Case study
The memorial garden at AngloGold Ashanti's corporate office in Johannesburg, South Africa
The safety transformation project is the means by which we intend to achieve a step change in our safety performance and to deliver on our long-term objective of operating an accident-free business. The programme targets systemic cultural change, underpinned by a culture in which all people are treated with dignity and respect.
In implementing safety transformation, we have adopted an approach which ensures that all of the components of the project are made relevant to the business by integrating them into Project ONE. AngloGold Ashanti introduced Project ONE as a business change initiative to improve performance levels across all areas of its business operations through consistent management and systems. Project ONE incorporates the Business Process Framework (BPF), designed to ensure that the right work is done at the right time and in the right way, and the System for People (SP), which targets putting the right people in the right role to do the right work.
Safety transformation is included in both the BPF and SP processes to ensure that safety, as AngloGold Ashanti's first value, is integrated with and driven through Project ONE. “Living safety as our first value means that we believe that people are the business, and our intention is to bring this to reality”, says Safety Transformation Vice President, Brian Chicksen. “So, for example, if SP has been enacted within the organisation to ensure that the right people are doing the right work at the right time, the safety component of this model is to ensure that safety accountabilities for all employees are clear, and appropriate capabilities are developed to support safe work.”
“The anticipated outcome of safety transformation is safe work practices and safe workplaces. The activities which must be undertaken include establishing clear safety expectations and implementing a set of global safety standards, setting clear accountabilities for safety, developing a common approach to safety strategies across the business, and giving effect to these strategies through a universal operating system.”
In the integration work undertaken to date, significant opportunities for reinforcement and synergy have been identified with Project ONE, and are being acted on. Within the SP, generic safety accountabilities have been incorporated into role description templates, and role-specific safety accountabilities will be incorporated into the relevant role descriptions as they are written through line managers. Concepts relating to safety leadership will be integrated into training material which has been developed on Managerial Leadership Practices (MLPs), a key aspect of the SP.
Safety transformation concepts and tools have been aligned to all the aspects of the relevant parts of the BPF. Based on the company’s hazard and risk management and incident management guidelines, this incorporation represents the ‘hardwiring’ of safety transformation into the BPF.
“This detailed work which has been undertaken and continues to be improved ensures the relevance of the safety transformation project to the business – thereby effecting sustainable safety improvements”, concludes Brian. “It is critical to the business achieving the next step change in its safety performance.”