns.
At their heart, they’re about making people do, think or feel something.
The trick is working out who the target audiences are, what we need to say, and what we want them to do. Add to that, figuring out how best to package that information so it cuts through - and that’s a comms strategy in a nutshell.
The good folk at Synlait get that, so when they wanted to elevate health and safety standards, they demanded an innovative approach to get their people to truly care about health and safety.
They wanted a culture shift.
Acknowledging that change is a gradual process, we took a phased campaign approach.
Pre-campaign
We began by asking the team “Why does safety matter to you?”. This prompted conversations about why people come to work each day (to feed their family) and why they want to get home safely (so they can play rugby, go mountain climbing or play with their children). It ensured the team was in the right mindset for the campaign launch.
Phase one
A new brand Synlait Safe was unveiled during activation weeks at each of Synlait’s North and South Island sites. The brand was a result of collaboration with the priority audience because Synlait wanted a brand that resonated with high-risk audiences.
The activations were carefully-designed action-packed weeks with multiple touch points for every staff member – team talks, guest speakers, photo props, workshops, BBQs (Safety Sizzles) and fun games that highlighted the impacts of fatigue, distraction and time pressure on staff performance.
Phase two
Let’s get to Synlait Safe! saw packs sent to the homes of all 1,200 employees.
Why home? Because it grabbed attention (when was the last time your employer sent your family a package?) and it triggered conversations about safety within the homes of Synlait staff.
Each pack included a pledge from the CEO, an overview of the Synlait Safe journey that the company was embarking on, detailed information about the upcoming safety and training changes, treats, an advent calendar (it was Christmas time) and a magnetic photo frame so they could take a photo of why it was important their loved one kept safe at work.
Those photos were shared in the workplace with a competition and a hard-hitting video (produced, shot, edited by and featuring Great Scotties) pushing the message home.
Since then, Synlait Safe has been kept alive with regular focus areas that use creative tools to get cut through on specific health and safety issues, including a parody music video to encourage people to reverse park (it’s hilarious and we’ve shared it at the end of this blog).
The impact
Synlait Safe reduced the Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate (TRIFR) by 30% (year-on-year) during Synlait’s peak production period, and all sites now have an 80 - 100% compliance rate with their reverse parking policy.
Gallup employee engagement scores increased, as did the number of safety observation reports, indicating a commitment from staff to proactively address hazards.
Best of all, Synlait Safe has become a cultural centrepiece with staff regularly asking the Health and Safety team what they’re doing next. The team continues to update staff with their ‘Safety Sizzles’ every quarter.