AWARDS FINALIST: Bluecurrent – well-being at Bluecurrent: From vision to visible action

Bluecurrent has integrated psychosocial risk management into its core health and safety framework as part of a company-wide wellbeing strategy to build a workplace culture that supports its growing workforce and expansion in Australia.

The firm was established in 2023 when Vector sold half its metering business to Queensland Government-owned investment firm QIC.

The following year it expanded on its Australian presence with the acquisition of Victoria-based Metropolis Metering bringing together employees from different organisations, operating environments and regulatory frameworks.

"As teams navigated this period of change, it became clear that supporting physical safety alone was not enough," the firm says.

After deciding that "ad hoc" responses were insufficient, Bluecurrent formally integrated wellbeing into its health and safety governance framework and updated its health and safety policy, which recognised that physical and psychosocial risks should be managed together rather than through separate systems.

"Our people needed to know they were supported holistically: not only physically, but psychologically as well," the firm says.

Formal strategy

Bluecurrent, a finalist in this year's Energy Excellence Awards, says the wellbeing strategy it established is built around mental health, physical health, emotional health, work-life balance and social wellbeing.

The framework embeds wellbeing into leadership through accountability, governance and day-to-day work practices through a continuous improvement process.

Any wellbeing concerns are now managed through formal governance and escalation pathways designed to help prevent issues developing into injury, absence or formal case management.

Bluecurrent says the programme has increased leaders' confidence in discussing wellbeing issues and strengthened workforce capability to identify psychosocial risks.

Its leadership is supported to model healthy behaviours, create psychologically safe environments and confidently identify and respond to early signs of stress, fatigue or distress.

"A key differentiator in Bluecurrent's approach is the strength of its governance and leadership model. Wellbeing is actively led, not delegated," it says.

Workforce capability

Bluecurrent has also been building the capability of its workforce alongside access to support.

Importantly, these supports include employees and contractors, reinforcing a consistent standard of care across its workforce.

The wellbeing committee, a key feature of the programme, discusses and manages psychosocial risks in the same forums as physical safety risks and uses the same assessment methodology as it applies to critical safety risks.

Workforce support programmes were also expanded.

The workforce is supported by a mental health first-aid network, with formal governance, escalation processes and defined role boundaries, and 30 trained team members - equivalent to one mental health first-aider for every 15 workers.

Bluecurrent has also introduced measures to address aggression towards field and customer-facing staff, including support pathways, leadership follow-up and trials of body-worn cameras for field staff during residential site visits.

"Initiatives such as the expansion of mental health first aid, increased visibility and accessibility of employee assistance programme services, and targeted wellbeing education have strengthened our ability to respond early and effectively," it says.

Workforce sentiment

Bluecurrent also introduced a quarterly wellbeing indicator it developed to measure the framework's progress. This combines workforce sentiment data from employee net promoter score surveys, unplanned absenteeism data and work-related employee assistance programme utilisation.

It says the framework intends to identify emerging psychosocial risks and support earlier intervention.

In its most recent employee NPS survey, completed in December, Bluecurrent recorded improvements in measures including organisational support, physical environment, mental wellbeing, role-related stress and management of competing demands.

Survey results have also prompted the creation of a local people-leaders forum - a pilot programme where managers meet monthly to share experiences, review wellbeing insights and test practical responses to workplace issues such as workload, team connection and role clarity.

The annual Energy Excellence Awards will be held in Wellington on 19 August. The Well-being Award is sponsored by Ergo Consulting.