New tool to create safer workplaces

A practical survey tool designed to aid prevention of injury and illness at work has been tested by Monash University and found to be useful in helping to create safer workplaces.

The Monash research team tested the ‘Organizational Performance Metric’ (OPM) tool, which was developed in Canada for employers to help them identify areas for health and safety improvement, people who are more at risk in the workplace and steps to prevent incidents from occurring.

As part of a larger national study, the team assessed the usefulness of the OPM — a measure of eight occupational health and safety (OHS) leading indicators — to gauge employees’ views of how healthy and safe their workplaces were.

The results highlighted that in workplaces with a greater commitment to WHS, employees experienced fewer injuries and illnesses at work, which often meant fewer claims or incidents causing time lost from work.

Lead researcher Professor Helen De Cieri, Monash Business School, said the indicator provided a sense of an organisation’s ongoing health and safety initiatives, and its potential for injuries and illnesses before they occur.

“Worldwide, there is strong interest among government and industry stakeholders in the use of leading indicators as a measure of workplace health and safety performance,” De Cieri said.

“We want to shift the focus of workplaces from counting the cost of injuries and illness to better work practices that prevent incidents, with more attention to OHS leadership, equipment and resources, and access to health and safety training.

“We’ve found that the tool is a simple way for workplaces to identify areas for health and safety improvement, people who are more at risk in the workplace and steps to prevent incidents from occurring.”

The team combined the results of two separate studies of more than 1400 Australian workplaces and 3500 workers.

Professor De Cieri said the research could also help policymakers and employers make decisions about distribution of health and safety resources.

The project was conducted by Monash University in partnership with WorkSafe Victoria, the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR) and SafeWork Australia.