Category: communication

WorkSafe Victoria’s optimism is for the whole community

Marnie Williams, Executive Director of WorkSafe Victoria launched 2018 with a presentation at a breakfast seminar organised by the Safety Institute of Australia and hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills in Melbourne.  Williams illustrated that WorkSafe is very aware of community and business expectations on her authority’s performance and showed WorkSafe is very busy as it restructures around its relocation to Geelong and elsewhere  However it could change even more or in different, more sustainable, ways.

Williams’ presentation proposed a positive future where the actions and issues associated with occupational health and safety (OHS) broaden to involve the Victorian community and address safety and health concerns that may no longer fit within the established OHS definitions, approaches and strategies.

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here

Infographics still need some explanation

Infographics have become a popular format for distributing information about occupational health and safety (OHS) and other topics but they are often seen as a shortcut in consultation.  They can be visually engaging but are often too shallow as the writers and designers try to depict safety data in the simplest manner.  Terminology also needs to be consistent so that readability is most effective.

Recently Safe Work Australia produced

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here

Double anniversary for independent OHS voice

template - safetyatworkblog-10-years.pngFebruary 2018 is an important month for the SafetyAtWorkBlog as it is the 10th anniversary of the blog’s operation and the 1st anniversary of our subscription service.

Firstly, I need to thank the over-100 subscribers who have shown their appreciation for an independent voice on workplace health and safety. I do not claim to be right but I do claim to be provocative and provide a fresh perspective on OHS.  I have had particularly positive feedback on the recent series of articles on sexual harassment and OHS.

The funds from subscriptions have provided me with the opportunity to attend local and international OHS conferences in 2017 and to provide exclusive reports back to subscribers.  It has also allowed me to commission some works from other OHS people outside of Australia – a unique report on the OHS of wildlife rangers will be appearing shortly.

For those several thousand followers who don’t subscribe, I hope you appreciate the occasional free-access articles, the statistics certainly indicate there are plenty of you out there.  Some basic stats for the SafetyAtWorkBlog in its first year of subscriptions include

  • 17,000 monthly visitor numbers (average),
  • 28,749 reads per month (average)
  • a subscriber base of 100 safety consultants, companies and regulators, and
  • over 2,700 email and blog followers who are notified each time a new article is uploaded.

I hope that the subscribers will resubscribe this year and that they will encourage others to.  Some will automatically have their subscriptions renew automatically, other subscriptions will expire (depending on the purchase process you chose) and require a manual purchase.

Regardless I think it is the best $200 you will spend on your OHS state of knowledge this year.

I need also to thank the tireless work of the people at Concatenate who designed the website from the ground up and continue to do so.

Best Regards and Thanks

Kevin Jones

Is a new OHS consultative model required?

A crucial element in achieving the aims of the independent review into WorkSafe Victoria, as discussed in an earlier SafetyAtWorkBlog article, seems to be the operation of the Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee (OHSAC).  It was difficult to obtain a list of the current members of OHSAC. Due to the appointments being considered “ministerial”, WorkSafe would not reveal memberships.

But it is worth considering whether this type of tripartite-dominated committee is the most suitable or effective way of consulting on occupational health and safety issues.  Can it represent the gig economy and new work arrangements?  Given the broadening of OHS into mental health and wellness, does the current membership still represent OHS? Where’s the Human Resources representative? Does OHSAC membership fit with the diversity we now expect from our company Boards? But, above all else, does the growth in social media make these often plodding, and sometimes secretive, processes ineffective or redundant?

A spokesperson for the Victorian Government has provided the following names of current OHSAC members as at December 2017.  SafetyAtWorkBlog has added titles and links to online member profiles:

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here

Review into WorkSafe Victoria released at Christmas

In the middle of 2017 SafetyAtWorkBlog asked why the Victorian Government was slow in releasing the report of an independent review into its occupational health and safety (OHS) regulator, WorkSafe.  Victorians have received a Christmas present with the release of the report of the  Independent Review of Occupational Health and Safety Compliance and Enforcement in Victoria and the Government response.

In Principle

According to the Minister for Finance Robin Scott’s media release, dated 18 December 2017,

“The review was a Labor Government election commitment and made 22 recommendations – all of which the Government supports in principle.” (emphasis added)

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here

Suicide and OHS media campaigns should achieve tangible outcomes

Don’t jump rock cliff at Sydney, Australia

The benefits of advertising are notoriously difficult to quantify unless there is a specific product being promoted.  Advertising about occupational health and safety (OHS) is usually measured in the level of awareness of the viewers with questions such as

  • Are you aware of WorkSafe?
  • What does WorkSafe do?
  • When we mention WorkSafe to you, what do you think of?

But as with wellbeing initiatives, awareness does not always, some would say rarely, generate action; and action that affects real change.

Recently several Australian researchers looked at some of the existing studies around media campaigns on the prevention of

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here

Half time at the Future of Leadership

This month the “Future of Leadership” conferences are travelling Australia.  The Melbourne stop, on 21 September, started really well with three on-topic speakers but declined strongly after morning tea with at least one speaker who had nothing to say about leadership.  At the half-time break, one hopes that the conference gets back on track because when it was, it was very good.

This leadership conference is very different from occupational health and safety (OHS) conference because it talks about a concept in such general terms that the audience can impose whatever context it chooses.  As this blog is about workplace safety, predominantly, OHS context was paramount.

Subscribe to SafetyAtWorkBlog to continue reading.
Subscribe Help
Already a member? Log in here
© Workplace Safety Services P/L (ABN: 68091088621) and SafetyAtWorkBlog, 2008-2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kevin Jones and SafetyAtWorkBlog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Concatenate Web Development
© Designed and developed by Concatenate Aust Pty Ltd