By Megan McLaren

Until I joined Optus’ customer experience team over 17 years ago, I’d worked mainly in executive admin roles at large companies. I’d been a first-aider since I was a teenager so I always took on company First Aid volunteer roles, but it wasn’t until I neared a milestone birthday while at Optus that I decided to make a career change and obtain my OHS Cert IV.

I wanted to be more hands-on in my role, assessing risks and developing strategies to improve health and safety throughout the organisation. Workplace safety is something I’ve become truly passionate about and it’s been great being part of a whole raft of initiatives at Optus that keep our employees safe and well.

Today, I’m proud to be a Work Health & Safety Systems Specialist.

Keeping our people safe is always front of mind

My role is primarily to look after our online incident program. We are constantly improving our systems and I am currently working with developers on an enhanced reporting system to roll out this hugely exciting new system that does so much more to support our safety systems at Optus.

My other main focus is overseeing Emergency Management across all sites. I love working with all of our volunteer wardens and first-aiders – they’re the absolute backbone of our site safety mechanisms.

Championing National Safe Work Month

October is National Safe Work Month, to build awareness of safety in the workplace. We’re using it to remind our people every day that ‘Safety First’ isn’t just a catchy tagline – safety needs to be a first consideration in everything we do. Most people don’t take intentional risks, but accidents happen due to lack of concentration, overconfidence, and taking shortcuts. We have to be mindful of safety at all times.

Everyone has the right to a safe workplace. We are so lucky in Australia to have rigour and awareness in this area. Work is important, but staying healthy is most important of all.

Optus' WHS initiatives 

Since we first became aware of COVID-19, so many of our teams at Optus have stepped up to work alongside our WHS department to make our sites safe. Our Facilities, HR and Risk teams have collaborated to put new protocols in place, assess potential problems and reduce the risks and impact of COVID-19 on our workforce.

It’s been a great opportunity for all of us to develop insights right across the business and to protect and care for our people. We have even been commented on by regulators, who have identified our systems as best practice for COVID-19.

More generally, we have a huge range of other safety initiatives in place at Optus as well. We have many great training options and programs available to our leaders and people to help minimise risks across the organisation. We have a great portal internally for all things safety related, and we’ve also been delivering an exceptional program for leaders and employees to get involved in.

Another major focus is mental health, especially during a year like this. We provide a variety of health and wellbeing options, like tele-health services, ergonomic support and EAP support. Finally, we have Critical Incident Hotlines open 24/7 to support our people in the event of an emergency and/or crisis.

If you’re looking to work for an organisation that puts safety and wellbeing at the forefront, check out our current roles here.