National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Canberra, ACT DateThursday 23 June 2011 Hosted...
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National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Canberra, ACT DateThursday 23 June 2011 Hosted byMs Liesl Centenera Director Office of Industrial Relations
National Strategy General Stakeholder Workshop in Canberra, ACT
DateThursday 23 June 2011 Hosted byMs Liesl Centenera Director
Office of Industrial Relations Chief Ministers Department
LocationCanberraFacilitatorDavid Caple 1
Slide 2
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Slide 3
Contents Page and Content 4. History of National Strategy 5.
Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy 6. National Work
Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and Development 7. Welcome
8. Workshop Introduction 9. Workshop participants profile 10.
Session Scopes 11. Session 1: Group discussion on work health and
safety in the next ten years 14. Session 2:
Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the workforce, business and
technology 20. Session 3: Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to
respond to disease, injury and psychological injury causing hazards
26. Session 4: Work Health & Safety Systems in safe design,
skills and leadership, safety leadership & organisational
culture 32. Closing Remarks 33. Evaluation Comments Disclaimer: The
views of participants expressed in this document are not
necessarily the views of Safe Work Australia. 3
Slide 4
History of National Strategy 4 The 10 year National
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Improvement Framework (NIF)
was in place in the 1990s providing Australia with a nationally
coordinated roadmap for improving workplace health and safety. The
NIF signalled the commitment to OHS improvement in Australia by the
Workplace Relations Ministers Council (WRMC), the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) and NOHSC
members. It set out to improve prevention, share knowledge, foster
partnerships and collaborations, and compare performance among the
key OHS stakeholders in Australia. The National OHS Strategy
(National Strategy) was endorsed in May 2002 with the vision of
Australian workplaces free from death, injury and disease. This was
a tripartite initiative of NOHSC and unanimously endorsed by
Federal, State and Territory Ministers. The 10 year timeframe was
chosen to span political terms and provide the time to develop
evidence based policies and programs. The Workplace Relations
Ministers noted the successes of the National Road Strategy and its
associated targets, and believed the inclusion of targets in a new
document would help sharpen the national focus and efforts to
improve Australias OHS performance. The National Strategy set out
the basis for nationally strategic interventions that were intended
to foster sustainably safe and healthy work environments, and to
reduce significantly the numbers of people hurt or killed at work.
Five national priorities and nine areas that required national
action were agreed. These collectively aimed to bring about short
and long-term improvements in OHS, as well as longer-term cultural
change. Reports on progress to achieve the objectives of the
National Strategy were provided annually to WRMC. NOHSC provided
the original leadership and took carriage of the National Strategy
until it was replaced by the Australian Safety and Compensation
Council in 2005.
Slide 5
Safe Work Australia and the National Strategy 5 In 2009 Safe
Work Australia an independent Australian Government statutory body
was established. It has primary responsibility for improving work
health and safety and workers compensation arrangements across
Australia. Safe Work Australia represents a genuine partnership
between governments, unions and industry working together towards
the goal of reducing death, injury and disease in workplaces. The
current and future National Strategy are key documents to guide the
work of Safe Work Australia and others to achieve this goal. The
current historic commitment to work health and safety is
illustrated by the joint funding by the Commonwealth, state and
territory governments of Safe Work Australia, facilitated through
an intergovernmental agreement signed in July 2008. Safe Work
Australia members: Back left to right: Mr Mark Goodsell Australian
Industry Group; Mr Brian Bradley Western Australia; Ms Michele
Patterson South Australia; Ms Michelle Baxter Commonwealth; Mr Rex
Hoy Chief Executive Officer; Mr Peter Tighe Australian Council of
Trade Unions (ACTU) Front left to right: Ms Anne Bellamy Australian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Mr John Watson New South Wales;
Mr Tom Phillips AM Chair; Mr Michael Borowick (ACTU) Absent: Mr
Greg Tweedly Victoria; Mr Barry Leahy Queensland; Ms Liesl
Centenera ACT; Mr Roy Ormerod Tasmania; and Ms Laurene Hull
Northern Territory.
