Meet the Regulators: Workcover Victoria

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The Victoria Workcover Authority (trading name is Worksafe Victoria) is the state government body that monitors and regulates safety laws in the workplace. Its jurisdiction is restricted to Victoria but it is part of the broader Safe Work Australia framework. The goal of workcover Victoria is to promote safe workplaces for workers and employers, and ensure both parties have appropriate avenues for compensation and support.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) outlines the system of laws, regulations and compliance measures that form the framework of the Victorian Workcover Authority (VMA). Broadly speaking, the role of Workcover in Victoria includes the monitoring and enforcement of OHS standards, the assurance of worker and employer rights and responsibilities, and workplace injury rehabilitation and compensation.

Responsibilities

  • Occupational health and safety: ensure the OHS regulations outlined in the Act are properly maintained and enforced. This VMA is also responsible for spreading workcover information to the public, licencing of high risk equipment/goods, offering advice on compliance to employers as well as forming policy interpretation should a case demand it.
  • Workplace injury rehabilitation and compensation: the management of the Workcover workers compensation and other rehabilitation support services. Support services include not only compensation schemes but also healthcare and related support should it be required. Workcover insurance is funded by a percentage of the remuneration employers’ pay. In turn the Workcover claim form is also a process Workcover Victoria deals with.
  • Worker and employer rights and responsibilities: under the Act both employers and employees are entitled to certain rights but also certain responsibilities. These include the respective duty of care, reporting of injuries, claims, representation in legal procedures, privacy and return to work information. For more information on workers rights and responsibilities, head to the Victorian Workcover Authority website. Alternatively, if you are an employer you can find more information here.

Compliance and Enforcement

The Victorian Workcover Authority has many compliance and enforcement options at its disposal in the case of substandard safety conditions or a breach of the Act. These include:

  • Conducting legal procedures (litigation and appeals) regarding decisions made after inspections
  • Conducting prosecutions against those alleged to have breached Victoria’s occupational health and safety regulations
  • The investigation of alleged breaches of the Act
  • The Management of Victoria’s OHS emergency response unit

For more information on the Victoria Workcover Authority, you can visit their website at www.vwa.gov.au

How a Dynamic Risk Assessment and Software Work Hand in Hand

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What does every manager want?

More time.

More time to consult with clients, more time to get the job done right and more time to finish all the paperwork that inevitably comes with high risk work.

Unfortunately time is a luxury and finding enough of it can involve re prioritising important tasks. Health and safety often falls behind when the time constraints of the any industry begin in take hold. Even the most basic risk assessment can involve the time consuming task of hazard identification, not to mention implementing control measures and reviewing acceptable standards workplace safety.

But taking shortcuts around proper risk management is a dangerous option for a construction manager to take. Shortcuts not only bypass important stages of risk assessment which in turn puts the well being of workers at risk, but also invites potential penalties from Australia’s various workplace health and safety regulators. Only an exceptionally unwise manager would consider this option but the problem still remains: how can managers make more efficient use of their time without undermining workplace health and safety?

The answer: a dynamic risk assessment process.

The ACT Emergency Services Agency provides a useful dynamic risk assessment definition:

“The continuous process of identifying hazards, assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or reduce risk, monitoring and reviewing, in the rapidly changing circumstances of an operational incident.”

High risk construction work can involve rapidly changing circumstances that require the utmost diligence from workers and managers alike. Yet even a dynamic risk assessment done on paper is still significantly inefficient. To solve the problem of time (or a lack there of) managers need to embrace technology, or more specifically, dynamic construction safety software.

SafeWorkPro is one such form of this health and safety software. Developed in conjunction with electrical contractors Cole Contracting, SafeWorkPro has been specifically designed to minimise the time managers have to spend on risk assessments. It can be easily downloaded on

any mobile device or smartphone and provides workers with a way to complete and update risk assessments in real time without the direct involvement of the site manager. With no paperwork involved, SafeWorkPro means risk management takes up less of the manger’s time, but more importantly, that risk assessments can be updated and revised with the click of a button.

That is the true capability of dynamic risk assessments – forms that can be completed, updated and revised quicker than the paper-based alternative, but in a way that doesn’t compromise acceptable standards of workplace health and safety. If you’re interested, sign up for SafeWorkPro today commitment free.

