In any workplace, employees can face competing demands that can prevent safety from being the number one priority. At Anglo American, we believe all injuries and incidents are preventable, and that it is how we respond to this challenge that determines our success and safety.

It is this conviction that is behind our Safety 365 engagement programme – a year-long, rolling campaign spanning our entire organisation, which seeks to ensure that the safety of our people takes priority over everything else.

A key element is our annual Global Safety Day, set aside to allow time for us to focus unconditionally on the roles we each must play in prioritising safety and wellbeing. It brings individuals and teams from across our business together to reinforce our universal commitment to safety, and to focus on improvements we can make in our pursuit of achieving zero harm.

The theme of this year’s activation, ‘Stand up for Safety’, is about ensuring we always have the courage and conviction to do the right, safe thing; holding ourselves and our teammates to account, and taking pride in following our processes and procedures, because we know they define the safest way to work and drive continuous improvement.

It also recognises that our strength is in our differences; that everyone has the right and responsibility to stop unsafe work, and that our differences only serve to make us stronger as a team.

This is just one aspect of a more holistic approach to safety that we employ at Anglo American; an approach that encompasses Safety 365 and our Group Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Policy, and that is guided by three core principles:

• We apply a Zero Mindset to everything we do, with the aim of eliminating, remediating and offsetting the safety, health and environmental impacts and risks from our activities.
• We take all the necessary steps to learn from our incidents, with the objective of avoiding making the same mistake twice.
• We adhere to simple and non-negotiable standards, which are applicable throughout the entire Anglo American Group as a minimum requirement.

Our efforts are also underpinned by a set of policies and requirements that complement applicable safety laws, and ensure all our employees and contractors are appropriately trained and competent to manage their own safety, and that of their colleagues. 

We also leverage the power of technological innovation, to ensure effective management and control, with FutureSmart Mining™, our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining, focused on keeping our people well and safe from harm. One example, featured in the last issue of Future Forward, outlined how, by introducing autonomous drill systems across our mines, we can transform the way we work by removing people from harm’s way.

Equally important is to recognise that mental health and wellbeing plays as important a role as physical health. Over the past few years in particular, the restrictions and challenges of Covid-19 have put many under unprecedented pressure. This has amplified an existing worldwide emergency, which has led to new levels of awareness about the implications and human cost of failing to ensure the right safeguards for people’s mental health.

We have also spent a lot of time discussing psychological safety and the importance of providing a safe environment for colleagues – no matter their role – to feel empowered to call out practices and behaviours that could be unsafe, and potentially put people in harm’s way.

Integral to Compliance and high performance as much as Safety, that is why nothing should take precedence over doing things the right way – because that really is the only way. There’s no easy answer but, by leading with safety, and investing in health and wellbeing, we can get ever closer to our goal of zero harm.