Requirement

Gold Fields’ first and most important value is Safety, captured in their value statement – “if we cannot mine safely, we will not mine”. Gold Fields, South Deep Gold Mine recognised that entrenching safe behaviours was critical to creating a safe working environment, especially in areas of the mine with high exposure to Material Unwanted Events (MUEs). R&A has worked as South Deep’s communication consultancy since 2019 and in 2022, South Deep requested R&A to develop a safety campaign aimed at all employees to drive behavioural change where employees understood that safety is a shared responsibility.

Communication response

R&A developed the In Our Hands safety campaign, to ensure employees understand the behaviours, practices and critical controls that must be in place to prevent MUEs and ultimately eliminate serious injuries and fatalities at South Deep. An overall In Our Hands campaign logo was developed for the campaign with sub-logos for each of the 12 MUEs which would be communicated during the campaign. MUEs related to both underground and surface environments.

The campaign ran over two years, and R&A contributed
the following:

• Development of introductory material explaining the concepts and terms that would be used during the campaign to assist leaders and supervisors familiarise these with their teams
• Development of communication material that described each MUE, where on the mine it would most likely occur, the critical controls that needed to be in place to prevent it from occurring and the safe behaviours expected of employees.
• Development of speaking notes and communication guide for leaders on each MUE to assist them in communicating with their teams.
• Development of a poster for each MUE highlighting the critical controls which are printed and displayed on mine.
• An animation for each MUE was distributed on the South Deep WhatsApp channel and played on mine screens
• Development of an interactive activity poster with space for team members to answer questions related to the MUE for leaders to gauge if their teams have understood the concepts

Outcome

The In Our Hands campaign resulted in a drop in serious injuries related to MUEs and two fatality-free years on the mine. South Deep has also reported a greater awareness of safety, the critical controls being applied to prevent an MUE from occurring and a noticeable behaviour change among all levels of employees taking responsibility for ensuring a safe working environment.