How Much Time is Spent on Software-Based Risk Assessments?

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Lets be realistic, using safety management system software is not a silver bullet. Even when using free risk assessment software there is still a time-cost associated. However, risk assessment software can save you time by streamlining the risk management process. The question is how much time? To calculate this we conducted a risk assessment productivity case study on a construction business of 12 workers.

In previous articles, we looked at how much time is spent on paper-based risk assessments and subsequently how much they cost your business. So, now we need to apply the same process to a software-based system to determine the possible savings. The following diagram shows the time values that are associated with each step of the risk assessment workflow.

1. Create Risk Assessment: Risk assessment software can be filled out on a smart phone. Firstly, this reduces the time associated with carrying and maintaining paperwork. Secondly, the software can assist the workers to consider previous risk assessment tools and use auto-fill to complete the risk assessment form. In our case study the workers were now spending only 1-2 minutes filling out these risk assessment forms.

2. Present to Foreman: The risk assessments and SWMS’s are presented to the foreman before starting work. The foreman can be emailed the risk assessment and SMWM’s in turn speeding up the process. The risk management strategy can then be read and recorded digitally for auditing purposes.

3. Conduct Work: Throughout the job it is possible for unforeseen hazards to arise meaning an extra risk assessment would need to be added. The worker does not have to retrieve a collection of paperwork but instead also reviews the SWMS digitally before proceeding.

4. Filing and Auditing: The back-end administration is almost completely cleared. The digital records are kept as soon as the risk assessment is saved and can be downloaded as a zip for auditing purposes.

Using risk assessment software will save you money but there are some very important points within this article that should be considered. Firstly, it is hard to measure some intangible benefits like the improvement in safety which leads to less fewer accidents and less compensation. Secondly, the cost of the actual construction safety software has not been included but these calculations show an approximate difference meaning a reasonable price point can be reached. Lastly, risk assessment software can give you valuable insights into the running of your business through the use of data-driven decision making. This will give you a competitive advantage and allow you to make more informed decisions.

If you’re ready to boost your productivity with quick, safe and compliant risk assessment software, click here.

 

How much time is spent on paper-based risk assessments?

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Figuring out how much time it takes for construction workers to complete risk assessment forms doesn’t have to be guesswork. After taking data from our risk assessment productivity case study, we were able to determine an average time for each step. From there a monetary value was placed on each step based on the wages workers are paid. For information on how much paper-based risk assessments cost, click here. But back to the issue of time and the below diagram shows how long each step takes.

1. Create Risk Assessment: A paper-based notebook with blank risk assessments and SWMS’s is carried on site. The worker completes the task of writing a risk assessment and the associated SWMS.

2. Present to Foreman: The risk assessment plan and SWMS are presented to the foreman before starting work. The foreman will review the paperwork and keep a copy for auditing purposes.

3. Conduct Work: Throughout the job it is possible unforeseen risks arise and an extra risk assessment policy would need to be added. The worker may also need to review a SWMS to ensure that they are conducting the work safely.

4. Filing and Auditing: The completed risk assessments must be handed to and kept for seven years. The filing and administration associated with this task includes the time to hand the paper work to a manager and the time it takes to file the paperwork. It also includes the time it takes to retrieve paperwork during an audit.

The average time taken in the risk assessment process is approximately 9-16 minutes. For the purposes of your calculations you can change the values associated with each process. It is important to note here that there are some intangible factors that are difficult to include in this measurement. Some examples include the time that is saved in incident reporting and compensation related administration by having a safer work environment. Nonetheless the entire paper-based process is unnecessarily long but an alternative exists in the form of risk assessment software. This is all good and well but it does beg the question: how much time is spent on software-based risk assessments?

Safe Work Australia

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In the past, Australia’s vast array of workplace regulations made OHS compliance about as easy as blindfolded origami. Regulatory standards changed from state to state and figuring out which worksafe Australia codes of practice applied to which job required scrolling through pages of health and safety laws written in complicated legal-lingo. This cost businesses time and money, so in 2008 Safe Work Australia was established with the aim of streamlining this process.

