Are you recording the right workplace safety data to reduce your premium?
The current WorkSafe Victoria medium segment intervention strategy is reported to be delivering excellent results.
One participating business recently confirmed “that savings achieved from reduced insurance premiums was equivalent to the profits on producing and selling an additional $16m of product.”
The medium segment strategy encourages these businesses to integrate safety into their business management systems, to ensure they practice prevention rather than reaction and gain commitment from owners and directors to the process.
Often owners and directors often are just simply unaware that systematic prevention based health and safety management and promotion leads to reduced WorkCover premiums and other cost reductions.
However, many people feel that current models of safety management systems are far too complex for the medium segment; they want the cost reductions, but not the complexity that comes with it. This is why the ‘Seven Pillars of Safety’ has been developed.
The third pillar, ‘Recording and Reporting’, seeks to ensure leaders have their fingers on the pulse of organisational safety by recording and reporting claims and premium data. This is about providing senior management, owners and directors with quantifiable feedback allowing them to initiate system interventions to occur in a timely fashion.
So how does your workplace measure up?
Setting and reporting indicators
What to look for:
- Reporting indicators.
- Staff responsibility.
Expected practice:
- Indicators around Return To Work (RTW) and number of incidents as well as any regulatory reporting.
- Indicators are relevant to all identified standards for OHS/RTW for the organisation.
- Lead and lag indicators specified.
- Staff are aware of reporting responsibilities.
- Know what to do should immediate corrective action be required.
Unacceptable practice:
- No reporting indicators assigned for OHS.
- Designation unclear/not evident.
Reporting data
What to look for:
- Reported on a timely basis.
Expected practice:
- Identified safety data being reported on a regular basis.
- All lead and lag indicators identified and reported.
- RTW data reported to owner and executives.
- Person is assigned to collate data for easy access by the leadership team.
Unacceptable practice:
- No OHS/RTW data being reported.
Follow up on reported data
What to look for:
- Actions arising from responses.
Expected practice:
- Unacceptable data is investigated and corrective action taken.
- Ongoing review of whether data being recorded is meeting required objectives.
- Results of investigations communicated to workforce.
This simplified approach is designed to support personnel in medium businesses that have OHS and RTW responsibilities on top of their normal duties. It will establish and confirm their role as the ringmasters, not the experts and as facilitators, not doers of everything.
WorkSafe have found that these people lack confidence, skills and capability, but are expected to have all the answers and are often presented with an overwhelming amount of complex information. The aim is to provide them with support that is easy to access and tailored to their needs.
At Work Safety Hub we are using the seven pillars as a guideline. Businesses now have a much simpler view and understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
