Brad Watts uses his health and safety expertise to benefit Befriend and his community

Befriend is a not for profit organisation that runs multiple programs designed to target adults experiencing or at risk of social isolation and provide them with opportunities to connect with others. Befriend was seeking a volunteer to help them develop a comprehensive OH&S risk register that could be used to conduct an audit of the organisation’s current risk management strategies and ensure that their programs are being administered in the safest way possible.

“The value to the organisation was our improved management system and level of staff skills. It also provided us with ongoing benefits.”

Each of Befriend’s four programs have been running for different periods of time (less than 1 year up to 5 years) and risk had been assessed in varying levels of detail in the development and day-to-day running of each program. The aim of the project was to liaise with Befriend’s staff, volunteers and members to identify potential hazards and risks associate with each program. Megan Smith, the Community Manager for Befriend, sought a skilled volunteer who could provide expertise that was not already available amongst her team.

“Last minute work changes decreased my time available [but] I completed HSMS and risk documents for Befriend, Inc.”

Brad Watts, a Senior Health and Safety Advisor in Woodside’s Drilling & Completions team, didn’t waste any time in expressing interest in the project using the Woodside Volunteer Portal. Brad knew his skills could help Befriend achieve their goals while he was also able to share his sector knowledge with the staff to ultimately increase their overall capabilities.

Megan says that Brad’s input was “extremely enthusiastic and realistic about what the organisation could do in regards to risk management, given the size of the organisation.” This was important to Befriend as they operate with a very small staff and therefore have to achieve a safe environment for large groups of people with limited access to resources. Thanks to Brad’s assistance, Megan reports, “The organisation will be able to focus on implementation of risk management strategies, and we now have a framework in which to assess other areas of risk for the organisation.”

Throughout his work with Befriend, Megan reports, “Brad was excellent at communicating with Befriend in regards to progress and despite a clearly heavy workload in his own work, still facilitated hazard workshops for Befriend and delivered the documents he had committed to completing.” Brad even offered to be an ongoing ‘advisor’ for risk management at Befriend following the completion of the project. It is dedicated volunteers like Brad that make all of Woodside’s employee volunteer programs successful as they continue to contribute extremely valuable skills and time to the wider WA community.