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Christmas 2011 |
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Welcome to the Christmas edition
The end of the year is almost upon us and I'm sure you are breathing a sigh of relief to have reached this far and are looking forward to a break and a chance to recharge the batteries.
The last couple of months have been pretty busy for us after the RWC lull. Now everyone wants everything before Xmas and we are juggling priorities to try and keep our loyal clients happy!
There are some significant things we had to complete before we break - the pilot of our new ICAM training course, the inaugural NEBOSH Diploma, the Business Leaders Forum Benchmarking tool and the roll out of CPNZ. Apart from the last week of NEBOSH, which starts in a few days, we have hit all our targets and have some great news to share with you below.
And the positive signs of greater safety leadership I reported in my last newsletter seem to be growing with some interesting developments in the area of governance and Board level involvement. I doubt we would have seen as much coverage of safety issues in the media over recent days if it had not been for the daily reminders of anniversaries, pending prosecutions and damning revelations at the Pike River Royal Commission. So if some positive change can come from the tragedy of those 29 men we can end the year on a hopeful note.
All the team at Impac join me in wishing you a safe and relaxing holiday season. We will be back at work on 9th January and look forward to working with you in the year ahead.
Mike Cosman
Managing Director
Impac Training Quality Confirmed
As an NZQA accredited Private Training Establishment we have to meet rigorous quality standards set by NZQA. Previously they conducted a triennial audit of PTEs against a range of criteria, however in 2011, NZQA moved to a different system of external evaluation and review. This approach is based on self assessment by the PTE of their strengths and areas for improvement followed by a quality review which looks at various aspects of performance.
The process was very demanding and included interviews with senior managers, trainers, clients and trainees as well as reviewing our materials, student achievement data and policies.
The final report was received in November (although the process started in February) with an overall result of “Highly Confident in educational performance”.
This is derived from of a series of more detailed assessment questions and Focus Areas with NZQA’s response in bold:
- How well do learners achieve? Excellent
- What is the value of the outcomes for key stakeholders, including learners? Excellent
- How well do programmes and activities match the needs of learners and other stakeholders? Excellent
- How effective is the teaching? Excellent
- How well are learners guided and supported? Excellent
- How effective are governance and management in supporting educational achievement? Excellent
- Focus area: Governance, management, and strategy Excellent
- Focus area: Health and Safety Representatives Stage 1 (especially unit standard 20198) Excellent
- Focus area: Health and Safety Representatives Stage 2 (especially unit standard 17602) Good
To say we are delighted with this affirmation of the effort we have put into ensuring our materials, delivery and infrastructure support are relevant, modern and meeting client’s needs would be an understatement. A huge thanks to all those who have contributed to this success and to our clients who provide us with the opportunity to showcase what we can achieve.
The full report will be posted on the NZQA website in due course.
ICAM training launched
 Many of you will have heard of ICAM (Incident Cause and Analysis Model). It is an advanced investigation process derived from the work of Prof James Reason and based on his famous Swiss Cheese model.
ICAM was initially developed by BHP but they have kindly made it available for anyone who wants to use it. A number of our clients –especially those with connections to Australia, use ICAM as their standard investigation model but up until now have been unable to get their staff trained in NZ without bringing trainers over from Australia at great cost.
We recognised the opportunity to build on our experience in investigation and investigation training and to make it easier for those clients so built our own ICAM course which we piloted with a small group of key clients and staff last month.
The reaction was very positive and once we have completed the changes suggested by the group we will be up and running for public and in-house courses from January.
The ICAM training runs over 2 days and covers everything from immediate actions post incident, planning the investigation, gathering information, analysing and categorising the causative factors, corrective actions and reporting. For more details see our website
CPNZ
 CPNZ is now live and kicking with a number of contractors having already completed the online prequalification assessment and literally hundreds more waiting in the wings. Meanwhile we are building our team of assessors with two more due to start work in January.
The number of clients who have committed to using CPNZ as part of their contractor management process is growing as word spreads and awareness of the need to be more diligent in the selection of contractors based on their commitment, competence and capability grows.
An example of this awareness raising was the presentation at the recent LegalSafe workshops where Alan Cooper, National Practice Leader for the DoL talked about how they are challenging all those in the supply chain from client, designer, project manager and contractors to collaborate to ensure safe projects. DoL have recently taken a number of prosecutions (with more in the pipeline) that emphasise the joint responsibility of all parties, regardless of how directly involved in the actual work they are.
The CPNZ website includes a detailed section of FAQs about how it works and prospective clients can get a demonstration of the system’s capability by email Tom Reeves or Jacqui Bree
Safety leadership
Our leadership programme includes a range of elements which can be delivered to groups, safety culture surveys –for the whole business or the SMT, and one to one coaching of senior managers to help them develop their own leadership style and approach.
The safety leadership programme is highly personalised to each business and is only delivered by Impac Directors. For more information please email Mike.
Risk Manager Update
Risk Manager has recently undergone a number of enhancements to meet client needs and is currently being assessed by a range of large and small organisations looking for a flexible, cost effective solution to their risk and safety management information needs. Feedback from clients about our Report Builder capability has been very positive and there is growing demand for more personalised and customised reporting to help make complex performance data more readily assimilated.
Impac Launches New Industry Benchmarking System
Impac recently won a contract with the Dept of Labour on behalf of the Business Leaders Forum, to develop a tool that enables organizations to benchmark their H&S performance (e.g. LTIFR and TRIFR) against other organizations in their industry sector, in NZ and enable wider international comparisons.
Over the past two months, Richard has been working closely with our developers to deliver a solution utilizing our existing Risk Manager Information Management System. The result is a user friendly tool with new grid entry pages that use the latest in .NET technology, combined with a reporting tool that can produce trend graphs for any safety measure with a click of the mouse.
The tool has been pilot tested with excellent feedback being received. We encourage clients who wish to be involved in industry benchmarking and wider leadership initiatives to join the Business Leaders Forum.
Staffing changes
We are sorry to announce the departure of Jim Allardyce who has been a Senior Consultant/Trainer with Impac for the last 2 years. Jim is returning to Northland, where he worked when he first came to NZ, and has secured a role at the NZ Refining Company. We wish him every success in his new role.
Meanwhile we have recruited 4 CPNZ assessors based in Auckland. The team now comprises Stephen Harrison, Chris Walton, Peter Holt and Lois Morrison together with Jacqui Bree the CPNZ Business Manager. Their range of skills include practical contractor management, project management, contractor accreditation, health and safety management, training and development management, quality assurance, auditing (including ACC and quality systems), health and safety regulation, etc. All CPNZ assessors either hold or are in the process of attaining tertiary level health and safety qualifications.
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