SSRS Guidance final 19 Nov 2015

WORKSAFE NZ-29804595 Page 1 of 67
November 2015

Contents
Introduction 3
Leadership and engagement standards 5
1. Risk profile and prioritisation 5
2. Vision and goals 8
3. Resourcing and competence 13
4. Senior leaders’ commitment 18
5. Communication and issue resolution 21
6. Worker engagement and empowerment 27
7. Performance measurement 31
8. Review and continual improvement 35
9. Reintegration of employees 38
Risk awareness and management standards 41
10. Risk identification 41
11. Risk assessment 46
12. Risk controls 50
13. Risk control effectiveness 57
14. Risk management review 61
15. Emergency management 64
Published November 2015

Introduction
The proposed Safety Star Rating Scheme (SSRS) is an injury prevention initiative that aims to help lift
the performance of health and safety in New Zealand businesses. It is not a compliance audit.
Instead it focuses on how your business effectively implements good health and safety practice
through a behaviour based assessment. The SSRS has two assessment stages:
• An online self-assessment.
• An on-site assessment by qualified and independent Assessors.
The SSRS is comprised of fifteen Standards, organised into two core concepts: leadership and worker
engagement, and risk awareness and risk management. The Standards have been developed with
industry from globally-accepted good health and safety practice.
Summary of SSRS Standards
Each Standard consists of one or more indicators that businesses will be assessed against. Both the
self-assessment and on-site assessment process measures your business against the Standards.

Purpose
This guide introduces the SSRS Standards and explains the key concepts behind them. It also
provides guidance on good health and safety practice, against each Standards.
Businesses are not the same. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to health and safety, which is
why this guide doesn’t prescribe the only way to meet the SSRS Standards. Each business will
demonstrate good safety and health practice in its own way.
The guide is not a specific risk management document. Specific risks may have legal and other
compliance requirements. You can find guidance on the specifics of these controls through
regulators and other bodies.
How to use this guide
The guide is a tool to support your business to improve its health and safety. It is not compulsory for
you to use it. However, it contains useful information about:
• The SSRS Standards and their indicators
• Why the Standards are important
• What good practice can look like
• Where you can find out more guidance on good health and safety practice, from New
Zealand and overseas.
More information about the SSRS
If you need to find more information about the SSRS, please look at
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/about/what-we-do/the-safety-star-rating-scheme or contact
us on safetystar@worksafe.govt.nz

Purpose
Your risk profile helps your business identify areas of risk, including how much disruption each risk
would cause in your operations. Your risk profile helps you identify and understand the risks within
your operation so you can prioritise how risks are controlled and managed. Effective leaders know:
• The risks faced by their organisation
• Which risks are most important (considering both likelihood and consequence)
• How to control identified risks.
Guidance
Your risk profile examines the nature of each risk, the level of disruption and cost associated with
each risk, and the effectiveness of the control measures you have put in place. It is your starting
point for determining the greatest health and safety issues for your organisation, both in the short or
long-term. Your risk profile will be determined by a range of factors such as what your business
does, where your workplace is located, the composition of your workforce, who is present in the
workplace, and how the business changes from day to day during operations.
Risk profiling may include thinking about your wider business risks where they can impact on the
health and safety of people. Wider business risks could include events such as power cuts,
compromised business systems, loss of key suppliers, impact of loss of supply lines, asset damage,
and so on. In some businesses the risks may be tangible and immediate safety or health-related risks
(acute harm). Other risks may have long-term (chronic) effects, which might become apparent long
after the cause.
Your risk profile is one of your key business tools for identifying and driving continual improvement
in your business processes. Identified risk areas in the risk profile become the areas that your
Standard
1: Senior leaders understand the business’s risk profile, and prioritise their actions as a
result.
1.1 Senior leaders understand the business’s risk profile.
1.2 Senior leaders prioritise their health and safety actions as a result of the business’s
risk profile.

business allocates management resources such as personnel, time, and money to control, monitor
and review. The outcome of risk profiling will be that more serious risks are prioritised in your
management processes, with less serious risks given a lower priority.
Your risk profile is constructed from your risk assessment processes. Your risk profile clearly
identifies:
• What the business’s risk priorities are
• How senior leaders are made aware of the more serious risks in the risk profile
• Who “owns” the risk (normally a very senior leader, Board member, group of very senior
leaders, or a safety champion)
• What are the worst possible credible outcomes of each risk
• What emergencies could arise from each risk, and whether plans are in place to manage the
consequences of emergency situations
• The controls you have in place and who is responsible for implementing and monitoring the
risk controls
• How often the controls and risks need to be reviewed
• How other businesses could impact on your risks (for example, a nearby business with an
ammonia plant)
• How often your risk profile is reviewed, and what criteria would trigger a review; for
example: changes in your business (such as new plant or processes, or changes in
personnel), economic cycles, critical events or emergency situations, annual reviews.
You can record your risk profile in a number of ways, depending on the size and complexity of your
business. You may find an Excel spreadsheet or Word document may be sufficient, or you may wish
to use a specific health and safety software solution. The most important thing is to ensure that
leaders in your business know and understand the profile, and their role in controlling risk.
People
The risk management will involve managers, workers’ representatives, and workers (including
contractors) that are affected by the risk. Putting together the overall risk profile may be done by
your health and safety advisor or manager, in consultation with managers, workers’ representatives,
and workers.
Reference
For information about managing health and safety, you may find the following national and
international resources useful.
Note: guidance material is being developed all the time. Please keep checking WorkSafe New
Zealand and other regulators for more guidance.
• The UK core guidance on health and safety management for leaders, owners and line
managers is HSG65 Managing for health and safety:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg65.pdf
• Further information on risk profiling can be found at the Health and Safety Executive (UK)
website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/risk-profiling.htm

• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) guide to leading health and safety at work can be
found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf
• The Olympic Delivery Authority has a good publication on risk profiling:
http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/risk-profiling.php

Purpose
Having a shared vision about where your business wants to go, and setting measurable objectives
that will help your business achieve your vision are important because you will all be working
together to achieve a common goal. A shared vision is more likely to be effectively implemented.
Guidance
Vision and goals
A business vision is a simple, succinct statement of where you see your organisation in the longer
term. Health and safety goals are part of this because they clearly identify how health and safety will
contribute to your business’s activities.
Standard
2: The business (with workers and representatives) develops a health and safety vision
and goals.
2.1 The business (with workers and representatives) develops a health and safety
vision and goals.
2.2 The business (with workers and representatives) implements effective processes
to achieve the health and safety objectives linked to its risk profile.
2.3 The business (with workers and representatives) develops health and safety
performance measures, including leading indicators.
2.4 Everyone in the business understands and can engage with the shared vision for
health and safety.
2.5 Everyone in the business demonstrates health and safety leadership, that is,
“walks the talk”.

Effective processes
Your business should have systematic processes that clearly identify how you are planning to
manage health and safety risks. The SSRS does not focus on health and safety documentation. The
focus on how your business is managing risk in practice. Documentation can support the
implementation of your risk controls, but should not be put in place just for the purposes of the SSRS
assessment. Smaller, low risk businesses may have less documentation but still have effective risk
controls implemented. Key indicators that health and safety processes are fit for purpose are:

If you have written documentation for health and safety in place, it is important that everyone
understands its importance and why it’s needed. Where people need to use documents, such as
procedures or task analyses, they should be easy to understand and follow, clearly identifying the
safe, healthy way to carry out the task using pictures and diagrams where possible. This will
encourage and empower your workers to participate with risk controls. Health and safety
documents (with the exception of private medical information) should be easily accessible to all
workers that need to access them.
Objectives
Specific and measurable objectives support the achievement of your business vision. Effective
objectives:
• Deliver your business vision in a measurable way
• Are clearly linked to your risk profile
• Identify risks to both the health and the safety of your workers
• Implement your business plans for risk management processes, how the risk controls are
monitored for effectiveness, and how you plan to engage your workers and workers’
representatives in the process
When developing objectives, choose SMART ones:
Meaning Example/explanation
S Specific The objective is very specific, so it is clear what is expected
M Measurable Can the objective be measured?
A Achievable Can you really achieve the objective with the resources you have allocated to
this process?
R Realistic Is it realistic? Does it make sense?
T Time bound Is there a clear timeframe? When should the objective be completed by?
An example of a SMART objective is: 100% of all elected health and safety representatives at ABC
Company will have completed Stage 1 training by 30 September of the current year.
Having SMART objectives make it really easy to identify whether you have achieved them, and to
plan the resources you need in order to complete them.
Lead and lag indicators
The kinds of indicators used to measure performance are often called lead and lag indicators. They
are tailored to your business context (for example, composition of your workforce) and risk profile.
They measure:
• Performance against objectives and activities in the health and safety plan
• Performance of everyday risk management activities that align with the risk profile, effectiveness
of controls, problem areas, and potential issues (for example, as a result of change)
• Behaviours that are likely to improve health and safety, such as reporting and engagement with
workers

• Successful implementation and completion of actions from the outcomes of investigations,
issues being raised, disputes and disagreements, suggestions and so on
• Illnesses and harm identified by health monitoring.
A range of leading and lagging indicators are used to get a wider picture of business performance.
Effective monitoring can alert you to any problems, hopefully before any serious incidents occur.
Poor monitoring might tell you that something is wrong but may not help you understand why, or
what to do about it. The absence of an event does not mean that the risk is being appropriately
managed. This is particularly true for risks that have serious consequences.
Lead indicators are safety and health activities that you do proactively as part of risk management
and are linked to your vision/goals, plans and objectives. Lead indicators include:
• Number of workers have been trained in role-specific competencies in a specific period
• Number of safety inspections carried out by management and workers or workers’
representatives, and the level of compliance with risk controls
• Number of risk assessments carried out
• Number of contractors have completed contractor accreditation processes
• Percentage of agreed actions closed out on time
• Amount of preventative, planned, or other maintenance carried out
• Number of near miss reports made and investigated
• Number of observations or safety tours that identified areas for improvement
• How health monitoring data has been used to inform risk management processes.
Lead indicators help your business establish a baseline to drive your continuous improvement in
health and safety. Each lead indicator you use should have a SMART measure attached to it, to make
it clear if you are achieving it.
Lag indicators measure how your business has performed in the past. For example:
• Accident statistics: how many injuries, the severity of injuries, how many accidents, incidents
you have had (includes frequency and severity), lost workdays
• The number of ACC claims
• How long it took to complete corrective actions from events
• Over-exposure to noise or chemicals identified from health monitoring.
Lag indicators are “after the fact” measures of risk management, such as accident and ill health
statistics for risks. Numbers alone are not a good measure. Analysis of the underlying root causes,
trends and factors will show you much more about how your business is keeping everyone healthy
and safe. Root cause analyses or investigations can be used to drive your continual improvement.
For example, if the lagging indicator shows a reduction in injuries, the business may become
complacent, when in fact there are numerous risk factors present in the workplace that will
contribute to future injuries, or the level of reporting has dropped away and you have poorer data to
base decisions on.

