Health & Safety Management:

Optimising outcomes from your health,

safety and rehabilitation service providers

Sue Read - Psychologist

Senior Prevention & Injury Management Consultant
Comcare
 Overview
An integrated organisational approach to
health and safety

 Principles for optimising outcomes from

your health, safety and rehabilitation service
providers

 Case study - exploring organisational

approaches to identified workplace issues
 OHS Risk Management Model

Senior
management
leadership and
commitment Active
OHS
involvement of
management each individual
information in the
systems workplace
OHS Risk
Management
Model Principles

Hazard Effective
identification communication
risk assessment through
and risk control consultation
Provision of
appropriate
information,
education and
training
 A comprehensive approach to the risk
management process

Risk Management

Identify the Hazard

Assess the Risks

Control the Risks

Monitor and evaluate the controls

ht wei v e R
u mmo C
 Prevention - Integrated
management systems

• People management

• Risk management

• Business performance

• Customer service
 The Injury Prevention 0

& Management Continuum

Prevention Secondary Injury Rehabilitation Recovery
Prevention
Positive Maintain connection with the
Workplace Early Intervention workplace
Culture
Hazard Id Respond Injury Arrange Assessment
Risk Assessment to warning notification
signs
Risk Control Medical Provide a RTW Plan
attention
Monitor &
Early contact Monitor until sustained
Review

(Claim)
 Prevention ORGANISATIONAL

Early Intervention

Rehabilitation INDIVIDUAL
 Reactive approaches to deal with
injury or external service providers
will not:

• Address systemic OHS issues

• Lead to permanent improvements

 Organisational problems need
organisational solutions

A strategic approach will:

• Allow identification of systemic OHS issues

• Allow these issues to be prioritised and addressed
• Lead to long term improvements that survive
changing personnel
Planning to engage health, safety and
rehabilitation service providers
• Engaging providers to address organisational issues
needs to be strategic, complimentary and aligned with
the organisation’s health and safety goals rather than
‘ad hoc’

• Interventions may be aimed at identifying and

addressing risk of injury, supporting and assisting
employees at risk, and/or implementing safe and
effective return to work of injured employees

• The closer the intervention to the risk the more far

reaching will be the impact and outcomes
 Case Study
“An employee lodged a claim recently alleging repeated bullying and
harassment,
harassment and that their manager had engaged in an unfair and
inappropriate performance management process. This employee has
had higher than the average absent days over the last four months”

“you discover that the average number of days off for all staff in this
team is nearly twice the average of the rest of the organisation.”

“Quarterly reports from the Harassment Contact Officers (HCO’s)

network indicate an increase over the last year in the number of
requests for informal guidance and support ”

“types of behaviours being exhibited by select individuals, and also

about one or two senior managers.”
managers

“no one really cares about what we do here anyway”

 Absenteeism rates across the organisation higher than they were last year

Employee Opinion Survey results – 32% of staff ‘experienced bullying or

harassing behaviours’ in the last 12 months, high percentage of staff ‘did
not feel supported by their line manager’

 “Employee turnover has been higher than usual, hard to attract and
retain good staff to fill a number of recent vacancies”

 Managers finding it hard to get staff to engage with their work, finding
staff ‘unmotivated

Recruitment costs have risen by 35% in the last year

 Increase in EAP usage – 15% increase in work related counselling

 Exit interviews – 2 senior employees stated in their exit interviews that

they believed there was a blaming culture and a culture of only
communicating when things had gone wrong. No communication of success
 Rehabilitation – assist return to work of injured
employees
(Tertiary interventions)

•Provide safe and effective rehabilitation and return to

work for individuals once an injury has occurred and
preferably before a workers’ compensation claim has
been lodged

• Focus on the provision of assistance and services after

an injury has occurred

• Ensure that when an injury does occur, employees

have a timely return to work and resume prior
functioning
Examples of tertiary level interventions are:

• Policy and procedures to enable safe and

durable return to work

• Assessment of rehabilitation needs

• Planning rehabilitation programs with general

practitioners

• Early access to treatment

• Management provision of suitable duties

• Case conferencing
 Early intervention – support employees at risk
(Secondary interventions)

