Making safety part of how work gets done
At Vocus, safety is built into the way work happens day to day. It shows up early, when teams are planning a job, and carries through into the decisions they make on site.
For Kanchan, a Senior Workplace Health and Safety Advisor, that is where the role has the most impact.
“Real progress happens when safety is part of everyday decisions,” he says. “Not something you think about afterwards.”
Kanchan joined Vocus with more than 15 years’ experience across construction, telecommunications and infrastructure. He has worked in environments where risk is immediate and visible, but what stands out at Vocus is how those risks are managed across a fast-moving business with teams working in various environments.
“A lot of my role is understanding how work actually gets done,” he explains. “Once you have that, you can support people in a way that makes sense for them and supports safety.”
A culture, not just a system
He splits his time between being on and off site. On site, he spends time with crews walking through jobs before they begin – talking through risks and checking whether controls will actually hold up once work is underway. Away from site, those conversations continue with teams as they plan and prepare work, helping shape how it is approached before it starts.
In one instance, working alongside a fibre crew prompted a simple but important shift – A control that looked solid on paper needed adjusting to better fit the conditions the team were working in. The change itself was small, but it made the job clearer and easier to carry out safely.
“That’s where you see the difference,” Kanchan says. “When you’re working through it together and making sure controls actually work in practice.”
Safety matters
For Kanchan, safety is about making sure the right processes work in the real world, not just on paper. Policies and frameworks provide the foundation, but the day-to-day work is about making them usable – simplifying where needed, asking questions early, and helping teams apply them with confidence.
Since joining, he has focused on strengthening the understanding and control of critical risks, while supporting a more proactive approach to safety across the business.
“It’s about shifting from reacting to something, to thinking ahead,” he says. “When teams understand their risks and feel confident managing them, the whole approach changes.”
This thinking becomes especially important in a contractor-led environment, where work is delivered in different ways across different teams. Rather than applying a single rigid approach, the role is about creating consistency in what matters, while allowing flexibility in how it is applied.
For Kanchan, that comes back to relationships.
“Working side by side with teams and contractors makes a big difference,” he says. “You build trust, and that leads to more open conversations about what’s working and what’s not – they create space to pause, test and approach, or adjust a plan before work begins.”
Over time, these small, practical interactions start to influence how teams think about safety.
“You start to see a shift in how people approach their work,” Kanchan reflects. “There’s more awareness, more ownership, and more confidence in the decisions they’re making.”
That shift is gradual, but noticeable. Safety becomes less about simply following a process and more about understanding what matters and applying that thinking in the moment.
Ultimately, what the WHS Advisor role supports is not just systems or compliance but a way of working where safety is ingrained in everything we do.
For Kanchan, it is a simple outcome.
“It comes back to people,” he says. “Making sure everyone feels confident in what they’re doing and they go home safe at the end of the day.”
