New webinar addresses how employers can identify, mitigate risks in workplace
Employers across Australia are being urged to take proper steps in identifying psychosocial risks in the workplace amid a high risk of neglecting them due to "assumption creep."
"When we talk about risks, the identification section is probably the most neglected section that we see," said Karlie Cremin, managing director at the DLPA, in a recent webinar.
According to Cremin, there are instances where employers no longer investigate their environment because of an assumption they know present workplace risks because they know the nature of their organisation.
"We’re quite slow generally to recognise that change and to identifying emerging risks," Cremin said in the webinar. "So that's where I would encourage you to put a good bit of oxygen onto the identification process."
Several of the measures that employers can take include the following:
- Engage with the workforce to understand their lived experience.
- Review systems of work - including processes, procedures, work instructions .
- Review safety performance data - including complaints and injuries.
- Staffing behaviour - character of rosters, breaks, resourcing levels, absenteeism, and churn.
- Don't dismiss anecdotal information.
- Critically appraise reporting behaviour.
- Pay attention to language used.
"It's important in the identification phase to really just be looking at identifying. Don't be jumping ahead," Cremin said. "It's not to say that just because something is identified here that you have to magically solve it."
Steps to reduce psychosocial risks
According to Cremin, it is important to assess each identified risk in terms of duration, frequency, and severity of consequence.
Taking these steps will be critical amid recent legislation across Australian states that puts a legal obligation on employers to manage psychosocial risks in the workplace.
"What the legislation is calling for us to do in our organisation is to do what is reasonably practical to eliminate, or if elimination is not possible, mitigate the risk," Cremin said.
