AGnVET

In the heart of the Australian countryside, AGnVET has been cultivating success since 1915. It proudly supports local farmers across the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. With a workforce of 450 people, who specialize in cropping, irrigation, and mixed farming, it’s become a cornerstone of farming supplies and consultation services. However, with its dispersed workforce traveling through all reaches of rural Australia, company leadership wanted to get a better handle on hazard reporting and monitoring to keep its frontline workers safe. We chat with Rebecca De Pinto, Head of People and Culture at AGnVET on how she and the team achieved this. 

Part of the Aussie agricultural ecosystem

AGnVET’s roots run deep in the Australian soil, with its commitment to rural communities and local farmers spanning over a century. Its workers – from storefront branch workers to field advisors – play a crucial role in the Australian agricultural ecosystem. 

The company’s rural based teams include workers who are in a variety of vulnerable positions, including:

• Field service advisors: These are specialists, including agronomists, animal health advisors, and technical service officers. They provide guidance to farmers on optimal farm management techniques. These roles operate motor vehicles, ATVs, and side-by-side vehicles.
• Branch workers: These are retail workers who look after the ‘branches’ (aka retail stores). Branches are a one-stop shop for farmers, where they go to purchase products, such as fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, seed, animal health, stock and domestic water equipment, fencing, and specialist irrigation products. These team members operate forklifts, trucks, and motor vehicles.
• Irrigation specialists: They go out onto the farm to consult and install irrigation pathways and also operate heavy machinery and motor vehicles.

Underreported hazards are a hidden threat

With its employees dispersed across rural farming properties and its 70 brick-and-mortar branches, AGnVET’s leadership is no stranger to the challenges of guaranteeing worker safety. The company was keen to find a solution that enabled it to identify and address potential hazards promptly. At a leadership offsite in late 2022, the team learned that there were only eight hazards flagged and documented during the entire fiscal year – an impossible feat, meaning that many hazards were going unreported and unaddressed. 

“Safety is a priority area of focus and not just something we talk about. We strive every day to build a proactive safety culture,” says Rebecca. “We chose SafetyCulture to make sure we are not only addressing hazards as they are identified, but also fully investing in safety training, equipment, and technology to drive continuous improvement.”

Using the SafetyCulture platform to plant the seeds of change

AGnVET’s irrigation division had been using the SafetyCulture platform for over five years, and seeing good results with incident reporting and resolution. Taking a page from that playbook, AGnVET leadership implemented SafetyCulture across the wider business in July 2023. 

One of the primary motivations for the switch was to improve their safety management system and instill a safety mindset. AGnVET uses the platform on a daily basis, primarily with pre-start checklists for forklifts, trucks, ATVS, side-by-sides, and other machinery, which are driver-operated and carry a risk of personal injury and property damage. They also use Inspections templates for onsite audits of stores and warehouses, implementing scheduled and automated monthly workplace site and emergency facilities checklists. From there, Actions are raised off the back of those audits and inspections by spotting hazards and maintenance requirements, resulting in elimination or mitigation of safety risks and property damage.

Intuitive dashboards via Analytics are available for each branch, so they can track their progress and address any actions. The AGnVET leadership team also has access to all activity and can monitor the use of SafetyCulture at a high level, recognising positive safety improvements and prompting conversations with an individual branch where there is room for improvement. 

Getting a better handle on hazards and near misses

AGnVET has outfitted all of its premises, utes, forklifts, trucks, and side-by-sides with QR codes. When workers encounter a hazard, near miss, or incident, they simply scan the QR code and log it as an Issue in the SafetyCulture platform. 

An area highlighted by branch team members logging Issues has been musculoskeletal injuries from manual handling techniques. Rebecca explains: “Seeing these issues reported via the dashboard has prompted us to identify that we need better training for manual handling.” 

As you might imagine, mobile reception can be patchy in some areas of rural Australia. AGnVET agronomists and other field workers have been using the Issues feature to address concerns about lost connectivity at times when out in the field. The team is currently planning a trial of SafetyCulture’s Lone Worker feature, which can be used to send GPS duress alerts even when there’s no mobile reception. 

Early results show the value

In just the first eight months of implementing SafetyCulture, AGnVET identified over 170 hazards – marking a significant increase in not only the number of hazards, but also in the opportunity to fix them before they become a true danger. 

Over the past year, the company has noted:

• 20x increase in reported hazards since using Issues and predict the full fiscal year increase will be closer to 30x. That number would actually be greater, but because they’re now doing Inspections for prestarts (as opposed to before, when limited inspections were recorded), they’re able to catch hazards early.
• 11k+ Inspections conducted and recorded, compared to the many that were unrecorded when they were using pen and paper methods. 
• 1,000+ Actions have come out of using Inspections, compared to many undocumented actions before SafetyCulture.

Cultivating the foundations of safety within the company

AGnVET’s dedication to safety is underscored by the company’s tagline: ‘Safety first, all day every day.’ For Rebecca, the real success lies in constant improvement from both a safety and cultural perspective. Seeing staff embrace the SafetyCulture platform and witnessing tangible actions taken to create a safer environment brings her a sense of accomplishment.

“Making sure everyone goes home at night is our top priority,” Rebecca says. “The wellbeing of AGnVET’s employees directly impacts the communities they serve. Our people are not just numbers; they have families, partners, and lives outside of work.” 

So, what’s on the horizon? AGnVET envisions a business that continues to grow, focusing on efficiency and customer service, and expanding its services geographically. As well as Lone Worker, it plans to trial our Assets feature to monitor its vehicles, and our mobile Training platform to upskill its workers across 70 physical locations. 

AGnVET remains deeply embedded in local communities. You can bet that SafetyCulture will continue to be a trusted ally as AGnVET grows, contributing both to its people’s safety and to the cultural transformation that makes everyone feel like they matter.