• Provide a safety net of services and interventions which

have a role in preventing injury and providing assistance to
aid recovery

• Monitor the health and wellbeing of employees and

identify warning signs of potential injury

• Intervene early to provide support for employees who are

experiencing early signs or symptoms before they develop
into an injury or illness
 Examples of secondary interventions are:

• Systematic monitoring of indicators such as

absenteeism, turnover, grievances
• Employee assistance program counselling
• Manager assistance programs
• Training (recognition of warning signs)
• Critical incident debriefing
• Conflict resolution strategies
• Early intervention policies and strategies
• Management support and assistance for employees
 Prevention – manage the risk of injury/illness
(Primary interventions)

• Focus on the risk at the source to prevent it occurring

• Aim to create a safe and healthy workplace and

systematically address workplace hazards that may lead to
injury

• Systems and strategies that an employer has in place prior to

an employee starting work
 Examples of primary interventions are:

• leadership development programs

• developing effective communication through
consultation
• management and staff information education and
training in Occupational Health and Safety roles and
responsibilities
• hazard identification, risk assessment and control
• organisational health evaluation and plan
• OHS management systems audit
 Key questions prior to engaging an external service
provider
In the context of the risk management process:
 Can you describe and define the problem?
 How could this issue be addressed?
 What internal resources are available?
 Has the problem been addressed elsewhere in the organisation or by
other agencies?
 What would the intervention/service be aiming to achieve?
 How does this intervention align with your agency’s overall health and
safety strategy?
 How will outcomes be measured including value for money?
 How will the outcomes of this intervention/service be generalised and
communicated in your agency?
 What reporting will be required?
Getting the most out of external service providers

• Analyse the issue that needs addressing and develop a

business case for intervention

• Outline how the intervention or service provision fits

in with the overall health and safety strategies of the
organisation

• Seek assistance to establish a clear service level

agreement or contractual arrangement

• Ensure the service provider has the appropriate

qualifications and skills to deliver effectively
 Gaining the most out of external service providers

• Assess whether the service achieves value for money

• Promote the use of providers in an efficient, effective and
ethical manner
• Make decisions in an accountable and transparent way
• Ensure that your service level agreement:
agreement
• Clearly sets out expectations
• Includes service level requirements
• Outlines a measure of intended outcomes
• Outlines expected reporting requirements from the provider
back to the organisation
Getting the most out of external service providers

 What do you want them to do?

 How well do you want them to do it?

 How will you know if your outcomes are achieved?

 What will it cost (does it achieve value for money)?
 What reporting will be provided back to the
organisation that can be used for further learning?
 Monitor and Review

Monitor and review the implementation (process) and

effectiveness (outcome) of interventions:
• Measure and report against agreed targets and
performance indicators, and review against strategy
goals
• Aim for continuous improvement,
improvement rather than
expecting a dramatic and uniformly positive impact
• Improve interventions as indicated by the review and
evaluation
 Engaging service providers – summary
When engaging external service providers rather than
being ‘reactionary’ ensure their use is:

• Strategic – aligned with your organisation’s health and

safety goals

• Meets the identified needs of the organisation

• Integrates with other risk and people management

strategies

• Mix of organisational and individual level interventions

 References – Available at www.comcare.gov.au

• Working Well: an organisational approach to preventing

psychological injury (Publication 47)
• Working Well: steps to prevent and manage psychological
injury (Publication 56)
• Working Well: strategies to prevent psychological injury at
work (Publication 57)
• Targets for achieving better workplace Health, Safety and
Rehabilitation. Australian government premium paying
employers (Publication 09)
• Leadership Commitment: Early Rehabilitation Assistance
to Employees (Publication 31)
 References – Available at www.comcare.gov.au

• Positive performance indicators: Measuring Safety,

Rehabilitation and Compensation Performance (Publication 10)
• Rehabilitation: Managing Return to Work, a Better Practice
Guide for Senior Managers and Supervisors (Publication 16)
• Identifying Hazards in the Workplace (OHS10)
• Safe and Sound: Safety Leadership in Government
Workplaces (Publication 35)
• Employee Opinion Surveys (Publication 53)
• Bullying in the Workplace: A guide to prevention for
managers and supervisors (OHS65)
An organisational approach to prevention and
management of injury

• Strong management commitment

• Employee involvement

• Clear description of the problem and business case setting

• Goals for improvement

• Integrated management systems approach

• Targeted interventions which may be aimed at

prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation