PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
HOW ZINFRA GAS SERVICES COMBATTED COVID-19 CHALLENGES
WITH THE FAST-CHANGING ENVIRONMENT AND ESCALATED RISKS BROUGHT UPON BY COVID-19, THE ZINFRA GAS SERVICES TEAM HAD TO ADAPT TO ENSURE THE CONTINUED SUPPLY OF NATURAL GAS TO RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS.
In responding to these risks, our project teams were required to lean heavily upon their key project management skills, embrace available technology, and become more reliant upon alternate corporate and team resources.
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY With quarantine restrictions implemented, our office-based team members had to adapt to working and communicating remotely quickly. To smooth the transition, team members were consented to take home monitors and keyboards to allow for a more ergonomic home set up. Traditional face to face activities were quickly modified to accommodate remote situations through a larger reliance upon technology applications, including Skype, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. Team connectivity and comradery was maintained through virtual coffees and drinks, trivia sessions and casual lunchtime catchups. Technology was paramount in shortening the distance for our stranded Project Manager in Germany, who then also had to contend with the eight-hour time difference between the two locations. Technology also played a key role in enabling facility commissioning operations to continue, linking field technicians in Queensland, with Melbourne based engineers, and Sydney based project management. Essentially, while the embracement of technology was unavoidable, even more important was the breaking of norms and “Traditional Mindset,” achieved mainly through strong leadership and necessity.
FRONTLINE HEALTH AND SAFETY As State and Federal Government and international restrictions rapidly rose, the Zinfra Gas Services (ZGS) project teams needed to assess the risks and implement new measures and ways of working to ensure the continued safety of our people while minimising disruption on works.
While our office-based workers were able to be confined to working from home, our field-based workers on the frontline were required to continue working on-site. Foremost, the safety and wellbeing of these essential workers was our main priority, and required the swift
From early March, our teams were confronted with numerous challenges, including: • Aligning with continually evolving government quarantine and travel restrictions • Shifting and enabling more than 180 office-based workers to work from home • The continued health and safety of more than 350 fieldbased team members deemed as “Essential Workers” • Accessing the short supply and distribution of available PPE and sanitiser • Maintaining a connected workplace between the virtual office and field team members • Limitations on travel and physical site visits borne from strict quarantine requirements On top of these challenges was the inability of a key Project Team member to return home from a European holiday due to international travel restrictions, resulting in her working through the pandemic from Germany. 20
Safety controls. (Source: Zinfra Gas Services)