Slide 6
National Work Health and Safety Strategy Consultation and
Development 6 Safe Work Australia is now developing a new National
Work Health and Safety Strategy to supersede the previous Strategy
that expires in June 2012. To inform the development process,
workshops are being held in all capital cities and a number of
regional centres. These will seek ideas and comments from invited
participants including employers, employees, regulators, work
health and safety professionals, academics and interested community
members. Safe Work Australia will also continue to consult with key
stakeholders through a range of other mechanisms including ongoing
bilateral consultations and by commissioning topic papers from
experts on selected issues. These consultations will allow Safe
Work Australia Members to decide on priority areas, targets and the
Strategys duration. Once a draft National Work Health and Safety
Strategy has been agreed by Safe Work Australia Members this will
be released for public comment early in 2012. The comments will be
analysed and used to further inform the development of the new
Strategy.
Slide 7
Welcome to participants 7 Ms Liesl Centenera, Director, Office
of Industrial Relations, ACT Chief Ministers Department, welcomes
participants to the Canberra workshop.
Slide 8
Workshop Introduction Mr Rex Hoy, the Chief Executive Officer
of Safe Work Australia gave an introduction to the workshop. He
noted that the National OHS Strategy 2002-2012 provides a basis for
developing sustainable, safe and healthy work environments and for
reducing the number of people hurt or killed at work. He noted that
the current Strategy set very clear and ambitious goals for work
heath and safety, and was a key initiative to improve Australia's
work health and safety performance from 200212. He thanked
participants for attending and indicated that the workshops are an
important part of the extensive stakeholder consultation process
for the development of the New National Strategy. Mr Hoy invited
participants to stay engaged and review the development progress
reports on the new Strategy on the Safe Work Australia website as
they are released. Mr Hoy provided data on the progress and
limitations of the current Strategy and lessons learnt. He also
noted the public comment period for the new Strategy early next
year and welcomed participants comments at that time. 8 Mr Hoys
presentation slides are available on the Safe Work Australia
website. Participant comments on the workshops and new National
Strategy themes can be sent to
[email protected][email protected]
Slide 9
Canberra Workshop Participants Profile 9 23 June 2011Number
Academic/Specialist 7 Community based organisation 3
Company/General 7 Employer Association 3 Legislative/Legal 1 Public
Policy 15 Regulator 1 Union 3 Work Health and Safety professionals
11 Total 51
Slide 10
Session Scopes 10 To assist participants, all tables displayed
scopes outlining what was meant by the key discussion topics. These
are noted below: Social/Economic/Emerging Issues in the Workforce,
Business and Technology The Workforce: Changing worker demographics
such as ageing, young workers, casualisation, contract work, shift
work, and individual needs such as literacy, disability, mental
health Business: How business is changing to meet emerging
challenges and to remain viable and competitive, such as
outsourcing, subcontracting, casualisation, etc Technology:
Innovations in the workplace that have already or may have a future
impact on Work Health and Safety, such as nanotechnology, green
technology, innovations in genetics, electronics and IT systems
Hazards Enhancing the capacity of workplaces to respond to:
Disease-Causing Hazards - includes noise, hazardous substances,
chemicals and asbestos Injury-Causing Hazards - includes work
practices, manual tasks, slips trips and falls Psychological
Injury-Causing Hazards - includes the design, management and
organisation of work and work systems to achieve resilient
productive and safe psychological working environments. Work Health
and Safety Systems Challenges and Solutions in Safe Design and Work
Systems, Skills and Training, and in Safety Leadership and
Organisational Systems Safe Design and Organisational Systems: the
systems and principles that facilitate the elimination of hazards
at the design or modification stage of products, buildings,
structures and work processes Skills & Training: the skills and
training that employers and workers need to deliver safe
workplaces. Safety Leadership and Organisation Culture: Safety
leadership generates organisational cultures that view safety and
productivity of equal importance, validated by the attitudes,
beliefs, perceptions and values of the workforce
Slide 11
Session One: What will success look like in 10 years? 11 Work
health and safety is integrated and mainstreamed into
organisational and business cultures, including the community.
Hazards are designed out with a shift from safe user to safe design
of work people and equipment. Safe design addresses full life cycle
including disposal and recycling. Reduction in occupational
diseases: respiratory, cancers. Reduction in numbers of illnesses,
injuries and accidents but zero deaths is unrealistic.
Pre-employment training/awareness in secondary and tertiary
schooling. Greater understanding of unforeseen consequences of
combined hazards e.g. increased hearing loss due to exposure to
noise and solvents. Work health and safety is effectively managed
through the supply chain. Safety of contractors included in lag
indicators and still achieve a reduction in injuries. Management
systems help reduce injury through informed introduction of new
technology. Standardisation of legislation (including workers
compensation). Personal responsibility for safety is seen as a core
value an essential criterion. Professionalisation and knowledge
base has improved particularly in response to the new legislation.
Transport is addressed as an emerging issue with the car recognised
as a workplace when used for work. Vehicle design improvements
reduce deaths and injuries. The Strategy maintains the objective of
reducing death, injury and disease. Australia is seen as a leading
nation and ranks highly against the best in the world. There is
truth and transparency in data, and work health and safety
transgressions are not hidden behind data recording or
manipulation.
Slide 12
Session One: What will success look like in 10 years? 12 A
single national strategy takes the place of state versions,
reinforcing the national vision. Roving work health and safety
representatives help very small businesses. Technology ensures
improved access to information and continuous health and safety
improvement. Knowledge and best practice is shared and
consolidated. SMEs who have less knowledge, information and
resources are mentored. There is increased ownership of work health
and safety. Regulators are funded to educate employers and workers.
Basic training is mandatory for the whole workforce, and when staff
leave new workers are already trained to basic work health and
safety standards. Information is accessible and transparent.
Definitions are consistent. Work health and safety is a value-added
process; not an add-on process. Responsibility is taken to educate
migrants on 457 visas on work health and safety pre-employment. The
capacity to respond to work health and safety issues is improved,
especially to emerging issues.
Slide 13
Session One: How will we get there ? 13 Focus on health
prevention particularly as it relates to chronic diseases and
mental health. Learn from international models, and act now to
reduce exposures and mitigate occupational diseases in the long
term, including addressing the consequences of longer shift hours
on exposure. Change behavior and breed a safe work (not workplace)
culture that flows onto sole/remote workers through positive
reinforcement, appropriate education, training and information.
Train leaders on work health and safety in leadership, educate
workers, managers, regulators on hazard management. Develop a
baseline of research for tracking or monitoring and use large
datasets to generate models. Develop continuously improving mature
systems and cultures that go beyond compliance, and that are based
on education rather than coercion. Encourage senior managers to
focus less on insuring against when things go wrong, and more on
staff engagement. Develop a Strategy that transcends political
terms (10 years), review mid-point, update based on data and
research. Conduct and share results of root cause analysis, and
continuously improve universal safety signage. Reduce risk through
ergonomics and safe design, rather than simply applying operational
measures. Disseminate information, develop career pathways, and
improve professionalism through a national institute for work
health and safety professionals. Institute to: disseminate
research, best practice, and successes to PCBUs and workers, foster
a closer relationship between government policy officers and
experts in the field, and harnesses expertise through the critical
mass achieved through harmonisation. Breed individual safe and
healthy cultures by maintaining work/life interface, physical and
mental health, and teamwork. Find out what we dont know by
researching and developing the capacity to respond to emerging
issues. Harmonise implementation, guidance, enforcement, and
inspectorial approaches (including pay). Provide practical
incentives (incl. funding) for all PCBUs including SMEs. Introduce
strategies for fatigue management. Increase awareness of the work
health and safety changes needed to accommodate an ageing and
culturally diverse workforce that increasingly uses casual labor.
Establish industry based safety forums, and monitor and evaluate
all interventions, including training.
