Safe Work Month 2021
Think safe. Work safe. Be safe.
October is Safe Work Month, and the key message from Safe Work Australia is: Think safe. Work safe. Be safe.
We all know that safety is important every day of the year. Knowing where to start or which area of your business requires more attention can be a challenge.
We’ve collated some handy checklists and resources to help you on your safety journey.
Think safe
“Think safe” is the first step to thinking about work health and safety, which covers the planning and forethought that employers and small business owners must do to identify risks and maintain healthy and safe workplaces.
Understand your obligations
We can’t stress enough how important it is for employers to understand their legal obligations regarding employee safety and wellbeing. In industries with high injury rates, particularly those with jobs that require manual handling and repetitive movement, the risk of not being fully equipped is too great.
Know which injuries are hurting your business
Workplace injuries can occur in all industries, and not just those that require manual handling. Work Healthy Australia onsite provider Kristina Del Grosso takes us through the top injuries we see causing workers to come off the floor.
Get your stakeholders onboard
It has been shown that organisations which implement health promotion strategies can have wide-ranging positive effects at an individual and organisation level. Here are some tips on how to justify spending on workplace health and wellbeing.
Make a plan to reduce your LTIs
Safe Work Australia defines an LTI (lost-time injury) as, “something that results in a fatality, permanent disability or time lost from work. It could be as little as one day or shift.” There are many strategies that can be implemented to help reduce the risk of lost-time injuries occurring in the workplace.
Work Safe
“Work Safe” is about implementing work health and safety measures to manage risks including the practical steps you can take to reduce risk and avoid workplace incidents.
Ensure your workers are fit-for-task
Ensuring the right people are in the right jobs is crucial to business success. To achieve this requires a clear understanding of the roles within your business, and the specific tasks involved. We’ve outlined the steps to best practice – from recruitment, to training, to helping workers remain fit for task.
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Learn about common injuries, and how to prevent and manage them
RSI is an injury of the upper limbs involving the fingers, wrist and elbows. It is one of the most common causes of work-related injuries. RSI is a very painful and often debilitating condition, which when left untreated can result in permanent damage.
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Educate your workforce on the importance of sleep
Good quality sleep is essential for our capacity to function and thrive. Studies are now suggesting that anything less than 7 hours sleep is damaging to our health. It’s important to understand an acute or chronic lack of quality sleep can have far reaching impacts.
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Be Safe
“Be Safe” considers the ongoing process of managing and monitoring work health and safety risks – it is not a one off.
Look after your ageing workforce
Australians are working longer. In January 2018, approximately 13% of the workforce was aged over 65, compared to just 8% in 2006. As workers age, there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration and managed within a workplace.
Get the most out of your onsite healthcare provider
The first step in a workplace health and safety strategy for many leading Australian businesses is to engage workplace health and wellbeing consultants. For many businesses, particularly those with workers undertaking repetitive manual handling jobs, their focus is workplace injury prevention, triage and management.
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People are key to your business – continue to look after them
Walking onto the production floor of any business in the manual handling industry, be it in food processing, meat works, logistics or manufacturing sites, it’s not difficult to understand and appreciate the importance of the human component of productivity. Here is a checklist to monitor going forward, to help bulletproof your workforce, and prevent and manage injury.