Did you know we dedicate a whole week each year to safety training?

Safety is part of what we do every day, but once a year we set aside dedicated time for our teams to step away from their usual routines and put an extra focus on training, refreshing important skills, and getting equipment tested and calibrated.

For this Safety Week edition of That’s a Good Question, we caught up with Zak to find out what happens during the week, who gets involved and why making dedicated time for it is so important in our industry.

What is Safety Week?

Safety Week is a week where we take a bit of time out of our normal day-to-day routines to get our gear tested and calibrated and do some refresher training.

This year we’ve done chainsaw refreshers for our field staff, along with electrical testing and fault-finding.

We’ve also had pole-top rescue training happening, facilitated by our lines and cable teams.

Who participates in Safety Week?

Basically everybody who works in our field department gets involved.

We also have some hybrid staff, like project managers who have come from field roles. We like to keep their qualifications and competencies current too, so they take part in relevant training and refreshers.

Why is refresher training so important?

Some of the things we train for aren’t things we ever hope to have to do in real life.

Pole-top rescue is a good example of that.

But if you do find yourself in a situation where you need those skills, it’s important that you’re refreshed and know what to do.

We work in a high-risk industry, so keeping our competencies and training up to date is really important.

Why does it take a whole week once a year?

We still need to keep our day-to-day work flowing, so we don’t take everyone off the tools at once.

Each crew has dedicated time during the week to complete their training and get their gear tested and calibrated, while other crews keep working out on the network.

It means everyone gets the time they need to refresh their skills and keep their competencies up to date, without bringing our normal work to a stop.

Got a good question?

Safety is part of every job, every day. Safety Week gives us dedicated time to step away from the day-to-day and focus on the training, skills and equipment that help our people work safely.

That’s a Good Question is our chance to answer some of the things people ask us about our network and the work our teams do.