Cash motivates, toasters create dissent

Motivating workers and managers to improve safety performance through rewards has been a contentious element of safety management processes for decades but no-one seems to have got it right.  Most bonus/award/reward systems are able to be manipulated.  An article in the Harvard Business Review and Australian Financial Review may add another dimension to the discussion by looking at the psychological effects … Continue reading “Cash motivates, toasters create dissent”

Behavioural-based safety put into context

Yesterday Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne spoke at the monthly networking meeting of the Central Safety Group in Australia.  His presentation was based around his research into job stress and its relationship with mental health. LaMontagne was talking about the dominant position in personnel management where negative thoughts generate a negative working environment, one of stress, dissatisfaction and lower productivity.  SafetyAtWorkBlog … Continue reading “Behavioural-based safety put into context”

HWCA could be influential in Australia’s workers’ compensation reforms

Australia and New Zealand have a small strategic organisation called the Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities (HWCA, pronounced “howca” by those in the know).  It is a regular meeting (some say “love-in”, others say “coven”) of the CEOs of the various workers’ compensation bodies in Australia and New Zealand.  Over the next five years, as the Australian Government … Continue reading “HWCA could be influential in Australia’s workers’ compensation reforms”

Australian survey on attitudes to OHS and laws

Firstly there is an apology for having statistics dominate SafetyAtWorkBlog this week however everything became available all at once. An earlier article mentioned some recent OHS statistics that have been released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions.  Below is the SafetyAtWorkBlog interpretation of the survey report. The survey was undertaken by an independent research … Continue reading “Australian survey on attitudes to OHS and laws”

Physical activity, mental health, alcohol consumption and productivity

The Victorian Government’s workplace health strategy may be “coughing up blood” but health promotion continues.  Last week, Australian health insurer, Medibank Private, released some statistics and cost estimates related to physical inactivity. According to the media release, physical inactivity costing the Australian economy $13.8 billion a year. The findings are based on research conducted in conjunction … Continue reading “Physical activity, mental health, alcohol consumption and productivity”