When it comes to health and safety training, Safety ‘n Action is the first port of call for Altus, a new organisation formed through the merger of Fletcher Aluminium and NALCO. Having completed Safety ‘n Action programmes himself, Health and Safety Advisor Matthew Artz says he can vouch 100 percent for the five-star training Safety ‘n Action delivers.
“I have done their courses myself. The quality is really good, the facilities are really good, the trainers are really good, and the content and material are excellent. With them, you get the complete package,” says Matthew.
“I could go with a provider that costs less, or the course is shorter, but with Safety ‘n Action, the service they provide is phenomenal. You just can’t fault it.”
“When I came on board I met with all the various providers and I really liked what Safety ‘n Action had to offer. Now they are one of our preferred training providers and we use them for everything that we can. Their service is really good, and if we need some training at short notice they are very good at squeezing us in.”
Since the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), Matthew says responsibility is better spread across organisations, employers and employees.
“As far as our industry goes the most significant aspect was the spreading of accountability. Everybody is now responsible and it’s a matter of changing that culture, which I believe we have done a very good job of. Our organisation has always made health and safety a priority, so the culture has always been really good anyway – it really only needed a bit of tweaking.”
That “tweaking” is achieved through a mix of in-house and external training.
“We do the certified stuff through Safety ‘n Action, apart from forklift and first aid which they don’t provide. As far as in-house goes, I do safety training with the guys but it’s not certifiable. We also have an in-house learning and development professional that does NZQA training in some areas.
“With Safety ‘n Action, we do one day courses or two days max. The staff enjoy it and come back happy to get their certification, and competent in doing what they went there to learn. I have only ever had positive feedback from my team about Safety ‘n Action training.”