What or who influenced your career?
I was born in Russia but migrated to Sydney when I was two. My parents separated early and my father returned overseas, so growing up with a single mother who was also an immigrant, I gained a unique perspective on the importance of hard work and an appreciation of the opportunities available to us in Australia. It drove me to want to be successful.
With a single, immigrant mother, I gained a unique perspective on the importance of hard work.
Natalia Trewin
Why did you complete a Bachelor of Science?
My mother was a strong advocate on the importance of education and pushed me to excel academically. I was keen to pursue something in the medical field and knew I had to get a solid foundation in the sciences to aid that.
And then a Masters of Business Administration and Personal Injury Management?
During my degree, I realised that I enjoyed the practical application of science rather than doing research in a lab. It was a tough job market initially to find an entry level job, even though I worked throughout my degree. I was told an MBA would give me a competitive edge in the job market, so I began one. I met my husband and by 24 we were married and decided to move to Newcastle to seek opportunities in his home town. I got a job in the personal injury management sector by chance. It was a trainee role which upskilled new employees. I enjoyed it as I was able to apply my medical knowledge to support injured workers to recover and return to work.
In 2014 you began at Employers Mutual Limited as a case manager in workers compensation claims. How did you progress to team leader?
The first year of my career was a steep learning curve and I immersed myself in learning everything there was to know about the Workers Compensation legislation and best practice - reading legislation, articles, case law and asking questions from my buddy to learn everything I could in a short period of time. I had barely finished my traineeship when I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer for a temporary role for three months. They were after seasoned case managers and I remember my manager at the time went to bat for me, as others were concerned I was too junior. I learnt that through hard work, determination and not being afraid of new opportunities, I had every chance of success. From there I jumped at every new opportunity to progress and through my demonstrated efforts was promoted rapidly.
You moved to WestTrac Cat, beginning as an injury management advisor and now as Health Safety and Environment Manager. How did you move from dealing with injury to focusing on prevention?
With the support of my then manager, the Injury Management Advisor role allowed me to take a leading role in driving injury prevention strategy and work on projects that promoted early intervention, improvements in manual handling and mental health training. Again, I immersed myself in trying to learn everything I could about our business and the HSE space so when the opportunity presented itself, I found the transition to the HSE Manager role was quite natural.
What changes have you seen in the HSE Sector?
Within WesTrac, there has been a significant drive to engage more with simpler technologies and reduce redundant processes. The transformation program, Built By Us, is a unique initiative driven by WesTrac staff to address safety and improve work culture. The business has demonstrated a strong appetite for improving safety culture, creating simpler processes and placing more value on growing initiatives that harness our workers opinions rather than focusing on lag indicators. This is an exciting time where we are re-defining traditional safety values of compliance and control and spending more time engaging with our employees to drive improvements.
Best part of your job?
There is no greater reward for me than seeing safety improvements that mean something to our people take shape and have people engaged and caring about safety in their workplace. Built By Us has provided a great opportunity to partner with our workers and bring their ideas of how to improve safety to life.
And most challenging?
There is so much I want to do and achieve and it is challenging to manage the business as usual activities while trying to forge ahead and influence change. The big takeaway for me, and something I am continuously working on, is how to maintain the energy within myself and the team, resilience and motivation, especially during recent times with COVID-19 having such a huge impact on everyone's day-to-day experiences. I am lucky that Westrac places high importance on wellbeing and flexibility to ensure staff have balanced time for themselves, their team and the wider business.
You and colleague Louise Azzopardi were recent finalists in the Women in Industry awards. What did that mean to you personally?
It was such an honour. It's a positive step in the right direction of celebrating and promoting female leadership and impact in our industry, and will hopefully motivate and inspire others to be confident to pursue a career at a place like WesTrac and in traditionally male-dominated industries.
