A MASSIVE <br> SHOUT-OUT <br> — SARAH
The embodiment of everything we love in our collaborators.
Last fortnight we shared our belief in the benefits of taking things too far — a willingness to do whatever it takes to get a result. And nobody embodies this better than Sarah Cuscadden, Group HSE manager at Probuild.
In a high risk industry, ensuring everyone goes home safe each day is no small challenge. Yet Sarah has achieved results that are incredible by any standards, and left a massive impact on her organisation, industry and countless lives.
From being audacious enough to bring emotion and humour into safety messaging, to approaching safety experientially using human-centered design principles, Sarah isn’t afraid to take a different approach to safety. And the proof is in the results.
As she moves on to other adventures (we can’t wait to see what Sarah achieves in her new role), we thought it high time to reflect on some of the work we’ve been privileged to do together.
Building Safety Greatness program
When we first met Sarah back in 2017, Probuild’s systems and processes were spot on, but Sarah wasn’t content with compliance — she wanted to set the benchmarks for safety in the construction industry.
Building Safety Greatness was built on a foundation of three emotions to drive behavioural and culture change, and improve overall HSE performance. Flouting every rule in typical corporate communication, safety messaging employed memes, comics and videos; challenging assumptions around appropriate workplace language through a colloquial tone of voice and irreverent illustrations featuring the occasional cheeky bum crack.
By the end of the first year, Sarah’s vision and dedication to a different approach to safety saw dramatic improvements to key metrics.
Lost Time Injuries (LTI):
41%
improvement
Medical Treatment Injuries (MTI):
Incident Frequency Rate:
32%
improvement
17%
improvement
HSE risk microlearning
Given the crucial nature of the subject matter, Sarah wanted to make Probuild’s HSE risk learning experience more engaging, memorable and measurable.
Together, we took the content and completely reimagined how it was delivered — taking it from the classroom and turning it into an on-the-job microlearning experience, considering context, storytelling and visuals to improve cognition and recall.
This saw Probuild dramatically increase their training attendance and completion rate from 20% in some states, to a massive 80% nationally.
View the full case study here.
Prostart onboarding experience
Building on Sarah’s initial vision for Building Safety Greatness, and in partnership with Probuild’s People & Culture team, we helped design an onboarding experience that would be truly reflective of their vision: a commitment to building greatness, and their employee value proposition: an experience beyond expectation.
Prostart seamlessly blends technology and human, considering the experience of a new Probuilder over 365-days — commencing from the moment of job offer right through to celebrating one year of service.
This cross-functional collaboration between HSE and P&C saw safety become an integral part of onboarding. As a result, new Probuilders are not only more engaged and productive, they’re also less likely to be injured. And with so many administrative tasks automated, the People and Culture team has more time to spend on high impact work.
Has the assistance you’ve been receiving to get onboard been helpful (1-5):
4.6
Administrative tasks automated per new hire:
98
People & Culture hours saved per year through automation:
288
Reduction in turnaround time retrieving new hire paperwork:
72%
View the full case study here.
Check ya nuts & bolts men’s health campaign
In an industry composed predominantly of males, a men’s health campaign simply begged for a riské treatment. Sarah was not afraid to go there.
Construction and crotches — could there be a more perfect punworthy combination. Check ya nuts & bolts strove to be more than the usual flaccid junk rolled out for men’s health campaigns. Rude with a refined execution, we all had a ball working on this one. Yes — loved it to bits! Rose to the challenge to tackle it head on! Etcetera, etcetera.
A lighthearted project with serious implications, the campaign resulted in Probuilders of all ages taking a, erm… large aspect of their health more seriously.
Pro-safety subcontractor safety program
On any construction site, on any given day, the bulk of the workforce is made up of subcontractors. And with multiple trades on site, at different stages of the build, the complexity is considerable.
Pro-safety is Sarah’s passion project — a four year labour of love to raise the standard of safety across the entire construction industry. Examining the lifecycle of the relationship between the principal contractor and subcontractor, the program identifies moments to spark meaningful conversations.
We can’t wait to share this one when it rolls out shortly.