Development of Industry safety and well-being materials and approaches for Pacific Island nationalities

Different cultures can have varying perspectives on safety and well-being. Cultural values, norms, and societal expectations play a significant role in shaping individuals' attitudes toward these concepts. With JBS’s Southern workforce (>40%) coming from international visa programs, specifically pacific island backgrounds, JBS and the wider industry need to evolve and tailor well-being material and approaches for this ever-increasing industry employment demographic. The five Southern JBS sites range from 12.6% to 83.3% visa workforce with this range creating different deliver needs at each site, but based on similar material (to be developed). This is also an increasing need for the wider Australian processing sector as all processors rely more and more on pacific islander employees. Understanding these cultural differences is crucial, especially in multinational workplaces or diverse communities, as it can contribute to effective communication, collaboration, and the development of policies that respect and align with cultural values regarding safety and well-being. As such this project will develop and deliver a customised mental health and wellbeing strategy for JBS Southern. These will be developed in a way that can be used by the wider industry. Wellbeing resources in the strategy will be designed to meet the unique needs of the workforce. These needs have been obtained from the AMPC Wellbeing Research Project 1 “assessment” and from focus groups conducted at JBS Longford and Cobram. Both Wellbeing content and delivery models will be researched in this project. Wellbeing resources will be developed for five plants with a test and learn approach. The digital Wellbeing resources will of highly relevant and of high value to the broader red meat industry.