Strengthening safety culture through collaboration

In 2017, Macquarie Asset Management and its co-investors acquired a majority stake in Endeavour through a take-private deal, with the State Government of New South Wales retaining the remaining stake. 

Since the acquisition, Endeavour has evolved its approach to workplace health and safety (WHS) adopting a people-centred and technology enabled strategy, leveraging MAM safety specialists and global best practices. 

Part of this WHS strategy was a structured risk review process introduced in 2021, which was supported by the development of a mobile app to help streamline field inspections and enable real-time risk monitoring. 

Incident investigation processes were overhauled in collaboration with external advisors, leading to enhanced root cause analysis and a stronger focus on implementing elimination and engineering controls. This work included the introduction of enhanced dust extraction on deep earth borers reducing airborne particulates, redesigning cable supports for transmission cable jointing to reduce manual handling of cement bags, and reengineering of power pole foundations to reduce exposure to silica dust when installing overhead structures.

Working with MAM, a comprehensive Health, Safety, and Environment assurance framework was also implemented, encompassing both internal activities and contractor operations. This was supported by external “deep dive” reviews into specific control areas including ‘human factors’ and the effectiveness of the Incident Cause Analysis Method framework using external industry professionals to ensure controls are effective.

Public safety was prioritised with a four-pillar plan that covered educating construction partners, targeting traffic black spots, reducing underground cable strikes in partnership with Before You Dig Australia², and revising network protection settings in high fire risk areas to minimise fire hazards.

Recognising contractors account for around 40 per cent of the workforce, Endeavour strengthened contractor management by aligning safety standards, integrating contractor safety results into core metrics, and making safety compliance and performance key criteria for contract engagement.