Slide 14
Session Two: Emerging Issues in the Workforce What will success
look like in 10 years time? 14 Employers take responsibility for
workers as they shift between work and education. Ageing workers
and those with disabilities have increased rates of work
participation. There is successful risk management of the ageing
workforce, including executives and front line managers. There is
increased work ability, and improved job transition. We are
responsive to changing demographics (including training needs).
Multicultural workforces are integrated in terms of language and
literacy in English. There is an improved understanding of
psychological risks. The health is back in work health and safety,
and workplaces are designed to optimise health. The mental health
issues of young workers are considered and managed. WORK SAFE, HOME
SAFE, COMMUNITY SAFE safety is integrated into everything,
everywhere, and both the workforce and the community are highly
health-conscious. There has been a paradigm shift from using the
workforce to renewing, energising and sustaining the workforce in
the context of an ageing population. There is improved licensing,
higher standards and improved communication. Training and induction
are standardised. Work health and safety is integrated into child
care centres, schools, vocational training and universities.
Slide 15
Session Two: Emerging Issues in the Workforce How will we get
there? 15 Develop fit-for-duty standards that span career
lifetimes. Improve understanding of the psychology of risk
perception. Systematically optimise health by translating and
operationalising societal values into the duty of care. Address
overwork, including extra hours worked, second jobs, and the
bloated national leave bank. Improve apprenticeships, including
developing incentives to join and finish them, improving wages, and
increasing employer investment and mentoring. Take demographic
issues into account, e.g. competency gaps for high skill jobs
compared with 20 years ago (high churn, Gen Y). Use social
marketing to target, channel, or differentiate work health and
safety messages and campaigns for the no longer homogenous
workforce. Highlight Employers of Choice including those with union
endorsement. Address gaps in competencies so that skills are
matched to workplace needs, and jobs are available for unskilled
workers. Address the vertical disintegration of work, including the
prevalence of outsourcing and casual employment. Create a sense of
commitment to teams or to organisations through positive measures
for safety e.g. Be as rewarded for good safety as for being on
budget/on time in business. Address the cut-off of superannuation
and workers compensation at age 65 years to allow continued
workforce participation. Target key issues or groups for mentoring
and retraining, and manage the hollowing out of the workforce, ie
the ageing workforce, casual labour, shift workers (24/7), workers
with mental illness, workers transitioning from school to work, and
workers who have been on extended leave re-entering the
workforce.
Slide 16
Session Two: Emerging Issues in Business What will success look
like in 10 years time? 16 The Strategy captures all types of
businesses. There are better data and indicators (lag and lead).
Business does not rely on regulation or standards, but rather on
risk management, due diligence, and culture. Leadership at all
levels drives a positive work health and safety culture.
Productivity improvements drive better work health and safety
practices. An improved legal system reduces paper-compliance.
Regulators foster safety rather than using use a big stick; they
facilitate prevention and are seen as friends rather than as
enemies, and business sees regulatory intervention as a positive
opportunity. Prosecutions are applied prudently to optimise
positive outcomes and intimately increase prevention. Workers
compensation systems are harmonised. A bottom up supply chain
mentality is in place that includes work health and safety in
conditions of contract for outsourcing and managing
sub-contractors. Education in work health and safety is started
early, with a focus on pre-employment and trade courses. Work
health and safety is instilled into children in primary school in
the same way that awareness programs on recycling are. Work health
and safety is blended with other community issues. The cost of poor
work health and safety is considered, rather that the cost of doing
risk assessment. Both large and small businesses have the same
level of work health and safety awareness, with business
considering the consequences to staff of their decisions.
Slide 17
Session Two: Emerging Issues in Business How will we get there?
17 Include work health and safety in business school education.
Recognise that outsourcing is not always cost effective. Improve
accountability and include financial drivers. Emphasise the
importance of the relationship between business and the regulator
to allay business concerns around needing to protect itself from
legislation. Find strategies to reduce the impact of the relatively
higher costs for SMEs than for larger businesses. Celebrate mentors
in the workplace as good role models. Instigate pre-employment
training from secondary school, blend work health and safety with
other community issues so that workers entering the workforce learn
to engage with risk. Make a common system accessible so that
contractors can leverage bigger companies and access specialised
expertise, and mitigate workers compensation pressures and costs.