Understanding the role of Safe Work Australia is central to comprehending the broader network of OHS regulations. Although the Work Health and Safety Act is long and complicated, Safe Work Australia works to standardise health and safety laws, prepare workplace codes of practice and suggest policy improvements to the government. In essence, Safe Work Australia is a model of health and safety codes of practice and OHS laws and regulations, that is reviewed by the government and then adopted by the respective states and territories.

Safe Work Australia Council

Safe Work Australia council is comprised of an independent chairperson, representatives of the federal government and from each state or territory, representatives from workers groups like the Australia Council of Trade Unions, representatives of employer groups and a Chief Executive Officer. As a statutory agency independent of partisan politics, Safe Work Australia aims to develop and maintain workplace safety policy that serves the interests of all parties in a fair and balanced manner.

But what is the role of Safe Work Australia? Well its key functions as set out in the Safe Work Australia Act are to:
• Develop a national occupational health and safety policy and workplace compensation
• Prepare a model OHS Act, work health and safety codes of practice and regulations
• Review and revise laws, the workplace health and safety codes of practice and regulations if necessary
• Develop a nationally consistent policy for the compliance and enforcement of workplace health and safety legislation
• Monitor the adoption process by the Commonwealth, states and territories of health and safety legislations, codes of practice, regulations and compliance and enforcement policy

• Collect, analyse and publish any data or research relating to OHS policies and procedures, and Australian workers compensation in order to better inform the policy development process

• Communicate with international organisations and other countries on matters relating to workers’ compensation and OHS
• Raise awareness of OHS and workers’ compensation issues

It should be noted though that Safe Work Australia is not the department of workplace health and safety so its proposals don’t become law until the government signs off on any changes. This approval process happens on two levels. Firstly the Workplace Relations Ministers Council (WRMC) oversees Safe Work Australia and directs their strategic and operation direction. The WRMC is made up of the state and territory leaders responsible for industrial safety topics, workplace relations and workers’ compensation matters. So it’s mostly ministers from the related portfolios like industrial relations. When the WRMC is happy with what Safe Work Australia is proposing they collectively sign off on the agreement and the proposal then becomes a Bill to be put to the respective state’s or territory’s parliament. If the Bill is passed, then you’ve got a new set of laws and regulations sanctioned by the government and enshrined by Safe Work Australia.

It seems like a long-winded process but the eventual goal of Safe Work Australia is to standardise all the OHS safety regulations, laws and codes of practice into one consistent national policy. When achieved this will mean that the rules of workplace health and safety Queensland will be exactly the same as those in NSW or any other state or territory. With everyone on the same OHS page it will make it easier for businesses to conduct their work across state lines and grow.

How Can You Make Your Own Health and Safety Documents Without Breaking the Bank?

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No matter what the industry is, workplace safety documents are a costly but necessary part of day-to-day work.

Safety software systems, like SafeWorkPro, enable both workers and managers to create their own safety documents with reasonable ease thus boosting productivity and promoting a strong workplace safety culture. For more information on these benefits, read how writing your own safety documents can boost productivity.

Whether it’s a safety data sheet (SDS sheet) or a full-blown safe work method statement, safety software works to streamline the process and ease the burden of paperwork by digitalising all forms. Simply put, SafeWorkPro removes paperwork from workplace safety procedures, instead utilising a smartphone application. On this application, managers or workers can create their own safety documents to suit the individual working conditions or personal preference – all while remaining complaint with occupational health and safety laws.

The traditional method of completing safety documents, although tried and tested, is fundamentally flawed. Paperwork causes bottlenecks for backend administration, wasting the precious time of managers, while on the worksite workers are burdened with constantly updating multiple safety documents that can be confusing and impractical.

For example, a risk assessment must be used at every high risk construction worksite to identify and manage risk. However if the workplace conditions change due to poor weather or if new risks are observed, than the original risk assessment must be amended to reflect what control measures will be used to manage the risk. As this workflow example indicates, paperwork takes up time that could be better used to complete the task at hand.

