A people-first safety consultancy
with a practical approach to
workforce challenges.

Worker wearing a white hard hat, bending down to inspect some pipes

Old female worker with grey hair smiling on a building site

Male and female works wearing hard hats and inspecting equipment in a factory

Middle aged man with greying beard with his arms folded, working in a mechanic shop

Safety beyond compliance

Verus, is a safety consultancy with a practical approach to workforce related challenges. We design, develop and deploy safety solutions for Australia’s largest organisations to make sure everyone is given the opportunity to get home safely each and everyday.

Leadership and Governance

Strong safety performance depends on strong leaders – leaders who know what’s happening in their business and make the decisions to drive it forward.

Verus can help your leaders set a strategic safety direction and the governance processes to support it.

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Safety Culture

Changing a safety culture is not always easy. You need to understand the current culture, you need commitment from senior leaders, and you need buy-in from the business.

Verus has the tools to help.

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Management Systems

Health and safety management systems provide a framework to meet your legislative
obligations and support you to manage health and safety effectively.

Having the right framework and knowing that it works helps protect workers, improve performance and ultimately, save lives.

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Case Studies

We deliver expert health, safety and environment advice backed by real industry experience.

OneFortyOne – safety culture assessment and operational safety review

OneFortyOne

SCA & OSR

Completed 2022-23

The Challenge

OneFortyOne (OFO) was formed in 2012 following the acquisition of forestry plantation assets from the South Australian State Government. In 2018, they acquired the Jubilee Sawmill along with various New Zealand assets, including forestry plantation and sawmill assets in the Nelson / Marlborough region.

In 2022, OFO appointed a Director of Health & Safety with a remit to improve how the organisation manages health and safety. These improvements will inform the strategic Health and Safety Roadmap, which aims to transform the organisation from a group of separate operational units into a unified, collaborative organisation that manages health and safety consistently and responsibly, and cares for its people and the communities it operates in. Verus was brought in to assist.

Key Results

Provided site-based and consolidated reports detailing findings from the Operational Safety Reviews and Safety Culture Assessments.
Identified common trends and themes to form the basis of the Strategic Health and Safety Plan.
Coached leaders to understand the efforts required to a build a one-culture organisation.

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Nando’s – safety strategy – Aust & NZ

Nando’s

Safety strategy

Completed 2021

The Challenge

Nando’s wanted to transform their HSW program to one that would work in a restaurant environment and meet both New Zealand and Australian legislative requirements for health and safety. It also needed to be developed during the COVID-19 lockdowns and leverage their existing leadership programs and global purpose of ‘changing lives, together’.

Key Results

Reviewed existing OHS performance, information and internal policies and procedures.
Reviewed and conducted interviews remotely with senior leadership.
Engaged with teams remotely to conduct surveys and polls in restaurants across Australia and New Zealand.
Developed a plan that outlined eight key improvement areas.
Tailored improvement areas to both operations and corporate practices.

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Wesfarmers Limited – lead indicator review

Wesfarmers Limited

Lead indicator review

Completed 2022

The Challenge

The Wesfarmers’ Board had maintained a commitment to divisional independence and autonomy, with each division having the freedom to set its own strategic direction. This extended to supporting each division to independently manage and report on its health and safety performance, with Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rates (TRIFR) being the only consistent health and safety performance indicator all divisions had to report on.

However, as divisions became more mature and sophisticated in their safety management, the limitations of reporting on only TRIFR became evident, and there was strong desire from the Board to start reporting on the health of critical risks and critical controls too. Divisions had also been tasked with providing a review of current lead indicators and safety performance/trends, as well as suggesting new lead indicators.

Key Results

Comprehensive analysis of existing lead and lag indicators to understand the story they were telling.
Analysis of existing systems and processes to test the efficacy and accuracy of reporting of existing lead and lag indicators, and to confirm which programs supported performance results.
Suggestions on how existing lead and lag indicators could be enhanced.
Proposing other lead and lag indicators for future consideration.

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Victoria State Emergency Service – lights and sirens review

SES Victoria

Lights-and-sirens review

Completed 2023

The Challenge

Because SES Victoria units are spread across the state and volunteer-run, they face unique challenges around ensuring the completion of practical EVRD skills training – challenges other organisations performing EVRD (for example, Victoria Police) do not always face.

As a result, units had begun to rely on a combination of e-learning and ad-hoc unit-developed practical approaches that SES recognised was not ideal. It was recognised, for example, that an e-learning approach – while meeting the need of accessibility for the dispersed volunteer workforce – could only really deliver a driver’s legislative responsibilities, and not the practical driving skills required for this high-risk work. So, the challenge remained to design an approach that could be brought to units while still providing the skills-based training required.

SES command therefore reached out to Verus to assist with elevating their EVRD training approach to better support their volunteers and the communities they serve.

Key Results

Consulted across Victorian SES units to understand their unique needs and highlight areas for improvement.
Consulted with other emergency services organisations to review their solutions and consider how they might apply to the SES.
Evaluated risks in consultation with Victorian SES management.
Uplifted existing program to contain greater practical application of EVRD, presenting both short and medium-term options – short to address immediate needs and medium to enable proper design of solutions.
Recommended formal testing of driving aptitudes and attitudes, and the use of technology (such as virtual reality) to provide practical local training and competency assessment.

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Coles Group – large re-licence program

Coles Group

Large re-licence program

Completed 2022

The Challenge

For consistency across audits and reporting, Coles wanted to appoint a consulting firm that had OIR-approved auditors who were practical in engaging with site personnel and reviewing evidence. Timeframes were critical, with self-insurers unable to negotiate revised deadlines and only a finite number of approved auditors available with multiple licences due.

Key Results

A tailored program that included bespoke audit tools to streamline audit activities and enabled a suitable number of sites to be audited within the tight timeframes.
A strong pool of auditors, which meant we could put forward additional auditors for approval by the regulator.

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Aurizon – combined self-insurance and AS4801 audit

Aurizon

Combined self-insurance and AS4801 audit

Completed 2018

The Challenge

For every safety licence or certification, there is usually a separate audit. However, this can mean multiple audits end up assessing the same thing, taking up internal resources as well as financial resources for the external auditor. It can also mean resources diverted from other safety efforts.

Aurizon wanted both self-insurance for commercial reasons and external certification to demonstrate its industry leadership and class-leading safety program – but wanted to reduce the duplication, time and effort normally required.

Key Results

We recommended various improvements to procurement & contractor systems to ensure:

We developed an MOU with a certification body that allowed us to complete a single audit program and use the results separately to have both the certification issued and the self-insurance requirements satisfied.
The combined audit program enabled the client to consider corrective actions that would satisfy both self-insurance and external certification.

Aurizon was successful in attaining both their self-insurance licence and external standard certification, while saving money and improving their safety management system overall.

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A people-first safety consultancy
with a practical approach to
workforce challenges.