Seek better integration between business, community and the not for
profit sector. Teach people how to engage in risk management. Meet
the challenges posed by demographics, particularly when cultures
are challenged and key performance indicators are affected as baby
boomers exit the workplace. Celebrate businesses that do well.
Ensure that risk assessments take into account the cost of poor
work health and safety practices (cost-benefit analysis). Provide
better more effective data on injuries; data that is more
consistent and that leads to the development of lag and lead
indicators that can drive safer business practices and support
proactive approaches. Manage the industry-balance changes; ie less
manufacturing, more healthcare, more service based. Take into
account changes such as casualisation, career path changes, ageing
workforce.
Slide 18
Session Two: Emerging Issues in Technology What will success
look like in 10 years time? 18 Genetic screening is used ethically
rather than to screen out people before they start work. New
technologies are used to benefit the workforce. New technologies do
not reintroduce old hazards, for example energy efficient lamps
containing mercury. There is increased information on hazards
associated with imported products coming from overseas. Regulators
respond effectively to any hazards found in overseas products as
imports continue to overtake exports. Accurate and sufficient
information is provided when new technologies are introduced,
especially when there isnt a choice e.g. genetic and nanomaterials.
The unforseen consequences of introducing multiple new technologies
at once are dealt with quickly and effectively e.g. hearing.
Slide 19
Session Two: Emerging Issues in Technology How will we get
there? 19 Increase awareness of the hazards of imported products.
Use research to minimise harm, particularly as the potential risks
of nanotechnology unfold. Promote safety benefits of using new
technologies e.g. black boxes in transport. Improve access to
information through centralisation and dissemination. Increase
understanding of the impact on the workforce when introducing new
technology, and improve knowledge and information on synergistic
interactions (e.g. hearing and solvents). Learn from experience of
other countries e.g. wind turbine safety in Russia. Use technology
to do modelling on the impact of hazards on the human body. Manage
change in organisations during the introduction of new technology.
Improve the level of access to information in organisations and the
way it is managed/disseminated. Use risk management plans to ensure
controls are not misused or abused.
Slide 20
Session Three: Responding to Disease-causing hazards What will
success look like in 10 years time? 20 Work health and safety
education is seen as an issue for the entire community, not just
for the workplace. Despite the increasingly blurred boundaries
between lifestyle, workplace and environment, management responses
to disease causing hazards are clear and effective. The true cost
associated with long- latency disease and compensation is realised,
and compensation costs are shared equitably (not just the last
company in a long line). Exposure standards are well-recognised,
monitored and enforced e.g. lead. There is effective regulation of
chemicals in workplaces. The primary focus to manage disease
causing hazards is on safe design to eliminate or reduce risk; not
on lower level controls like personal protective equipment.
Slide 21
Session Three: Responding to Disease-causing Hazards - How will
we get there? 21 Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by:
identifying the contribution of other causative factors that are
not work-related obtaining good data on disease gaining a better
understanding of hidden hazards such as radio frequency to reduce
diseases measuring the impact of asbestos in the home as well as
the workplace determining how to manage work hazards versus
lifestyle and environmental issues e.g. iPod at high volume at home
combined with high-noise work collecting data that identifies
contribution by non work-related factors eg asbestos, iPods etc,
and developing a strategy for insurance as reinsurers dont cover
for risks they dont understand or cant quantify e.g.
nanotechnology.
Slide 22
Session Three: Injury-causing hazards What will success look
like? 22 Buildings, equipment and processes are all designed with
safety in mind. Workplaces are designed for safety. Safe design is
a purchasing priority. Clients and purchasers factor in the cost of
safe design, and understand the value of safety. There is
age-related fitness for work. Manual tasks are minimised through
the use of new technology.