People
The business vision and health and safety goals must be developed with workers and their
representatives. By giving them a genuine opportunity to be involved everyone at all levels will
understand the role they play. Workers and workers’ representatives should be involved when the
business is setting performance lead and lag indicators.
Reference
• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) guide to leading health and safety at work, including
more information on indicators, can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf
• The NZ Institute of Directors published guidance documents that identify what good health
and safety governance looks like, including more information on indicators:
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/directors-
guidelines-on-their-responsibilities
• ACC provides some suggestions on setting goals and objectives and working out what steps
you need to take to make your improvement strategies happen:
http://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injuries/at-work/health-and-safety-in-the-
workplace/health-and-safety-improvement-cycle/PI00068

Purpose
Allocating sufficient resources (time, personnel, money, and so on) to health and safety ensures that
the controls identified as required for critical risk management are adequately put in place,
maintained, monitored and reviewed. When resources for safety management are not planned for
appropriately, risk controls weaken and the workers and the business are exposed to risk.
Guidance
Resources
Resources that may be required for health and safety can include:
Resource Example
Budget Money to fund equipment, develop training, pay for cover while staff are
being trained, pay for updated risk controls, pay for monitoring of risk
controls
Time Allocated time for people to carry out the health and safety aspects of their
role, and to cover the regular work of those people
Facilities To carry out safety activities, including access to computers, training
equipment and rooms
Personnel The right people available to undertake health and safety tasks
Other Access to information, training, equipment and so on
Standard
3: The business allocates resources to achieve its health and safety objectives.
3.1 The business plans and allocates sufficient resources that achieve its health and
safety objectives.
3.2 The business defines health and safety roles and responsibilities.
3.3 Everyone is competent to perform their role.
3.4 The business considers the health and safety performance of contractors when
making procurement decisions.
3.5 The business resources worker engagement and participation.

Financial resources
The business should identify its health and safety priorities for the period, and budget for both
maintenance of risk controls, and continual improvement.
Time resources
Time resources include allocating time for staff to attend required training, perform health and
safety activities, and identify and manage risk.
People
Health and safety roles and responsibilities
Everyone in the business has health and safety roles and responsibilities that will apply to their day-
to-day role, and some workers and managers may also have specific responsibilities for specialist
health and safety roles, such as health and safety representatives, Permit Issuer or Receiver, or
emergency wardens. Health and safety objectives are linked to roles.
Health and safety roles and responsibilities should be:
Specific Clear, specific requirements of each person so that people know what is
required of them (you may need to consider literacy and other special
information needs such as ease of access to information)
Reasonable Able to be completed by the person within their usual work times
Jointly developed Consult your workers as to what are reasonable health and safety
requirements, although the business has the ability to identify what is
acceptable and what is not
Interactive Where possible, assign the responsibilities in ways that people will engage
with them
Communicated Ensure that all the workers understand what is required of them (think about
literacy, numeracy, and those workers who are not there all the time, such as
shift, casual staff, or contracted workers)
You need to plan how you’re going to retain health and safety knowledge in the business, especially
if a key person leaves. This will include:
• Methods to transfer knowledge to others, for example through mentoring or training
• A place to store knowledge, for example electronic or written documents
• A process to add to the health and safety knowledge in your business
• How to improve access to knowledge, for example using an intranet or a list of people who
have knowledge and what knowledge they have.
Competency
Everyone has the sufficient competency to do their role. Competency means that they have the
skills, knowledge, information (training), and experience to carry out their role safely and without
risks to their health in the short and long term.

A Training Needs Assessment process can help your business identify what competency is needed by
each person to carry out their work without putting their health and safety at risk. This means your
business can plan the training that is needed by each person, so that risk controls remain in place
and are reinforced by the training. Choose your training methods to take into account the needs of
people, such as their ability to access training, literacy and numeracy needs, specific work skills
required, and so on.
For example:
Competency
issue
Example
Training and
competency
Workers are trained in the safety processes relevant to the risks they are
exposed to in their role
Your workers (including contractors) are competent to do the work they are
required to do
Leaders, managers and directors need to be competent to carry out due
diligence on health and safety, including knowing when they need to access
competent health and safety advice
Risks Everyone is provided with information on the risks they are exposed to, and
what the controls and monitoring are for those risks
Inductions Inductions are carried out for new workers and workers that are transferred
from other areas of the business
Training for health
and safety
representatives
Health and safety representatives receive appropriate training about how they
contribute to the safety and health of their colleagues
Health and safety representatives should also be trained to a recognised,
external (gazetted) standard by an approved external provider
Managing
diversity
Training Needs Assessments are appropriate for those workers with specific
needs
Support is provided for new workers, workers with English as a second
language or impaired literacy, and other vulnerable groups such as older or
younger workers
Keeping current Training is updated when work processes change
Refresher training is considered a ‘given’ for all workers exposed to risk, and is
planned for and fully resourced
To assist in your understanding of what competencies are needed, you can seek competent health
and safety advice where appropriate.
Training plans should include provision for covering workers involved in training if they have critical
roles or if the training is going to take a substantial amount of time.
To check that the training provided is adequate, your business should plan to:
1. Check that training has been understood and is being followed
2. Review training at specific times, for example, when a worker is engaged or when there is
change in the workplace
3. Record the training and competencies of each person in the workplace.

