Leadership – Page 3 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Governments should set the OHS bar much higher

It should be clear to readers by now that I am not a lawyer. My interest is in the practical application and compliance with occupational health and safety (OHS) laws. Those laws often encouraged employers to look for the source of workplace harms and hazards, with government agencies advising that addressing these causes is the most effective and cost-effective way to manage OHS. In this context, it seems to me that clients can significantly influence OHS, as they may be a major source of work-related harms and risks. But their role is often downplayed.

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Are emotion and anger also types of energy?

One of my previous employers was highly committed to occupational health and safety (OHS), but always gave the program, the schedule or utilisation a higher priority. Whether that was a justifiable compliance level was of little concern, as long as the auditors recertified the OHS management systems. The company realised their approach to OHS was not working, so it turned its focus on “critical risks”, which were, bluntly, anything that would kill you. But such was the strength of the culture that even this focus on critical risks failed to cut through and give OHS the respect that it legislatively deserves.

Matthew Hallowell‘s latest book, “Energy-Based Safety – A Scientific Approach to Preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs)“, discusses this focus on critical risks.

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From Clutter to Clarity and Evidence at RMIT’s SHINe Symposium

Just over a week ago, RMIT University’s research funding program, SHINe, conducted its inaugural symposium. This symposium was both new and fascinating. It was overbooked with a considerable weight list, I think, because of the international safety research guests, but the fact that an event in Safe Work Month was free might have helped. The research by the Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA) for the United States was a highlight.

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Lazy Senators Are Not Doing Their Job

Safe Work Australia’s (SWA) executives are obliged to attend meetings of Senate Estimates committees to answer questions from Senators about their portfolios. Sometimes these can be tense and robust. Sometimes these appear to be a waste of time.

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Across the Ditch: What New Zealand’s OHS Survey Reveals About Gender, Influence, and Industry

The latest edition of New Zealand’s excellent occupational health and safety (OHS) magazine, Safeguard (long may it reign…. in hard copy), included its annual income survey of OHS professionals. Some Australian organisations also do this, but their findings can be expensive to access.

I ran Safeguard’s data summary through AI to provide a text-based profile of a “typical” NZ OHS professional. It offers an interesting contrast to what we have in Australia.

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OHS and Politics

In support of Australia’s Safe Work Month, I have recorded a 12-minute opinion piece on how Australian politics since 2010 has affected the perception and development of occupational health and safety, based on past SafetyAtWorkBlog articles.

It is an interesting opportunity to reflect on the decisions and actions of influential individuals like Julia Gillard, Kristina Keneally, Jeff Lawrence, and David Gregory.

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When Leadership Fails the Soul

Dean Yates is a prominent Australian speaker on the issue of moral injury. Yesterday, at a WorkSafe Tasmania seminar, Yates brought the 250 attendees up to date on the status of moral injury and its occupational context. Although this seminar was a Safe Work Month event, Yates’ information requires some thought to fit with the occupational health and safety (OHS) and psychological hazards contexts.

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