Slide 23
Session Three: Responding to Injury-causing hazards How will we
get there? 23 Enhance the capacity of workplaces to respond by:
designing equipment with human factors in mind, and to engineer out
risks educating engineers, architects and designers about safe
design, focusing on an industry approach addressing the needs of
24/7 workers, fatigue, age issues, developing methods for assessing
age-related fitness for work, being aware of the physiology of the
workforce managing the new hazards created through technologies
that enable remote workplaces, working from home and after hours
increasing personal responsibility, sharing knowledge and
expertise, educating staff to apply a consistent risk management
approach to plant operation reducing the burden of compliance,
including codes of practice and long written requirements/policies
(to prevent shortcuts) ensuring there is ruthlessly simple
documentation, using the KISS principle, or SAM (Spot/Assess/Manage
risks) working with employees to develop systems and safe work
procedures that are practical ensuring that work health and safety
professionals know what success looks like from a workplaces
perspective, are competent and improve their quality of advice and
technical capability continuing to reinforce that vehicles can be
workplaces including road safety in risk management strategies, and
placing greater responsibility on PCBUs for work related road
accidents and fatalities managing driving competency, particularly
providing refreshers developing consistency of design with BCA and
other innovations changing behaviour by teaching risk awareness,
not just at work but also in the home and community. Children see
hearing protection being used while Dad is mowing the lawn etc.
increasing accountability and awareness about safety issues, and
ensuring high risk licence competency is current not taking
anything for granted, including simple issues like footwear which
can still be key injury factor focusing on manual handling tasks,
including overuse, lifting, carrying, and encouraging body
awareness, and increasing awareness of reporting requirements, and
encouraging more reporting.
Slide 24
Session Three: Responding to Psychological injury- causing
hazards - What will success look like in 10 years? 24 Ageing
workers are fit-for-duty in terms of psychological as well as
physical wellbeing. Jobs are designed to fit workers. Work and work
systems are managed and organised to engender resilient and
productive staff, and to provide psychologically safe working
environments. Home is seen as a source of recovery to alleviate
work stress and fatigue. Decisions on cost-cutting are made with
recognition of the potential impact on psychological health e.g.
government productivity dividends and private sector cost-cutting.
Employers introduce good work design that caters for work loads,
shift work, pre-existing conditions, and personal responsibilities.
Effective leaders know themselves and their workforce, respect
their workers and have realistic work expectations. There is
improved understanding of the needs of specialised risk groups and
the nature of changing hazards e.g. impact on the psychological
health of agricultural workers due to climate change. Everyone
feels responsible to work safely from when they start a job.
Psychological injuries are given the same weight as physical
injuries are in all workplaces. Managers are skilled at
implementing prevention and early intervention strategies.
Slide 25
Session Three: Responding to Psychological injury-causing
hazards - How will we get there? 25 communicating work-based
psychological injury prevention initiatives selecting the right
people for the right task, and not confining selection criteria to
qualifications increasing support and assistance for managers
identifying specialised risk groups, such as agriculture, young or
isolated workers (either socially or remote), and developing
strategies to prevent injury in jobs involving long-term exposures
to psychological hazards. Enhance the capacity of workplaces to
respond by: demonstrating leadership at all levels conducting job
and risk analysis to identify inappropriate workloads, workplaces,
or work design assessing the cost of not changing putting
prevention strategies in place for work that may result in
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (e.g. emergency services) including
selecting suitable workers meeting the challenges of the changing
government approaches, with less personal assistance, tighter
budgets, and higher expectations, and fewer resources. accepting
joint responsibility to start work in a fit condition managing the
design of work and organisations, including consideration of
personal space (blackberries/PCs), resources, budgets, work
expectations, and building resilience developing managers skills to
assess the risk of work design, to recognise early signs of
potential injury, and to intervene appropriately expanding the
capacity of Employee Assistance Programs, including up-skilling of
professionals involved e.g. medical and psychologists, and
increasing support and assistance for managers and those with
potential for injury
Slide 26
Session Four: Safe Design & Work Systems What will success
look like in 10 years time? 26 Functionality is the main focus for
designers responsible for safe design. Designers actively consult
with all relevant stakeholders. There is improved designer
ownership. Application of safe design policy (the carrot) negates
the need for excessive regulation (the stick).