Workers
Everyone in your business will have specific health and safety competencies in their role, because of
their:
Role in business The CEO and Board will need training on leadership, legislation, and
health and safety due diligence processes
Supervisors will need training on how to enable agreed processes,
manage feedback, and identify unsafe behaviour
Operational staff need to know how to complete their tasks safely and
what emergency processes are in place if something goes wrong
Assigned job First aider, health and safety representative, emergency warden,
dogman, rigger, Permit Issuer or Receiver, or other specific health and
safety role
Contractors and procurement
Your business needs to manage health and safety issues when procuring contractors and suppliers.
The checks you do on the contractors you engage should enable you to be confident that they will
do the work in a safe and healthy way. Think about what potential issues risks could be introduced
by contractors, such as chemicals, dust, noise, and so on. This thinking could be included in a
prequalification process, so that competent contractors are engaged.
Clearly set out your health and safety expectations early in the procurement process (such as in the
procurement documents or the briefing) so that contractors are clear what your expectations are.
Ideally, expectations are set in multiple ways, so the importance of health and safety is not lost. Your
expectations should be clear and very specific: for example, what risks the contractor’s workers are
exposed to, what risks will the contractor processes introduce, and what expectations you have of
the contractor’s workers when they are on your premises.
Contractor and supplier selection and engagement considers each contractor’s health and safety
management and performance, and includes enquiries into risk management and accident rates,
safety checks and certification done on plant, competency of staff, how they assess the competence
of their own contractors and so on.
The competence of contractors (and their workers) and suppliers is assessed as part of procurement
of contracting service.
Reference

• Information on the health and safety management of contractors (MBIE):
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/a-
principals-guide-to-contracting-to-meet-the-health-and-safety-in-employment-act-1992-
1/guide-contracting.pdf
• What constitutes ‘competent health and safety advice’ will vary depending on the
circumstances. The Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) has links to
member organisations that can offer you competent advice for your risks:
http://www.hasanz.org.nz/
• The Olympic Delivery Authority has good information on safety in procurement:
http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/health-and-safety-in-the-
procurement-process.php

Purpose
What your business does and how it behaves is driven by your senior leaders. Senior leaders
establish the tone and direction of risk management and understanding. Their example and
decisions affect the health and safety outcomes throughout your business. Senior leaders’
commitment is translated into actions that promote and implement health and safety effectively.
High expectations, tangible support and good practice from your senior leaders encourage similar
behaviours in other managers and workers at all levels of your business.
Guidance
State of knowledge
Effective senior leaders know how your business is performing. They understand the risk profile of
your organisation. They recognise the gaps between how risks are currently managed, and how they
want them to be managed. Their understanding is informed by:
Senior leaders’ understanding of internal and external information is demonstrated in various ways.
For example:
• Board minutes show health and safety is regularly discussed, priorities are set, and mandates
are given for significant safety and health issues
• A Board member champions the health and safety portfolio
Standard
4: Senior leaders demonstrate their commitment to health and safety.

• You may engage external health and safety experts to advise the Board
• The Board considers progress towards safety and health objectives.
Your senior leaders should be extending the same due diligence requirements for health and safety
risks as they do for all other identified business risks.
Effective senior leaders:
Know What the state of health and safety is in your business
What good health and safety practice looks like in your business, how to get
there, stay there, and continually improve
Desire To lead the business to good health and safety practices
Understand The steps needed to take to move the business from its current position to a
model of good health and safety practices
Their role and that they are ultimately accountable for health and safety
Demonstrate Active commitment through their actions
Ensure Others understand their roles and are accountable to senior management
A clear plan is in place for actions that need to occur for the senior leaders to achieve your business’s
health and safety goals.
Leading by example
Effective senior leaders lead by example. You demonstrate your interest and commitment through
your actions by:
• Visibly supporting engagement with workers: speaking at meetings, sending out messages,
instructing managers, and listening to workers
• Being visible – walking around and talking to workers about health and safety, or taking
small numbers of workers on regular safety walk rounds
• Challenging unsafe behaviour and recognising good safety and health behaviour
• Modelling safe behaviour, such as always wearing the required PPE and attending health and
safety training
• Talking to workers – then listening to their concerns and feedback
• Acting rapidly on suggestions or shortcomings, so that workers appreciate that the senior
leaders are serious about safety
• Not compromising on health and safety even when pressure comes on, such as when
deadlines are imminent or work falls behind schedule
• Displaying consistent behaviour with other leaders in the business
• Recognising/giving feedback to people who are performing well, such as seeing someone
doing something safely or in a healthy way and rewarding them for it immediately
• Asking workers at all levels (including supervisors) about health and safety if you are in the
workplace, for example, “What risks do they work with? How do you manage risk? Have you
got what you need to do your role safely? What do they think you could do better?”
Workers can see senior leaders’ commitment to health and safety through what they say and do.
People
Senior leaders are those that can influence the direction of a business. For example:

• Board members
• Directors
• Officers of a PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking)
• Site or senior managers
• The chief financial officer.
Reference
• WorkSafe New Zealand has a safety culture snapshot on their website that helps you assess
your business’s safety culture: http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/tools-
resources/health-and-safety-workplace-kit/safety-culture-snapshot
• WorkSafe New Zealand has some information on management commitment to safety on
their website: http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/tools-resources/health-and-safety-
workplace-kit/safety-culture-snapshot/safety-briefings/managements-leadership-
commitment-to-safety
• The Canterbury Rebuild Charter has guidance notes for health and safety leadership:
http://safetycharter.org.nz/industry/improving-your-charter-performance/leadership/
• The NZ Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum has some good information on
leadership: http://www.zeroharm.org.nz/leadership/
• SafeWork Australia has good information on leadership:
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/australian-strategy/action-
areas/pages/leadership-and-culture
• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) has an excellent publication INDG417 Leading Health
and Safety at Work: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf
• ACC provides some information for senior leaders on how to demonstrate their
commitment: http://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injuries/at-work/health-and-safety-in-the-

Purpose
Effective two-way communication is at the heart of effectively managing health and safety. It lets
your workers, their representatives and you as a business have an ongoing conversation about
improving health and safety.
Talking, listening and co-operating with each other can help:
Communication allows workers to be more engaged and understand their role in improving health
and safety. Everyone will move in the same direction towards the same goals with effective
communication. Poor communication can create confusion that can lead to apathy and poor health
and safety outcomes.
Guidance
Communication forms
Communication can be in the form of feedback on particular proposals or changes, suggestions for
improvement, and identifying unsafe practices and other information. Even disputes and
disagreements are a form of communication.
Standard
5: The business (with workers and representatives) communicates on health and safety
matters
5.1 The content and delivery of health and safety communication meets the needs of
the workplace.
5.2 The business (with workers and representatives) checks that health and safety
communication is received and understood.
5.3 The business (with workers and representatives) has effective mechanisms for
requesting, receiving and responding to feedback.
5.4 The business (with workers and representatives) gives positive reinforcement for
safe practice and performance.
5.5 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively resolves
disagreements or issues in a timely way

Effective communication
The elements of effective communication are:
• Encourage feedback even when it may be a message that is hard for the business to hear or to
accept. Ask for feedback directly and always acknowledge feedback.
• Actively listen to your workers when they give you feedback and take account of that feedback
• Action feedback: when you receive suggestions or issues are raised, always ensure that the
person receives feedback, even if the answer is “sorry and these are the reasons why”. The fact
that the worker’s views are acknowledged and treated seriously is usually more important than
agreeing with them. Publicise responses to workers’ suggestions.
Communication that meets the needs of the workforce
When your business is choosing what communication methods to use, think about the following:
Issue Question you need to consider Example
Reach Can all your workers be reached by this
method?
Email might reach office-based workers
with a computer, but may not reach
workers in a warehouse
Understanding Will all your workers understand the
communication?
Some of your workers have English as a
second language or low literacy
Encouraging
free and open
communication
What methods will encourage your
workers to participate in health and
safety?
Some people may feel uncomfortable
speaking up in a large group, or openly
disagreeing with those in authority
Information
sharing
What information needs to be shared?
How do you share it in time to allow
meaningful feedback?
Providing information with only a few
days to respond may make people feel
that “the decision is already made” and
that their thoughts and opinions don’t
count

If you have workers who have problems understanding English, or have low literacy levels, it may be
more difficult to get them involved. There are a number of ways you can help communication with
them to encourage their involvement. The aim is to achieve the same standard of understanding and
involvement for everyone.
• Provide written information in simple, plain English with pictures to help make difficult
concepts more easily understood
• Get key information translated into the language spoken by your workers, and have
someone who speaks both languages check that the translation is clear, accurate, and easily
understood
• Use qualified translators to help communication with your workers, or you may have a
worker that is fluent in English and the non-English language who can translate. Workers
who act as translators may need training for this role.
• Use pictures and internationally understood pictorial signs
• Where information has to be in English, use clear and simple materials, and allow more time
for those with English as a second language or low literacy to absorb the information.
Most of the time one communication method is unlikely to be enough. Use a range of methods to
suit your audiences:
Make sure the methods you use are practical, and ensure communication is regular and ongoing.
Is communication understood?
You need assurance that the communication methods you’re using are getting the right messages to
the right people in an appropriate timeframe and are being effective.
• Are the methods you are using appropriate for your workers?
• Look for evidence of changed behaviour as a result of communication: for example, if you
have trained staff on a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), observe them to identify
whether they have understood the training and are following the SOP.

Getting feedback
Your business needs to develop appropriate ways to get feedback on communication. For feedback
on SOPs, you could observe the safe behaviour of your workers. Feedback on training could be
verbal or by observation of how your workers are doing their job. It is a good idea to ask your
workers about how useful any training they’ve received was to their work.
Your business could use innovative feedback methods, including technology such as apps and smart
technology, or computer kiosks for those that do not have regular computer access. Workers’
representatives can get feedback from their colleagues to pass on.
Positive feedback to workers
Positive feedback on effective safe and healthy practice and performance is bedded into effective
businesses. Positive feedback comes from anyone in the business: managers to workers, workers to
their peers, workers to managers, and so on. Remember that the most effective feedback is positive
and immediate: the quicker you recognise effective behaviour, the more likely you are to get further
good behaviour.
Recognise and communicate achievements not only directly to the deserving individual, but publicly
as well.
Encourage and reward people for:
• Providing essential safety-related information
• Identifying unsafe or unhealthy behaviour
• Raising issues
• Making suggestions or recommendations to improve your workplace.
Raising issues or risks can be uncomfortable or threatening for people. Make a point of publicly
recognising workers who constructively raise issues to encourage that behaviour.
Praise can be given:
• Informally and spontaneously, such as seeing and praising behaviour
• Formally, such as certificates, awards, rewards, being recognised in meeting minutes,
communications/newsletters/bulletins, and emails.
Not acting on communication from workers
If you don’t act on feedback from workers, make sure you explain why and discuss it. It is important
for your business to respond to feedback, even if the business cannot action the recommendation.
This means that people are more likely to understand the reasons behind the decision, and will
continue to provide feedback.
If the communication was a written recommendation from a health and safety representative or
committee, you are required to explain to them why you are not following their recommendation.
This communication should be in writing.
Where there are actions consider the following:
• Resolve actions in a timely way
• Communicate actions to people in a timely way using an appropriate method

