Rowena currently working in SMRT Trains. She is a dedicated safety advocate who plays a vital role in organising safety events for Rail Maintenance staffs and contractors. Furthermore, she champion safety initiatives such as monthly Safety Protected Time sessions for Rail Maintenance staff and bilingual Safety Briefings for MRT Station Cleaners. Through proactive safety communication and timely sharing of lessons learnt, she hopes to strengthen the safety culture across the diverse teams in SMRT’s Rail Maintenance division.

Rowena has demonstrated exceptional dedication to fostering a culture of safety and accountability. In 2024, she played a pivotal role in driving key safety initiatives, including successfully organising staff safety events for over a thousand Rail Maintenance staffs (both day and night shift) and multiple contractor safety events. These efforts strengthened collaboration and helped cultivate a proactive safety culture. Understanding the importance of inclusivity, she also championed monthly Safety Protected Time sessions and bi-monthly Safety & Quality Talks for both day and night shift staffs, ensuring continuous safety education was provided to all employees regardless of their shift cycle or experience level. Her commitment to inclusivity extended further as she conducted 11 bilingual safety briefings in both English and Mandarin for MRT Station Cleaners, ensuring effective communication and safety awareness across a diverse workforce. Through proactive safety communication efforts, including regular workplace safety posts and monthly communication letter, she continuously reinforced safety awareness to build strong safety culture within the Rail Maintenance division.

In 2024, Rowena implemented the Safety Engagement initiative for MRT Station cleaners which mainly consist of aged workforce. This initiative arose from the rising trend in cleaner workplace injuries due to slip, trip, fall, and pinch injuries. These sessions were conducted in both English and Mandarin and covers three parts: safety sharing; garner feedback from cleaners, and thanking the cleaners for their hard work with an appreciation meal. For the safety sharing part, she briefed the cleaners on the preparation and checks to be performed before the start of cleaning. She also shared with them the safe work practices when they perform various cleaning activities i.e. mopping, sweeping, wiping, and refuse disposal. In addition, she also discussed past cleaner incidents and how to prevent recurrence. The sharing ended with key safety messages: to have sufficient rest before reporting to work, having timely meals, wear proper PPE and place safety signage before start of cleaning, and no smoking, consuming of alcohol, and drugs on the job. With this initiative, she safeguarded their cleaners’ safety and personal well-being as they are an integral part of her workforce.

Rowena influencing capability has been a key factor in the successful implementation of the Cleaners Safety Engagement initiative. Knowing that the cleaners are mainly Mandarin speakers, she conducted the briefings in both English and Mandarin to ensure that the key safety messages were communicated effectively. By doing this, she placed emphasis on the cleaners’ safety as they are working tirelessly in their MRT network. The cleaners also appreciated their efforts to organise multiple sessions island-wide to refresh them on key safe work practices.

Upon implementation of the Cleaner Safety Engagement initiative, the workplace injury rate for cleaners had reduced. In addition, their cleaner supervisors also observed during the ground visits that cleaners were performing the cleaning duties with safety mindfulness and open reporting safety hazards such as slip, trip, and fall hazards; faulty door; uneven ground surface; etc. This is a clear demonstration of proactive safety culture in their contractors (cleaners) and embodiment of right attitude towards safety.

In Rowena's opinion, the attributes of a safety influencer are leadership & commitment, communication, transparency, ownership, and consultative approach. She exhibited leadership in organising large-scale safety initiatives, such as organising staff and contractor safety events, which cultivated a strong and collaborative safety culture within Rail Maintenance division. She communicated effectively across a diverse workforce through regular Safety Protected Time sessions and Safety & Quality Talks, ensuring continuous safety education to all. She ensured transparency by timely sharing the lessons learnt from incidents to prevent recurrence. As safety is everyone’s responsibility, she drives safety ownership amongst their workforce, including contractors. This is to align with Singapore's WSH Council Chairman Mr. Abu Bakar’s message: “Safety is at its strongest if each and everyone of us take collective and personal responsibilities of them”. She adopt a consultative approach when engaging with their staff and contractors as it provides an avenue for open communication and collaboration to build a strong safety culture. She is strongly committed to continuously improve the Workplace Safety and Health for their staff and contractors as it’s an integral part of SMRT’s operations and maintenance.