Slide 27
Session Four: Safe design & Work Systems How will we get
there? 27 Put design reviews on the bigger agenda. Ensure
consistent legislation in place for design (not only harmonised
work health and safety law). Improve training of engineers.
Encourage companies to share intellectual property where safety is
an issue. Recognise that design covers construction, plant, road
systems, work processes etc, and not just plant and buildings.
Manage timeframes so that full consultation can take place with all
stakeholders while acknowledging the need for rapid production.
Learn the lessons provided by the space industry and major
incidents and design for safety.
Slide 28
Session Four: Skills and Training What will success look like
in 10 years time? 28 Competency-based training is delivered by
employers and government. Work health and safety and risk
management skills are integrated into the life cycle of education,
including primary, secondary and tertiary, as well as Masters of
Business Administration courses. Safety is a life skill that isnt
undone by a poor workplace culture. Globally recognised and agreed
minimum competency requirements in work health and safety are in
place for all managers and workers. Managers have the skills to
effectively train and guide workers. Leadership and consultation is
taught through on- the-job mentoring and training. Core
competencies are developed for the position or the job and are
assessed for effectiveness. Training needs analyses are regularly
conducted and training initiatives are reviewed.
Slide 29
Session Four: Skills &Training - How will we get there? 29
Review all training for effectiveness and appropriateness, and
develop improvement strategies. Develop industry-specific training
that includes consultation and leadership. Sell the benefits of
safety to cross cultural and generational boundaries. Recognise the
cultural differences of transient or migrant workforce, and set a
minimum globally accepted standard of appropriate skills and
training needed. Identify triggers for post-incident root cause
analysis.
Slide 30
Session Four: Safety Leadership and Organisational Culture -
What will success look like in 10 years time? 30 Safety Leadership
and organisational culture is defined and safety is integrated into
all day-to-day aspects of organisations. Safety and productivity
are seen in practice as equally important. The National Strategy
positively influences safety leadership, and safety is not merely
seen as an add-on. Institutions and structures are in place, such
as a national institute for work health and safety to unite the
best educators, set standards, integrate safety curriculum through
all phases of education, and facilitate building a national safety
culture. Safety culture is an ongoing process, always changing and
improving. Ethical investment is made in organisations that
implement safe design and safety best practice, allowing capital to
work for safety while we sleep.
Slide 31
Session Four: Safety Leadership & Organisational Culture -
How do we get there? 31 Develop the capacity to lead at all levels
by starting at the top to engender safety accountability, then
requiring the same from middle managers. Harness the harmonisation
process to drive a change in attitudes that goes beyond mandatory
requirements. Integrate safety leadership into management training.
Ensure that government is serious about safety and sets good
examples, e.g. in workload and pace. Introduce specialised
training. Ensure that managers see safety and productivity as
linked. Promote awareness that improving safety improves
productivity, and that a happy, safe, secure and flexible workforce
lead to improved productivity. Ensure that managers recognise that
when happy, flexible, safe and secure workers raise issues they are
being supportive of productivity and not threatening it. Ensure
that managers are trained to deal with or avoid role conflicts and
goal conflicts. Accept that the development of a positive culture
involves ongoing change, and in itself a developing culture needs
to constantly be the subject of review and reinvention. Understand
the differing needs of older workers and how other demographic
factors can impact on culture. Incorporate active feedback loops.
Teach kids about risk assessment. Define behaviors that relate to
values, are practical and meaningful, and are based on actions.
Promote good safety records as a positive to potential employees.
Remove jargon. Develop a new skill set for safety professionals
that includes cultural architecture and provides consultants with
safety credibility. Develop consistent names for the regulators.
Develop procurement strategies that leverage the power of
government contracting. Build adaptability by understanding
workforce demographics and reviewing them regularly. Reverse the
trend of the loss of work health and safety education opportunities
in universities. Evaluate culture through the use of recognised
tools; move beyond cost/benefit analysis and assess organisational
limitations and parameters.
