Positive Workplace Cultures – the pathway to excellence
Being a good employer today means protecting our workers from negative workplace cultures. This goes beyond not tolerating bullying and harassment but ensuring workers feel safe, supported and that their wellbeing matters every day. To build a respectful and safe work environment requires well written and understood policies and procedures, constructive working relationships and real […]
Engaging With Volunteers: What Are Your Health and Safety Obligations?
As the 20th of June marks the beginning of National Volunteer Week this year, it’s a good time to brush up on your health and safety obligations when engaging with volunteers. There is often uncertainty on what an organisation’s legal duties are. The key question is, are volunteers treated the same as employees or not? […]
Managing Vehicle Risks in the Workplace
Between January 2019 and January 2020, there were a total of 40 fatalities caused by work-related vehicle incidents, according to data analysis presented by WorkSafe NZ. Moreover, during this same time period, there were over 1160 injuries from vehicle incidents resulting in more than a week away from work. The data proves just how harmful […]
Tips for Effective Health and Safety Inductions
Prioritising health and safety inductions in the workplace is essential to protecting new workers from harm. Unless a worker is aware of the hazards associated with their role and understands how to manage them, mistakes and injuries are unavoidable. Workers who have not completed a proper safety induction have a higher tendency for negligence, leading […]
What Exactly is a Competency Framework?
Competence can be described as the ability to do something successfully. Likewise, a competent worker is someone who is qualified for a specific role because of their skills, knowledge and attributes which allows them to work safely and efficiently. As a manager, you are responsible for ensuring your workers are fully competent before they begin […]
Why You Need a Comprehensive Health and Safety Plan
Planning is key to achieving good health and safety performance. Without a clear and firm plan in place, your business will run into the risk of serious incidents that you will be liable for. Moreover, reviewing your plan annually ensures you are keeping up-to-date with any changes that may impact your business. 5 reasons for […]
Managing Fatigue in the Workplace
A fatigued worker is equivalent to a drunk worker. Fatigue is a significant problem across NZ workplaces. According to the 2017 Health and Safety Attitudes and Behaviours Survey, 43% of NZ workers stated they worked when overtired from ‘time to time’ or ‘a lot’. What is fatigue? Fatigue goes beyond the feeling of just being […]
How to Achieve Good Health and Safety Governance
Many organisations still need to shift their focus on improving their health and safety management and performance. Since September 2019, there have been a total of 88 work fatalities and over 30,000 work injuries in New Zealand. Positive health and safety culture begins with the Board and spreads throughout the entire organisation. As an Officer, […]
Informed Health and Safety: Measuring More Than Just Incidents
Poor health and safety performance can have detrimental effects on workers and their families, as well as on the financial and reputational health of a business. Measurement is a critical part of health and safety management. Health and safety metrics can help identify what drives good performance and highlight areas in need of improvement – […]
How Do We Identify and Track Our Critical Risk Controls?
What are Critical Risk Controls? Keeping the workplace safe and free from serious incidents begins with identifying hazards and risks. Once identified, you must manage these risks through implementing and tracking critical risk controls – these are actions that are designed to eliminate or minimise the identified risk. Risk control measures provide a number of […]
