Real Social Impact: Embedding HeroCODE Safety Leadership into Singapore’s Migrant Worker Community

Creating safer workplaces starts long before a worker steps onto a job site. It begins with empowerment, trust, and a belief that every individual has the ability and the responsibility to contribute to safety leadership and make a real difference.

A Different Approach to Safety 

For decades, workplace safety programs have focused heavily on rules, procedures, and compliance. While these elements are essential, they often overlook a critical factor: human potential through agency. The ability of every worker to contribute to safety leadership, no matter what position in a team. 

At Fusion Safety Management, we asked a simple question: 

How do we operationalize this leadership mindset. How do we normalize unlocking the potential of every member of a team, not just to follow safety rules, but to contribute actively to the safety leadership within a team? 

This question became the foundation of the HeroCODE. The HeroCODE is both an ethos and an accredited Safety Leadership Program, designed to build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that encourage workers to speak up if they sense a weak signal, contributing to the collective leadership culture of their teams.  

Responding to a real need: Provide the migrant workforce with Agency 

The HeroCODE Migrant Worker initiative emerged in response to pressing challenges. 

Following a concerning rise in workplace fatalities across Singapore in 2023, there was a clear need to strengthen safety ownership among workers and encourage greater confidence in raising concerns before incidents occurred. 

Fusion Safety believed that meaningful change would only happen if workers felt personally connected to safety, not because a policy demanded it, but because they understood what was truly at stake but also how they can have an impact. 

For many migrant workers, that motivation is simple yet powerful: returning home safely to the families and loved ones who depend on them. 

Introducing the HeroCODE 

The HeroCODE ethos is built around four leadership behaviours: 

• Courage to Act 

• Own the Challenge 

• Demonstrate Passion 

• Engage Respectfully 

Rather than delivering traditional classroom style training alone, the Migrant Worker experience encourages workers to practice these behaviours through interactive activities, mentoring, team challenges, and community engagement. 

The objective is not merely to improve safety knowledge. The objective is to build a culture where workers feel empowered to: 

• Amplify or speak up about hazards and weak signals they may sense that related to team safety 

• Take ownership of workplace safety outcomes as a collective of people 

• Demonstrate leadership qualities regardless of job title 

Turning Festivals into Learning Experiences 

One of the most effective parts of the initiative has been embedding safety leadership into community celebrations rather than treating it as a separate activity. 

Fusion Safety partnered with recreation centre management, government stakeholders including the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), and community organisations such as the Alliance of Guest Workers Outreach (AGWO) and Home Improvement Association (HIA) to transform major migrant worker events into engaging HeroCODE experiences. 

Participants could take part in: 

• HeroCODE challenges 

• Team based learning activities 

• Safety quizzes 

• Fire safety demonstrations 

• Working at height awareness activities 

• Interactive game booths 

• Entertainment and social events designed around safety 

This approach helped create an environment where learning felt enjoyable, relevant, and memorable. Workers were not simply being taught safety. They were experiencing it. 

Building Momentum Beyond a Single Event

Recognising that lasting cultural change requires consistency, Fusion Safety extended the initiative beyond large public events.

Following successful community engagement activities, weekly HeroCODE Safety Leadership classes were launched at Sembawang Recreation Centre. These sessions give workers a safe and supportive environment to keep strengthening their leadership capabilities, discuss workplace challenges, and reinforce the HeroCODE behaviours through ongoing learning and mentoring.

The result is a sustainable model that brings together community engagement, leadership development, safety education, peer support, and continuous learning into a single ecosystem.

Growing Through Partnerships 

Another key ingredient in the program’s success has been collaboration. Fusion Safety has worked alongside organisations including Active Fire, Access Safety Rescue, Asretec, Maranatha Contractors, and a growing network of community organisations and government stakeholders. 

These partnerships have helped extend the reach of HeroCODE principles beyond individual workplaces and into broader trade partner networks, creating alignment between employers, contractors, and workers around a shared commitment to safety and wellbeing. 

The Impact So Far 

What began as an initiative reaching hundreds of workers has grown into a movement engaging thousands across Singapore’s migrant worker community. 

Community participation has grown significantly as HeroCODE became part of major recreation centre events, with attendance rising from around 500 participants at the 2023 May Day HeroCODE event, to 1,000 participants at International Migrant Worker Day 2023, and 2,000 participants at International Migrant Worker Day 2024. 

Perhaps the most important outcome cannot be measured by attendance figures alone. Participants are developing a stronger sense of ownership and confidence around workplace safety. Workers are being encouraged not only to protect themselves but also to look after their teammates and amplify weak signals before incidents occur. This shift, from passive compliance to active leadership, is at the heart of what HeroCODE seeks to achieve. 

In 2025 we focused on turning momentum into consistency. We ran several batches of weekly HeroCODE Safety Leadership classes at Sembawang Recreation Centre, giving workers ongoing opportunities to build confidence and put the HeroCODE behaviours into practice. 

We followed this up with a mini HeroCODE Challenge for May Day 2025 at Sembawang Recreation Centre, bringing the classroom learning to life through hands on, team based activities that let workers demonstrate the courage, ownership, passion, and respect at the heart of the program. 

Our journey is far from over. In 2026, we will be bringing the HeroCODE Challenge back to International Migrant Workers Day at Kranji in December, building on the strong participation and energy of previous years. 

For International Migrant Workers Day 2026, we aim to inspire a collective safety leadership mindset within every team, proving that safety is not a rule to follow, but something you can contribute to. Through the HeroCODE, we are breaking down the barriers that silence minority groups, equipping workers with the psychological safety to speak up, act with courage, and actively guard their own wellbeing. 

True safety is not just the absence of physical incidents. It is the presence of an empowered voice, one that ensures every individual has the agency to protect themselves and return home safely to their families. 

The HeroCODE initiative aligns closely with the aspirations of Singapore’s WSH 2028 vision, supporting stronger ownership of workplace safety and health among migrant workers. But the larger vision goes beyond compliance targets or event attendance numbers. 

It is about creating a future where every worker: 

• Has the confidence to speak up 

• Feels respected and included 

• Takes ownership of safety outcomes 

• Looks after their teammates 

• Returns home safely to the people who matter most 

When workers are empowered with courage, ownership, passion, and respect, they become more than employees. They become role models. They become heroes. 

Recognition Beyond Safety 

The broader social impact of the program has also been recognised externally. Fusion Safety has received appreciation from community partners and migrant worker advocacy organisations for its contribution to worker wellbeing and engagement, and has achieved recognition as a Company of Good, reflecting our commitment to creating positive social outcomes beyond our commercial activities. 

We are also proud to share that Fusion Safety has been recently shortlisted for the IOSH Social Impact Award, a recognition that reflects the dedication of everyone involved in bringing HeroCODE to life, from our team and trainers to our partners and, most importantly, the workers themselves. 

Join Us on This Journey 

We will continue working with our partners to bring HeroCODE to more migrant worker communities across Singapore, starting with International Migrant Workers Day at Kranji in December 2026. 

To learn more about the HeroCODE Safety Leadership, or to explore how your organisation can get involved in the Migrant Workers Day, head to www.herocodeacademy.com or contact us at info@fusionsafetymgt.com.