• Resource actions
• Assign responsibilities to undertake actions and hold people accountable for completing
them
• Follow up actions
• Report on the actions.
• Once the actions are complete they should be monitored to make sure they are effective.
Anything you learnt from the situation should be integrated into existing processes to improve the
process.
Issue resolution
The goal of dispute and issue resolution is to solve problems and maintain healthy working
relationships. When an issue surfaces, address it immediately so everyone can move forward.
A dispute or disagreement will generally be about an unresolved situation or an issue that has not
been resolved to the worker’s or business’s satisfaction. For example, an issue could include a
difference in opinion on whether something is a potential risk to health and safety or whether a
particular control measure is adequate. Other issues may involve the means by which workers are
consulted or participate in health and safety decisions.
For effective dispute or disagreement resolution there would generally be:
• An established, just, and clearly defined process to resolve the disagreement before the
disagreement becomes significant
• The opportunity for workers and their representatives have input into that process
• A process where the issue can be swiftly resolved.
A typical process would include the following steps:

People
Open communication applies to everyone at all levels of a business. Managers should communicate
their vision and objectives, as well as those of your business. Routinely discussing the business vision
can improve your worker’s engagement with the business, and their personal accountability for
achieving success.
Good communication requires good people skills. Your business cannot assume ‘everything is okay’
because no-one has said otherwise.
Reference
• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) has some good guidance on ways to involve your
workers in health and safety in HSG263 Involving your workforce in health and safety:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg263.htm
• ACC highlights some ways health and safety messages can be communicated efficiently and
accurately: http://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injuries/at-work/health-and-safety-in-the-
• The London Olympic Delivery Authority used visual standards to provide simple
communication tools: http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/benefits-of-
using-visual-standards.php
• The London Olympic Delivery Authority had some innovative ways of using awards to change
behaviour: http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/using-an-awards-process-
to-change-behaviour-and-performa.php

Purpose
Effective businesses actively engage and empower people in health and safety. Managers hear from
those most closely involved in working with risks. Workers know that their concerns and
understanding of their work risks will be taken seriously.
Guidance
Actively engaging and empowering workers and their representatives
People, who feel valued and contribute to decision-making, play a big part in high-performing
workplaces. Effective health and safety behaviour cannot just be dictated from the boardroom.
Effective senior leaders collaborate with workers to effectively manage health and safety.
Workplaces where workers contribute to decision making about health and safety are safer and
healthier. Empowering your workforce, giving them the right skills, and getting them involved in
making decisions shows them that you take their wellbeing seriously. They can raise concerns and
offer solutions.
Standard:
6: The business engages and empowers workers and representatives.
6.1 The business actively engages and empowers workers and representatives in
health and safety.
6.2 The diversity of the workforce is represented on health and safety matters.
6.3 Workers and representatives are involved in health and safety activities.
6.4 The business’s workers and representatives are engaged in decision-making
processes that impact on their health and safety

Representing diversity
You need to think about the diversity of your workforce and the complexities of your work
environment. You may have responsibilities to engage with them all. In particular consider how
you’re going to engage with the following people and work patterns:
Vulnerable groups Older and younger workers
New or expectant mothers
Workers with English as a second language, or low levels of literacy or
numeracy
New workers, or workers on transfer from other parts of the business
Workers with underlying health issues that may put them at increased
risk
Other businesses affected
by your work
Where there are two or more businesses whose work activity can
affect each other
Non-standard work
patterns
Contractors and sub-contractors
Temporary or casual workers
Night-shift workers
Maintenance staff
Offsite and lone workers
Workers on loan or seconded from another business
If you share your workplace with another business or your work might impact on their work,
consider how your work affects others and how their work affects you. The business should talk to
each other about the risk controls that are in place in both workplaces, and you both understand the
controls and the requirements placed on both businesses by those risks.
Participation arrangements, such as committees, are required to reflect the diversity of the
workforce including gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and employment and engagement
arrangements.
Engaging workers and representatives in decision-making
Workers and their representatives should be involved as individuals or groups in a number of
situations. For example:

Significant changes can include:
• Changes to hours of work or shift work rosters
• Development of a new product
• Plans for a new project
• Changes to required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Introduction of a new system or process
• New machinery or substances (or changes)
• Revised timing and completion deadlines.
• Business restructuring.
Workers and their representatives are part of:
• Incident and accident investigations
• Risk identification, assessment and management
• Task analysis
• Development of Standard Operating Procedures
• Monitoring activities such as inspections, tours, assessments and so on.
• Health and safety audits
• Identifying worker participation processes
• Identifying facilities for workers’ welfare, such as access to toilets, bathrooms, kitchen and
eating facilities away from the risks of the work processes.
Engagement with workers and representatives
Engagement on health and safety is an interactive process between you and your workers and their
representatives:

