Meerkats and Kiwi workers. Perhaps they're an unlikely partnership. But then again, maybe not. To clear up any confusion, we've outlined why we're using meerkats as a way to talk about safety in the workplace. And by the end, you’ll understand why it’s so important we all listen to our inner-meerkat.
Background to the campaign
In the last five years, WorkSafe has recorded over 360 workplace deaths and more than 120,000 workplace injuries.
While we've made great strides to improve our awareness of health and safety, it isn't being reflected in the number of fatalities and serious harm injuries occurring each year. If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll keep getting the same results, and unfortunately, workplace data shows we aren't making the progress we all want.
It was time to do something different.
Our approach
We wanted this campaign to reach Kiwi workers throughout New Zealand, no matter their role or workplace. For it to be successful, we had to solve a particular challenge; how do we help Kiwis think about health and safety differently?
The focus of health and safety has to shift away from clipboards and paperwork, to caring for one another. Despite our caring culture, Kiwis don't have a great approach to safety in the workplace. And so, we decided our campaign should celebrate the role we can all play in getting each other home safely. It also needed to be memorable. That's where meerkats came in.
So, why meerkats?
When it comes to looking out for those around them, meerkats' instincts are widely recognised. Collaborative and risk-aware critters, we used them in our campaign to highlight the primal instinct we all have – our inner-meerkats.
Ultimately, we want Kiwi workers to trust in, and act on, their natural instinct for sensing danger. It's time we start listening to our inner-meerkats.