Slide 32
Closing Reflections from the Chief Executive Officer 32 Rex Hoy
thanked Liesl Centenera, Director, ACT Office of Industrial
Relations for opening the workshop; the facilitator David Caple,
and all the workshop participants for their attendance and
contribution. He commented that there were many common strategic
themes (the educative process, age, disability and mental health)
that have been raised in the workshops so far. Rex further noted
there had been many particularly good discussion over the day among
the Canberra participants, including cultural change,
pre-employment education, leadership, the ageing or changing
workforce, skills implications, the impact of non-work related
factors, road and vehicle safety, and the role of management in
psychological injuries. Rex noted that several original
observations had been as well, including the need to address
over-work and work stress, the need for increased availability and
sharing of root cause analysis, and the impact on the workforce of
new technologies with the potential reintroduction of old hazards.
He was also encouraged to see workshop participants mention the
need to focus on targeted skills and competencies and to identify
roles for Work Health and Safety professionals in that context. Rex
went on to outline the stages underway to develop the new National
Work Health and Safety Strategy, while observing that the weakness
in the current Strategy was the lack of implementation focus, the
failure to identify responsibilities for the various stakeholders,
and the lack of an evaluation plan. He assured participants that
this time the Strategy would be evidence-based, and that the Safe
Work Australia Members will lead it and oversee implementation. Rex
commented that six months from December we expect to have a major
focus on implementation and planning. He commented that while many
of the suggestions arising from this workshop such as those
involving schools cannot be implemented by Safe Work Australia we
will attempt to coordinate these improvements at the national
level. The new Strategy will also acknowledge the different roles
and capacities that can influence safety. Rex raised the challenge
of how to measure success and explained that Safe Work Australia is
in the process of developing a rigorous evaluation plan. Rex
reminded participants of the public comment phase of the Strategy
development process early next year; and suggested that some
smaller focus groups may be convened to further develop the
Strategy. He advised participants that they will receive a report
of todays workshop outcomes and thanked them for their attendance,
their generosity with their time and their contributions. Rex
closed the workshop by welcoming participants ongoing engagement
with the development of the new Strategy and said that if they
would like to provide further comments and ideas these would be
welcome at
[email protected]@safeworkaustralia.gov.au
Slide 33
Evaluation Outcomes 33 Overall, the feedback from the National
Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 workshop which was held
in Canberra on 23 June was very positive. Both quantitative and
qualitative results were collected from 30 evaluation sheets, which
reported 87% approval with the length of the workshop, and 100%
satisfaction both for the opportunity to contribute and the format
of the day. There was a 90% and 97% satisfaction respectively with
the location/venue and the facilitators, while the room set up and
food both rated 100% levels of satisfaction. Whilst a number of
attendees would have liked slightly longer discussion time on each
topic, most participants reported that the workshop was well
planned, well timed and organised. While there was a call to
include a younger demographic i.e. Gen Y, most participants still
found it was a great opportunity to bring like-minded expertise
together in the same room with the same goal and to contribute in
an open and friendly environment. Further, the good opportunity to
network, share ideas and actively contribute to the next strategy
was appreciated as well as the occasion to provide feedback and
input at this critical stage of developing the new Work Health and
Safety Strategy. Some would have liked a bigger room as it was a
little cramped but as the overall approval with the room set-up was
100%, this was noted, while accepting that it did not create too
much inconvenience. Many helpful suggestions were made on how to
improve the quality of discussion, ranging from suggesting a
greater emphasis on what information you are after from
discussions, would benefit from another meeting just involving
senior OHS professionals, and perhaps a need for more facilitated
discussion to focus on the how to elements of the new strategy. All
of this input has been noted, and is being integrated into future
workshops to make improvements. Whilst most people were satisfied
with the pace of the workshop, some requested more time for each
topic to discuss and debate proposals. However, others found it
hard to stay focussed for the whole length, and as there was 87%
satisfaction with the length of the workshop overall, this was
appreciated as a positive measure of participant enthusiasm and
desire for genuine input and collaboration. Text in italics
indicates direct quotes from respondents