At the end of each year it is the customary to reflect on what has happened. SafetyAtWorkBlog is no different so here are some of the blog’s achievements
It entered its second year under a subscription model and the numbers continue to grow. The corporate subscription has changed a little and this year a corporate subscriber joined with an allowance of up to 50 readers. Hopefully more will take up this option in the future.
According to one statistical dataset, up to today, the SafetyAtWorkBlog has had
- over 430,000 reads, with October accounting for just short of 50,000,
- 235,000 visitors (an average of 19,592 per month).
More important than numbers is the content of the blog. This year a large range of workplace health and safety-related topics were covered, with work-related psychological health probably being the most challenging as it has the most potential to change the way we work; especially with the various government inquiries happening in Australia next year.
Industrial Manslaughter will continue to be a topic in Australia for 2019. Partly because a lot of people feel that it is important but also because the campaign is indicative of the frustration many feel with how OHS is interpreted, managed and prosecuted. It is also crucial to our understanding of what it means to prevent harm.
Prevention will be a regular part of the OHS discourse in Australia through calls for OHS law reform, like that mentioned above, but also because of the attention it is receiving through Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner and the Sexual Discrimination Commissioner. Kate Jenkins knows that sustainable change to sexual harassment and the general treatment and role of women in our society will come from focusing on preventing harm and that will require changes to the structure of our society and how we run businesses. The OHS profession and regulators have a crucial role in this societal change IF they are willing to accept it and challenge themselves and their own structures.
The subscription model has been accepted as a valid option by many readers and, although it will never result in a living wage, it provides the funds necessary to cover important events, particularly ones that receive no other media coverage. The ACTU Congress mid-year and the ALP National Conference last week were noteworthy. As one of the article headlines said “OHS is there if you look for it” and if no one is looking for the OHS in HR, Industrial Relations, government policies, national and local economics and other sectors of discourse, OHS will disappear in irrelevance and ridicule.
The reach of the SafetyAtWorkBlog has also grown. It is less common to have to explain what the SafetyAtWorkBlog is; on introductions many say, “oh, you write that blog. We get that”. Membership and readership within Government regulatory agencies has grown with many of the agencies (those that still have libraries) subscribing. Sadly many of those readers are officially restricted from commenting due to their social media policies.
I want to thank those readers, subscribers and OHS people who drop me some exclusives or direct me to useful OHS information that is not easily accessible and that, certainly, is not coming to the attention to anyone else writing about workplace health and safety.
SafetyAtWorkBlog is likely to wind down a little over the Christmas and New Year break but articles will be posted through January and into the eleventh year of operation.
I wish everyone a Merry and Safe Christmas break.
Kevin,
Your insight into issues is invaluable to me as I rarely get the time (or motivation) to take a deeper look. You provide access to many reports and documents that I just wouldn’t have known exist. I hope the end of year wind down offers you some downtime and I look forward to the great reading in 2019.
Congratulations, Kevin! A Safety At Work blog subscription is indispensible for anyone who needs to stay abreast of what’s going on in OHS and, more importantly, is interested in a thoughtful analysis.
Thanks Marian.