The key to effective engagement is to allow sufficient time for the process, make sure that
everybody is involved, and listen and take account of what your workers have to say.
People
Ensure the health and safety committee members are partners, working together to address
strategic matters, and day to day matters are resolved elsewhere.
Reference
• The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) issued some guidance on getting
staff involved in safety for the mining, quarrying and tunnelling industries, but the guidelines
have good ideas for all industries: http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-
guidance/all-guidance-items/people-come-first/people-come-first.pdf
• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) has some good guidance on ways to empower your
workers in health and safety in HSG263 Involving your workforce in health and safety:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg263.htm

Purpose
It is difficult to improve how your business manages health and safety unless you know how you are
performing. Health and safety performance measurement is critical to identifying problems before
they cause harm, and knowing what steps to take when issues do arise.
Guidance
Measuring performance
You measure the performance of the business and your workers (including your contractors). Some
examples of ways of measuring performance are below.
Standard:
7: The business (with workers and representatives) measures health and safety
performance.
7.1 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively measures health and
safety performance against its objectives.
7.2 The business effectively measures the performance of individuals against their
health and safety responsibilities.
7.3 The business (with workers and representatives) measures the health and safety
performance of contractors.

Measuring against objectives
When you set health and safety objectives, you need to know if you have achieved those objectives.
Setting measures identifies how close the business has come to achieving its vision and objectives.
Indicator types
The kinds of indicators used are often called lead and lag indicators. They are tailored to your
business context (for example composition of your workforce) and risk profile. They measure:
• Performance against objectives and activities in the health and safety plan
• Performance of everyday risk management activities that align with the risk profile, effectiveness
of controls, problem areas, potential issues (for example as a result of change)
• Behaviours that are likely to improve health and safety, such as reporting and engagement with
workers
• The successful implementation and completion of actions: actions could come from the
outcomes of investigations, issues being raised, disputes, suggestions etc.
• Illnesses and harm identified by health monitoring.
A range of leading and lagging indicators are used to get a wider picture of business performance.
Effective monitoring can alert you to any problems, hopefully before any serious incidents occur.
Poor monitoring might tell you that something is wrong but may not help you understand why, or
what to do about it. The absence of an event does not mean that the risk is being appropriately
managed. This is particularly true for risks that have serious consequences.
Lead indicators are safety and health activities that you do proactively as part of risk management
and are linked to your vision/goals, plans and objectives. Lead indicators include:
• Number of workers have been trained in role-specific competencies in a specific period
• Number of safety inspections carried out by management and workers or workers’
representatives, and the level of compliance with risk controls
• Number of risk assessments carried out
• Number of contractors have completed contractor accreditation processes
• Percentage of agreed actions closed out on time
• Amount of preventative, planned, or other maintenance carried out
• Number of near miss reports made and investigated
• Number of observations or safety tours that identified areas for improvement
• How health monitoring data has been used to inform risk management processes
Lead indicators help your business establish a baseline to drive your continuous improvement in
health and safety. Each lead indicator you use should have a SMART measure attached to it, to make
it clear if you are achieving it.
Lag indicators measure how your business has performed in the past. For example:
• Accident statistics: how many injuries, the severity of injuries, how many accidents, incidents
you have had (includes frequency and severity), lost workdays
• The number of ACC claims
• How long it took to complete corrective actions from events

• Over-exposure to noise or chemicals identified from health monitoring.
Lag indicators are “after the fact” measures of risk management, such as accident and ill health
statistics for risks. Numbers alone are not a good measure. Analysis of the underlying root causes,
trends and factors will show you much more about how your business is keeping everyone healthy
and safe. Root cause analyses or investigations can be used to drive your continual improvement.
For example, if the lagging indicator shows a reduction in injuries, the business may become
complacent, when in fact there are numerous risk factors present in the workplace that will
contribute to future injuries, or the level of reporting has dropped away and you have poorer data to
base decisions on.
Monitoring
Monitoring should be ongoing and improvements should be made when issues are identified.
Monitoring covers:
People
Workers, managers, contractors, and senior leaders of a business are all involved in measuring
performance.
Reference

• The MBIE principal’s guide to contracting has some good information about indicators and
benchmarking that are aimed at the contracting environment, but are relevant within all
businesses: http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/a-
principals-guide-to-contracting-to-meet-the-health-and-safety-in-employment-act-1992-
1/guide-contracting.pdf
• The UK guidance on health and safety management for leaders, owners and line managers is
HSG65 Managing for health and safety has some good examples of performance management:
• The Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum has an online benchmarking tool that may be
useful: http://www.zeroharm.org.nz/our-work/benchmarking/

Reviewing your business’s health and safety performance will enable your business to continually
improve how you manage health and safety. You will know:
• whether your performance is improving or not
• whether your objectives are being achieved
• where you need to focus your efforts in future so you can reset your objectives and goals.
Reviewing your performance means that you can plan to improve what you have done in the past,
find new and innovative ways to manage risk, and send workers home safe at the end of their work
day or shift.
Guidance
Reviewing performance and adjusting objectives
As you review your business’s performance, sometimes you will identify that an objective needs to
be changed due to changes in business circumstances. If this happens, it is important to make sure
that the risk is still adequately controlled.
Standard:
8: The business (with workers and representatives) reviews and continually improves its
health and safety performance.
8.1 The business (with workers and representatives) reviews its health and safety
performance, and adjusts objectives and plans as a result.
8.2 The business (with workers and representatives) responds quickly and
proportionately to change, failures and critical events.
8.3 The business (with workers and representatives) explores new ideas and ways of
working to improve health and safety.
8.4 The business (with workers and representatives) applies learning across the
business.

