Abby Atkins

I started work at the Northam Council in Sept 2023. Within a month, I became the safety rep for the Parks and Gardens division. This created a safe working environment by adhering to company WHS policies and maintaining well-organized workspaces. I also completed risk assessments on High risk machinery and created Safety Operating Procedures from Low to High risk jobs across the Gardening Division.

I already had a passion for plants before I started but learnt many skills whilst working at the Council such as enhancing the appearance of gardens by removing dead old growth and revitalising underperforming gardens by diagnosing issues and implementing effective restoration plans. This included communicating with large suppliers to organise soil, mulch and plants for these projects. I made and used schedules for fertilising and tailored to specific nutrient needs of various plant species to maximize plant health. This ranged from native plants to ornamental trees/shrubs.

During this time, I learnt how to identify and removed invasive plants and noxious weeds for garden aesthetics and the ecosystem's health. This included determining appropriate pesticides and herbicides and applying appropriately to protect plants or to remove weeds.

I became familiar with the use of hedges, ride-on mowers, whippers and many other small plant equipment. I learnt how to maintain cleanliness and safety of job sites by properly disposing of waste and returning tools and equipment to proper storage locations to prevent tripping hazards for fellow employees and/or residents.

Feb-Sept 2020

I started work in the Offal room as a meat labourer. Here I learnt jobs from working with knifes to operating high risk machinery along with team work and communication efficiently with the maintenance department and management when reporting issues as well as learned to work for long shifts daily.

Sept 2020-May 2022

Slaughter Floor is where I learnt the majority of my skill set and I acted as team leader periodically. I became competent and assessed in using the Sastek (meat grading system) that grades 3000+ carcasses per day for export, large and small supermarket chains (Coles, Woolworth's, Aldi and D'Orsogna) which requires constant attention in a high stress environment.

I am assessed as competent in Certificate of Proficiency for Advanced Pork - P2 Measurement.

I willingly volunteered to come into work early and manage business logistics for both Slaughter floor and Offal and also correlate and create miscellaneous items on order forms for the departments. This gave me the opportunity to understand my job better from all aspects and make better decisions under pressure.

Then I advanced to monitoring and reporting trainee progression whilst also continuing to perform my job duties above satisfactory. From here, my supervisors put me forwards for a training role position that was available for the Offal department which I was accepted for.

May 2022- current

I met with training management and developed effective training plans based on department needs and objectives and also identified and recommended staff for key positions and departments. When training on the factory floor this included but not limited to educating new employees on proper use of machinery and equipment ranging from plant equipment to correct knife usage.

I conducted assessments in multiple departments including Offal and assisted management with training files and work instructions. This included training file paperwork and employee training files, creating new employee files and deleting them and also updating department's Matrix system. I also conducted new employee inductions and site tours as well as hand-offs to supervisors.

In this time I was also put forward for Safety Representative for the Offal and Value Added Departments. Whilst also completing my daily tasks, I met with supervisors and management and had discussions to prioritise safety within the departments. I met monthly with management and maintenance along with other safety representatives and discussed the issues that were brought up and came up with solutions to these issues.