Employers are encouraged to engage all staff in celebrating workplace safety on World Day for Safety and Health at Work today.
And, if you work in a setting where you think hazards and risks are low, think again, warns Trinette Jaeschke, Ai Group’s National Manager - Work Health Safety Consulting Services.
“There are some people who work in an office and say: ‘I've got a very low-risk environment; we don't use chemicals; we don’t have a powered plant which creates a risk of getting our hands caught in machinery, so we don't have a need to talk about safety in our team meetings'," she said.
“But, while physical injuries and hazards can be plain to see, we don't often see the psychological or the emotional impact that work can have on our day-to-day lives.
“It’s these psychosocial hazards that need to be addressed in both high and lower risk environments.”
Employers who perceive themselves as low risk are finding Ai Group’s approach to managing psychosocial hazards — as demonstrated in the diagram below — beneficial in managing these risks.
On World Day today, employers are encouraged to make a day of it where all staff — not just the WHS team — can highlight and draw attention to anything within the workplace that needs to be looked at.
“Look at how tasks are performed and the duration, frequency and complexity of those tasks,” Ms Jaeschke said.
“Review the work employees undertake, because it can impact safety outcomes.
“Draw your attention to the physical environment. Gather your team together and carry out a workplace inspection to identify if there are any hazards that need to be addressed.
“Encouraging people to get off their chairs for some group stretching is beneficial.
“Creative ideas encourage people to have a little bit of fun because often people think safety is boring and dull, when it's not.
“Today is all about engaging with people to focus on keeping people healthy and well. It’s a time to show that we're going to be proactive and manage risks in the workplace.”
This year’s theme for World Day is A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work.
Take the message home and share it with your family, Ms Jaeschke says.
“If you have teenagers in the workforce, empower them by talking about what you’ve seen wrong in your work environment and what you can do, and have done, about it,” she said.
“Young workers are often inexperienced. They don't know what they don't know, and they often try to please their employer without realising they could be doing something unsafe.”
Does your business need a WHS health check? Do you need help to identify your safety gaps?
Our FREE diagnostic tool can help. Click here to get started.
Ai Group’s WHS Consulting Services can assist you to address psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Click here for more information.
For further support, email our WHS experts.
Are you doing enough to manage workplace psychosocial hazards?
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
