Safety man Mike’s vital work online

If we’ve learnt one thing these past 18-months, it is that necessity is the mother of invention.

 This has been especially so with our working lives with work from home, hot-desking, casual office arrangements, and online meetings, becoming commonplace.

 Top local SafeworkNSW trainer, Michael Middleton, has now extended this new technology to his workplace health and safety courses.

 Using a top-level interactive video-conferencing system titled Realtime Remotely Controlled Learning (RTRCL), he has been able to continue his vital work during the COVID lockdowns.

 “The point is, it is all because of COVID that we’ve had so many disruptions,” he explained.

 “With these courses, you’ve got people coming from all over NSW, some areas are locked down, others aren’t, with their travel status suddenly changing overnight,” he added.

 Because of the essential nature of his work though — the courses are an essential health and safety component of modern business practice — a solution needed to be found.

 “SafeworkNSW provided us with a solution, though we have to jump through some hoops to make it work,” Michael said.

 “I was running one from Parkes, and we got two days into a five-day course for health And safety representatives, and we got shutdown, so now we are going to do that by Zoom,” he said.

 “I’m going to do the last three days of that one, and I’ve got one scheduled for a government department for Dubbo and that’s going to be done by remote learning; we’ve got others at Broken Hill and Narrabri,” he added.

 Using software from Microsoft Teams, he said that the solution, while not ideal, is a way to ensure that local companies remain compliant with their health and safety training for staff.

 “It’s not going to be as easy that’s for sure, while that’s going to be the skill of the trainer to keep them engaged, to get them in and keep them learning,” he said.

 He added that protocols are being put in place to ensure that all learning activities are being carried-out in real-time by the participants.

 “If you think about these differences, they’re not insurmountable.

 “We do have a limit of 10 in a class for RTRCL while face-to-face its 20 so it’s not exactly the same, but it’s better than not having the courses at all,” he said.

 Managing Director of Midd-West Risk Management, Michael has more than three-decades experience in workplace health and safety and is also a “Master Auditor” — one of the few in Australia — with a worldwide safety assessment organisation called Exemplar Global.

Mike started his career in OHS back in 1987 when he was appointed Regional Manager for Lithgow/Dubbo/Young. “Interestingly, Orange City Council was the first organisation back in 1987 for which I conducted a full OHS audit, under the NSCA banner,” he said.

Few people would know the importance of an auditor, so Mike runs us through the highs and lows of the job.

“A well-conducted (grading) audit with recommendations, provides a sound platform for an organisation to build a systematic, compliant way of doing WHS, which in turn should allow Directors and Managers the chance to sleep more peacefully knowing that things are in place to minimise their WHS risk/s.  

“The most challenging part would be getting a good handle on the particular type of industry, ensure an appropriate audit tool is available or in some cases, developed, and delivering a great report with recommendations for improvement.

“On quite a few occasions I have had to review an organisation’s WHS Management Systems after a death or serious injury – then compile a report that will ‘stand up in Court’ and even appear in Court to be cross-examined as an expert-witness.  For such, you have to be on your game and know your WHS ‘stuff’,” Mike said.

His courses range from training for health and safety representatives, training for health and safety committees, and special one-day courses for committee chairpersons.

 The interruptions over the past 18-months, he says, are all part of the swings and roundabouts of a long and successful working life doing what he loves.

 “I’ve been doing this 34 years, during that time, I’ve put 21,000 people through my courses,” he said proudly.

  For more information, phone: 0418 435 250 or email: admin@middwest.net