More specifically, Blackwoods is currently working on a number of sustainability initiatives in the areas of:
Health and safety
The Blackwoods Health and Safety strategy focuses on four pillars: governance, operational excellence, physical well-being and psychological well-being.
Blackwoods total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) improved by 18 per cent in FY18. Hazard/Near-Miss reporting, Walk the Talks and Branch Plan completion rates were all above target.
Health and well-being initiatives across Blackwoods include an Employee Assistance Program Provider, 10,000 step physical activity challenge and delivery of a health and well-being survey to inform program development.
In the operational excellence space, Blackwoods swapped out difficult to manoeuvre and potentially dangerous magnetic hoops, which are used in the embroidery processes, to reduce hazardous manual tasking on heavy garments. The initial scoping of distribution centre upgrades was completed in consultation with an ergonomic expert to improve design of tasks and physical environments.
Planning for the time of your life
Blackwoods has identified an increasing corporate risk associated with a maturing workforce, and has delivered a series of life stage planning workshops for age mature employees. During the year it introduced a program to address the cost of illness and injury, and the loss of business knowledge and customer serviceability as older employees left the organisation. Extensive business analytics were undertaken to identify the quantum of risk and associated cost implications on the business.
Participants aged 45 years and older were invited to engage in workshops which focused on academic research and empirical evidence relating to the challenges of aging and the health benefits of good work.
The aim of each workshop was to give the participants time to specifically consider their own circumstances. Participants were invited to consider their longer term working options and were given a refresh of organisational policies and procedures in relation to flexible working options.
Ethical sourcing
Blackwoods, part of Wesfarmers Industrial & Safety (WIS), is a recognised leader in managing design, development and supply chains globally. As such, we are committed to working with our supply partners to continuously improve ethical business practices by engaging with them to deliver sustainable solutions. We aim to not only better mitigate reputation risk to our business and our valued customers by building stronger relationships with our preferred suppliers, we also proactively promote responsible behaviour to protect our brands and the well-being of workers, and their communities in the factories we work with.
Blackwoods has in place a governance framework to ensure our Ethical Sourcing Program is executed & monitored in line with agreed strategy and process. Ethical Sourcing KPI’s such as independent audit frequency, timely assessment/remedy of compliance criticalities and training deliverables are reported annually and published via the Wesfarmers Sustainability Report, which is independently audited.
Utilising the respected SMETA 6.0 audit methodology developed by Sedex, we ensure we are continually evolving to align with global best practice. As such, we hold our suppliers accountable in a range of areas including safety practices, legal compliance, labour and human rights, modern slavery, anti-bribery and environmental impact. Our mission is to know, trust and support our supply partners to make our impact on global supply chains positive.
Sedex Member
Since 2017, WIS has partnered with Sedex, a global database for sharing factory audits on ethical compliance to reduce audit fatigue and streamline efficiencies for our suppliers.
Blackwoods Quality Policy
Click here to view PDF.
Product safety and quality
Blackwoods is committed to maintaining its place as Australia’s first choice for industrial and safety products and services by continually maintaining and improving the quality of its processes and products.
We maintain an effective quality management system, accredited to ISO 9001 and work closely with suppliers across many operational areas such as quality systems, compliance and sustainability.
Putting customers and safety first, we ensure that our products and services meet the relevant legislative and industry based requirements and comply with recognised local and international standards in line with expectations.
Climate change resilience and energy efficiency
We strive to reduce the emissions intensity of our businesses and improve their resilience to climate change.
Electricity use drops by 25 per cent over three years at Blackwoods
Blackwoods as a businesses has reduced electricity use by 25 per cent between 2015 and 2018. This significant reduction in electricity use has been via energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on our sites.
Blackwoods has undergone a process of replacing inefficient fluorescent tubes and metal halide high bay lights with LED lighting across its branches and distribution centres. This program and the installation of solar PV arrays on major distribution centres has saved more than 2,000,000 kilowatt hours. This is equivalent to the annual energy use of approximately 300 average Australian homes.
The carbon footprint of the Blackwoods distribution network has reduced by over 2,000 tonnes of CO2e since 2015.
Blackwoods accelerates its focus on Indigenous inclusion
In 2017 Blackwoods accelerated its focus on Indigenous inclusion and increased employment of Indigenous team members by over 285 per cent, to 50 people. Blackwoods has reached its Indigenous employment target of three per cent to reflect the population of the broader Australian community. Team members have been recruited across the country for a wide range of roles in functions such as customer service, warehouse logistics and digital marketing.
Blackwoods has undertaken a number of activities to share experiences with Indigenous students. Blackwoods commenced a partnership with CareerTrackers and brought on three Indigenous interns who underwent a three-month program during the year. One of the interns was offered and accepted a permanent position as a Graduate following successful completion of their internship. Blackwoods has also arranged for Clontarf Foundation Indigenous students to visit Blackwoods distribution centres in Western Australia and Victoria, as well as accommodating school-based trainees from Clontarf in its Western Australia operations.
Blackwoods is also a founding member of Supply Nation, an organisation dedicated to supporting Indigenous suppliers. In its goods-not-for-resale, services and contractor procurement, Blackwoods engages 24 Indigenous suppliers to provide products and services. Through purchasing products and services from these small to medium Indigenous enterprises, Blackwoods is fostering the growth and development of Indigenous businesses, as well as their employees and families. In late 2016, Blackwoods’ collaboration with Indigenous partner Geared Up Culcha secured a $1 million contract to supply apparel to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Blackwoods supports Fred Hollows Foundation with $1M donation over 12 years
Blackwoods’ support for The Fred Hollows Foundation's Indigenous Australia Health Program was established in 2006. Through proceeds from the sale of a select range of products and employee and supplier support, Blackwoods has contributed more than $1million to support Indigenous health programs in the past 12 years.
During the year Blackwoods reviewed its support to Fred Hollows Foundation and announced an improved contribution of 10 percent of proceeds from the sale of Prosafe eye and face protection products going directly to The Fred Hollows Foundation. As a result, Blackwoods contributed more than $600,000 in FY18.
People Development
We aim to build both functional and leadership capabilities through the development, execution and evaluation of programs that deliver tangible outcomes aligned to business objectives.
Three key focus areas for the year were sales competence, frontline leadership development, and commercial acumen. WIS built and delivered a sales program called SEAD Fundamentals aimed at establishing a best in class selling methodology for all sales team members. We delivered 35 programs across Australia and New Zealand reaching over 350 external sales employees and six programs reaching over 100 inside sales team members. We also delivered six Strategic Selling programs to over 70 senior sales leaders.
We also built and delivered a three-day program for frontline leadership and delivered 13 courses nationally, reaching over 140 employees. Finally, we rolled out a four hour Commercial Fundamentals program geared at all employees and delivered 96 programs to over 944 employees in varied roles and levels of seniority. The focus going forward is to embed the new learnings through on the job coaching.
Gender balance
We continue to foster a culture of balance and inclusion through tangible actions. We selected a number of females identified as talent to participate in a pilot mentoring program. We ensure our recruitment practices have gender-balanced representation by ensuring at least one female applicant in every shortlist and we set this minimum standard for our external recruitment partners. Our interview panels for senior and key appointments have male and female representation.
Our employee engagement is consistent across gender with our survey scores confirming no significant difference cross gender for any factor measured. Our specific survey question “my business actively supports gender balance initiatives” shows no significant difference by gender and was in the top 25 per cent highest scoring questions.