Workplace Wellbeing Program with the Bellevue Gold Project.
Reflecting on what has been a remarkable 20 months of implementing our Workplace Wellbeing Program
Over 300 employees engage in surface and underground mining, along with a cutting-edge processing mill. Bellevue Gold is an ASX-listed company developing one of Australia’s highest-grade mineral resources (3.1Moz). It is located ~400km north of Kalgoorlie and lies within WA’s goldfields. Currently a single-site company, Bellevue is looking at expanding to multiple locations in the future.
Like any journey, ours had some initial challenges. The gym equipment sustained significant damage during transit, meaning the team had to find a creative solution. We temporarily relocated fitness classes and sports activities to the outdoor sports court, ensuring that the program continued to thrive.
We commenced the program by introducing a warm-up stretching program at pre-starts. The response was fantastic with a solid 100% of the employees engaged in these stretching sessions. Over the first two months in 2022, 379 employees attended Warm Up for Work, promoting a culture of wellness within the organisation.
In December 2022, the current camp gym opened, which opened up more opportunities with on-site classes. WFR’s management of the gym and its equipment started. Since then, WFR’s classes and sports presence have continued to grow each month, with a 200% increase from 2023 to 2024.
Stretch Leader Programs were also introduced in 2023, and more than 50 employees completed them. These programs aimed to enhance flexibility and promote a culture of overall wellness among Bellevue Gold employees. In 2024, 25 more employees completed the training.
In the following months, we continued to boost employee health and prevent worker injury by offering Manual handling training and key injury prevention interventions, including Job Task Analyses (JTAs) and Job Risk Profiles (JRPs). The introduction of JRPs has improved Return-to-work processes on-site and assisted injured personnel in increasing their work capacity safely. Nearly 100 employees completing manual handling training in 2023 was a big focus as new Processing staff started on-site. In 2024, this continued in a variety of departments.
Bellevue Gold cares about its people and offers an extremely high value product to its clients, WFR are here to support this wherever they can.
The program’s 2023 highlights included the Squat Challenge, which brought together employees in an engaging and enjoyable fitness challenge. Sports participation also grew substantially, uniting employees from various departments and contractors in a competitive and fun atmosphere. In 2024, the Race Around Challenge and Push-up Challenge have been a huge success so far, and WFR is also quite involved in event management on and off-site, with quiz nights, bingo, and off-site soccer matches being the highlights up until now. WFRs are effective social event organisers on-site, which is great for improving site culture and countering psychosocial risks like burnout and fatigue.
Looking ahead ……
WFR has well established itself in the fabric and everyday running of Bellevue Gold’s mining project. The major goals going forward include a major focus on injury prevention and continued injury management; these points can be achieved through AIMs, VEAs, WEAs, and Rehabilitation assessments. WFR is also looking at helping run monthly social events on-site and quarterly off-site events. Bellevue has been part of WFR and Underground staff’s new starter programming, which will continue through 2024. WFR expect new equipment in their on-site gym within the next six weeks, and a full service and re-shift of equipment will be completed simultaneously. WFR is also heavily involved in introducing a camp walking/ running trial, which should be completed within the coming weeks.
In January 2024, Bellevue Gold extended its contract with WFR until the end of 2024. This means WFR will deliver a workplace wellbeing program on-site for another six months before it is re-assessed.
WFR has built a solid relationship with Bellevue Gold over the last 20 months. WFR is helping to build a strong and accepting culture at Bellevue Gold by implementing social events on and off-site, helping manage injuries, and having a strong presence with WU4W and after-work fitness classes. WFR will look to strengthen this relationship further in the coming months and continue to offer a wide range of services within the WWP, as well as the extra unique services that Bellevue provides, like event management and mindfulness sessions. WFR and Bellevue Gold, a match made in golden heaven.