To ensure even greater convenience, SafeWorkPro stores safety documents so that they can be used again – even if you’re offline. This extends a significant amount of flexibility for workers undertaking jobs outside of reliable internet access. Moreover it allows the real time transfer of reliable health and safety information between clients, contractors, workers and managers. Such a feature provides both workers and managers with a detailed picture of the health and safety standards of their business while providing insights into what areas require improvement.

The development of SafeWorkPro is due to the high level of collaboration between software developers and their partners at Cole Contracting. This small electrical contractor has been operating out of south East Queensland for 17 years and has first hand experience with the constant demands of compliant safe work practices. Through this partnership, SafeWorkPro has been developed based according to the needs of tradespersons and managers in the construction industry.

Health and safety documents in the workplace are important but should not come at the cost of productivity. Now with a software solution, businesses are afforded greater flexibility in how they create and complete safety documents. Begin your journey with SafeWorkPro today!

The Four Stages of Risk Assessment

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The stages of risk assessment are pretty straightforward. Ultimately you want a risk assessment process that can identify hazards and who may be harmed, and outline the risk management methodologies that can prevent an incident. These are vital to a risk assessment workflow that is both successful and safe.

The four stages of risk assessment are as follows.

1: Hazard and risk identification

This part of the risk assessment process involves observing the work area and searching for possible health and safety hazards and risks. Through consultation with workers and worker organisations, clients, the manufacturers of any equipment and after reviewing previous health and safety risk assessment forms, you can paint a clear picture of the dangers present.

2: Identify those at risk

This may seem easy enough but keep in mind that anyone who enters the work area must be aware of the inherent dangers. This includes workers, managers, clients and even the general public. Ensure risk assessment in the workplace is clearly accessible for all to read.

3: Complete risk assessment plan

Then it’s a simple (if at times frustrating) matter of doing the paperwork. For free risk assessment templates check out SafeWorkPro’s Resources or you can read more about the correct risk assessment format here.

4: Risk assessment review and update

Risks in construction tend to change as a job develops and in order to remain compliant with OHS laws and regulations, your construction risk assessment form will also have to change. This means active consultation with workers to ensure any new risks in construction are accounted for.

Safety Software: a saviour in disguise?

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The internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business. Files can be instantly transferred across the world, entire encyclopaedias of information are just a click away and social media gives your target market a voice. We live in a brave new world that is both deeply interconnected and highly competitive but there is one area where recent leaps in technology are yet to touch.

Risk assessments are as much a part of any high risk work environment as hard hats and steel cap boots. But whereas other industries have embraced the advantages offered by technology, safe operating procedures in Australia are still stuck in the past. Doing a risk assessment online seems like something that would have become industry standard by now, but in reality the paper-based method, although out dated and inefficient, is still the main method of handling risk and compliance in Australia. This is a problem because as OHS legislation Australia tightens and regulations intensify, the risk management process becomes far more time consuming and more costly. This is bad news for your competitiveness.

A risk assessment software is the solution but what it is and how it should be used properly, remains unresolved.

Until now.

Current examples of safety software merely provide you with a digital copy of safe work method statements and other risk assessment forms. This doesn’t do much in terms of streamlining the risk assessment process and reducing these costly drawbacks. The paperwork, even in a digital form, still needs to be completed, copied, printed, signed and stored for future compliance requests. The Risk assessment software SafeWorkPro has developed puts this entire process into one easy to use tool available on any smart phone or tablet device.

Check out how SafeWorkPro can take your business into the future.

Risk Assessment Software: 5 questions to consider

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The best way to explain risk assessment software is to look at the advantages it has over the traditional paper-based method. For starters, as any business owner or manager would know, time is money, so a core value of risk assessment software is speed. The easy accessibility of construction safety software makes it instantly superior over the tiresome and time-consuming task of writing a risk assessment on paper. Using construction risk assessment software like SafeWorkPro, you can send a completed risk assessment anywhere at anytime, making compliance with OHS laws and regulations a breeze. But above all, construction safety software keeps your workforce safe and your business in line with risk assessment regulations.

In this article we will outline the 5 stages of risk assessment software in terms of how it works and what it can do for you. But don’t just take our word for it. The below video is the story of Cole Contracting, a small construction business that, when faced with falling productivity and lagging back end administration, looked to risk assessment software for the solution.

