Making safety everyone’s game
Problem
Uniting 95,000 people worldwide around a shared commitment to safety
Spark
Using gamification to turn safety conversations into something people felt confident having
Impact
Greater confidence to speak up – helping make mining safer for everyone
PROBLEM
Overview
Uniting 95,000 people worldwide around a shared commitment to safety
Anglo American is one of the world’s leading mining companies, operating in complex, high-risk environments across the globe. Each year, Global Safety Day brings colleagues together around a shared priority: making sure everyone goes home safely, every day.
But following the pandemic, it became clear that something needed to change. While safety was well understood and highly valued, research revealed a quieter challenge beneath the surface – people didn’t always feel confident speaking up when they noticed a risk.
Concerns went unvoiced. Challenging conversations were avoided. And the moments that matter most for safety were sometimes the hardest to navigate.
This phase of the global safety programme needed to reset how people thought and felt about safety – moving beyond compliance to build confidence, courage and shared responsibility across teams.
ACTION
Making it happen
Using gamification to turn safety conversations into something people felt confident having
While safety in mining is no game, gamification can create powerful, life-saving shifts in how people learn, talk and act. By creating a safe, engaging environment, it gives people permission to discuss difficult topics — without fear of judgement — and to practise speaking up when it matters most.
Stand up for Safety featured exciting, heart-pounding videos designed and filmed to replicate the look and feel of video games. It included activities for colleagues to identify their ‘player types’ – virtual personas that enabled them to explore their unique strengths and discuss ways to strengthen their team dynamic.
Following a teaser campaign and launch event, teams would progress through three levels of the ‘game’. Exploring themes of psychological safety, critical controls and their operating model. Using workplace scenarios inspired by actual incident reports – the activities grew more complex with each level.
01
Identify reasons for reluctance to speak out about safety risks
Research into the obstacles preventing people from speaking up about safety concerns included frank discussions with team members. The process identified three actions that were vital in standing up for safety: Learn, Share, Challenge.
02
Build a programme around the core guiding principles of safety
A six-month programme with five phases promoted courage, curiosity and honesty around the topic of safety. The use of gamification encouraged people to challenge each other in a safe, non-confrontational way.
03
Empower colleagues to support each other in reporting safety risks
By exploring and challenging ideas of psychological safety, the activities helped to give colleagues the confidence and conviction to address competing demands and do the right, safe thing – even if that means stopping work.
IMPACT
The outcome
Greater confidence to speak up – helping make mining safer for everyone
Saving lives and preventing injury. Can outcomes be more meaningful than that?
For the first time ever, in 2023 South Africa’s mining industry recorded a fatality-free January, a notoriously dangerous month. A result that’s more sobering than celebratory. Yet it brought home how the cumulative impact of our programmes that encourage employees to have a voice can influence the industry as a whole and contribute to some of the most important outcomes imaginable.
95,000 employees watched the videos and took part in activities
Across 45 countries
In 3 languages
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