Kylie Petronio
Safety & Wellbeing Business Partner — Landpower, Melbourne
How and when did you start your career in agriculture?
I joined Landpower Australia in 2011 as Executive Assistant within the Melbourne management team. With a background in admin, marketing and HR roles in hospital, manufacturing, and transport industries, I was looking for a role with a broad scope, a reasonable level of responsibility to keep me engaged and certainly somewhere that aligned with my values and felt a good personal fit. That is what working with Landpower has proved to be for me. Having lived in the city my whole life, I also found the machines to be very impressive.
What drew you to your current role?
Many of my past roles contained an element of managing health and safety systems for the business. One role involved working closely with many injured workers and assisting them back to work, which gave me a unique insight into the personal challenges and effects of a work injury on a person.
I had a lot of empathy for their situation and a real desire to make work environments a safe place for our people. I felt this role offered that opportunity with a strong focus on the people in our business.
What roles and experiences have led you to where you are today?
My initial work with the Landpower management team gave me a broad access and insight to all areas of the business. I felt this was a real highlight of the role, and I enjoyed working with so many people and departments and being involved with a whole range of projects.
Over the years my role evolved into the Office Manager position and as we brought several retail businesses into our group, my team expanded to accommodate the growth and my role now interacted with many of our people in our branches, particularly through my involvement in payroll, supporting safety initiatives, technical service training, product launches, events and travel.
Being a long term and current member of the H&S Committee at Landpower Australia and the Workers H&S Forum, as well as the former Group Leadership H&S Forum and COVID Leadership Group, I have been involved in many aspects of the health and safety planning, policy and procedure making, governance and guidance, incidents and investigations, wellbeing programs and initiatives, which has provided me with a broad and informed range of knowledge right across our businesses.
What do you love about our industry?
The people are so down to earth, hardworking, and dedicated. I like being part of an industry and business that is very real and grass roots but is part of a really big and important picture.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of working in our industry?
Whatever role you may find yourself in, there will always something new to learn, to work towards, to help you grow – and you’ll be doing it with the support of a great team and business who care about you.
What training and development have you undertaken with us?
- The Performance Edge with Leadership Management Australia
- Health & Safety Representative course with GSLS
- Health & Safety Management with Victorian Chamber
- Women In Leadership Development program with People Measures
- Incident Causal Analysis Method with Pinnacle Safety
- Risk Control with Pinnacle Safety
- About to commence Geared Up Leaders training provided by Landpower
What do you feel are the key reasons you have stayed with the Landpower and CLAAS Harvest Centre Team?
We’re always growing with new projects constantly on the horizon. Although I’ve been with the business for over 12 years now, each year has continued to bring growth and change for the business and my role within it and no two years have ever felt like I was doing the same old thing.
The business has always supported and encouraged me to grow within my roles which has allowed me to stretch and discover new things about myself and my abilities.
The people I work with are dedicated and inspirational, and I’ve always felt a lot of respect and support. We’re a great bunch!