For more information on how our construction risk assessment software works, check out the SafeWorkPro Blog. There you’ll have access to all the information you need to get started, plus loads more on how to complete a risk assessment, how to improve productivity and examples of risk assessment forms.

But back to the building risk assessment checklist we think you should consider before signing up to any construction safety software service. These 5 factors will help you evaluate your options and make an informed decision.

1: How much does the risk assessment software cost?

2: Will the software make your workers safe at work?

3: Does the software give you insight into your business?

4: Will the software pass an audit?

5: Does the software help you comply with the Workplace Health and Safety Act?

1: How much does the risk assessment software cost?

The purpose of our software is to ease the problem of automation for risk assessment forms – in other words: to get rid of the paperwork and make the process quicker and easier. In this case, the software does come at a price but it pays for itself through a streamlined risk management process. Consider it more of an investment than a cost. Return on investment (ROI) is the concept of an investment of some resource yielding a benefit to the investor. So, as you are considering what risk assessment software to use, ask each vendor what ROI you can expect from using their software. SafeWorkPro has a calculated ROI of over 200% (learn more about how we calculated that figure here). We are confident that SafeWorkPro will save you time and money.

2: Will the software improve workplace safety?

Ultimately you want your workers to be safe while they’re on the job. So a key question to consider is how can software help with this? For SafeWorkPro’s risk assessment software, safe operating procedures are delivered to workers when they are on the job via a tool they can download to their mobile or tablet device. So when the worker starts to fill out a risk assessment form on their smartphone or tablet, they are presented with data that has been filled out on previous risk assessments. These suggestions mean that workers are provided with the most relevant risk

management framework far quicker than the paper-based alternative. Back at the office and managers can update the software to ensure that only the most appropriate suggestions are available. The best software will streamline this process without undermining the safety of your workforce.

3: Does the software give you insight into your business?

Everyday construction managers have to deal with safety. It’s a big part of the job and many safety procedures must be followed otherwise strict penalties may apply. Unsafe behaviour can put workers at risk and result in accidents but there is a way that risk assessment software can help managers. Our software has a configurable dashboard that adds all sorts of meaningful graphs and tables allowing managers to identify hazards and plan a risk management process ahead of time. This is huge benefit for any risk assessment plan because time is saved through smarter and more efficient work.

4: Will the software pass an audit?

If you are audited and need to present your safety management plan, risk assessments, and safe work method statements, SafeWorkPro can deliver these documents to anyone at anytime. The federal government’s fact sheet looking into the top ten corrective action reports (CARs)  lodged between 2012-1013 documents failed work practices and reflects the strict requirements of current legislation. So, to avoid joining this list, you need to make sure that your software can output all the documentation needed for the audit. Our software will output all risk

assessments and safe work method statements as PDF’s that can be printed or delivered electronically. We also require that each risk assessment is signed by all workers that appear on the risk assessment. It’s a simple way to ensure the safety of your workforce but also to double check your workload remain compliant with OHS legislation Australia.

5: Does the software help you comply with the Workplace Health and Safety Act?

The general purpose of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 is to provide a balanced and nationally consistent framework that secures the health and safety of workers and workplaces. When you take a detailed looked at the legislation there are many factors to consider but there are a few general undertones worth mentioning. Firstly, it the duty of the individuals involved in the high risk construction work to manage risks to health and safety. These duties cannot be deferred to someone else. Furthermore, there are certain requirements that must be met or else a penalty could be issued. For example, a principal contractor must be presented with safe work method statements and risk assessments before work on a job can begin. So, the question is how does risk assessment software help with this? Our software allows you to email the appropriate documentation to the principal contractor before starting work. principal contractors find this very convenient as they then have an electronic record in their email inbox to keep and don’t have to worry about filling or document storage down the track.

Summary

There are many factors to consider when evaluating risk assessment software and we’ve touched on a few of the core issues you should think about. That being said, it is our belief that SafeWorkPro satisfies this criteria but if you would like to know more about our risk assessment software please take a look at the SafeWorkPro Blog or drop us a line via our contact page.

SafeWorkPro: getting you on the job quick, safe and compliant.