Responding to change, failures, and critical events
Your business needs to be agile in responding to change within your business environment (inside
and outside the business). Change can introduce new health and safety risks, such as new
equipment, new work patterns, or new environmental risks (dust, noise, chemicals, and so on).
If you have an equipment or process failure, you will need to react in a timely way to control the
increased risks caused by equipment and processes operating in non-standard ways. Managing
failures in your business involves you using risk assessment processes to ensure that people are not
exposed to increased risks caused by the equipment failure.
Critical events such as emergency situations or major equipment malfunctions can expose people to
higher levels of risk, as any risk controls in place have usually been compromised by what’s gone
wrong. You will need to have robust emergency processes that control critical events as quickly and
safely as possible.
Exploring new ideas and ways of working
One of the key signs that you’re responsive to health and safety concerns is keeping up-to-date on
innovations and new technology in your industry, and others that have similar processes to you, that
may help you to better control or manage your risks, or make it easier for your workers and
representatives to be involved in health and safety management.
Applying what you have learnt across your business
When you have learnt something from a critical event or a change, it is important to ensure that the
lessons you have learnt are shared across the business, especially if your business is complex or
located across multiple sites. For example, you identified during an investigation into a critical failure
that there is a design fault in a piece of key equipment used on every site in your business, which has
been brought to the manufacturer’s attention to be fixed. It is important that the whole business is
told about the fault, so that all of these pieces of equipment are fixed on all of your sites, not just
some of them.
People
Ultimate accountability for managing health and safety rests with your business leaders. However
everyone is accountable for managing health and safety risk within their own roles.
You may have identified that a large machinery guarding project was required, and set a
completion date for the objective of six months. During the installation of guards it was
identified that one machine was more difficult to guard than expected due to its location in
the plant, and would take longer than the allocated time to complete the work. The
business may then revise the six months’ completion date for the objective to allow for the
more difficult installation and installed some temporary controls, although the intent to
make the machinery safe has not changed.

Reference
• The NZ Institute of Directors published guidance documents that identify what good health and
safety governance looks like, including more information on reviewing and continuous
improvement: http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-
items/directors-guidelines-on-their-responsibilities
• The Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum has a page with good links for health and safety
management in high hazard businesses:
http://www.zeroharm.org.nz/assets/docs/events/2012/process-safety-seminar/links-to-useful-
material.pdf
• ACC provides guidance on what and how to review your H&S systems:
http://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injuries/at-work/health-and-safety-in-the-workplace/health-
and-safety-improvement-cycle/PI00069

Purpose
Injuries and illnesses have a ripple effect on everyone involved. The injured or ill person and their
families and friends may have physical pain, distress, detachment, loss of income, loss of networks
and friends, and so on.
There may also be major impact on your business, such as:
• Lost productivity
• Damage to your business reputation
• Lowered worker morale
• Worker presenteeism, that is workers being less productive because they are at work when
they are sick or struggling with chronic conditions
• Increased staff turnover
• Increased bottom line costs from investigations, legal costs, and cover for injured or ill staff
members
It is important to your business, and to the recovery of your injured or ill staff members, that the
business has processes in place to facilitate their return.
Guidance
Effective health and safety practice identifies that graduated return to work should be offered to all
injured and ill employees, regardless of the cause of the illness or where the injury happened.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to provide this support in an effective way so that returning
workers do not put themselves or others at risk.
Processes that form part of a graduated return to work programme include:
• Provision of return to work duties (sometimes called ‘light’ or ‘alternative’ duties)
• Appropriate equipment to support their injury or illness
Standard:
9. The business reintegrates injured and ill employees.
9.1 The business reintegrates injured and ill employees into the workforce in a timely
and sustainable way with support from employee representatives.

• Flexible working conditions, such as modified start or finish times where possible as advised
by the employee’s medical team.
The goal of graduated return to work is to return the employee back to work. Returning the
employee to their role is the most desirable outcome and the one you and your employee should be
aiming for. Only if it is not possible should other options such as retraining and redeployment to
another role be considered. If this happens the work should be meaningful.
Sometimes it is not possible to reintegrate an employee. This might be because:
• They do not want to return to work
• The nature of their injury/illness and their skills means a return is not possible.
Try to avoid making hasty decisions, and encourage the employee to do the same. Exhaust all the
options and be absolutely clear why a return to work is not appropriate.
Planning for return to work
Early contact
Graduated return to work should start early. Get in touch with your employees early in their illness
or injury, and then stay in touch at regular intervals. This is the first step in their reintegration back
to the workplace.
Consider who is best placed to have initial contact with the employee. Usually this would be their
line manager but for some situations such as stress you might want to think about whether another
person might be more appropriate. Where line managers have responsibility for contacting the
employee, they may need some guidance on how to approach the return to work process.
Return to work assessment
Inform your planning with a return to work assessment of the employee’s condition and their job.
This will inform you how their condition might affect and be affected by their job.
Incorporate regular reviews, so the plan can be adapted as things change. Casual reviews may be
needed if something changes or the plan is not working, for example, if the worker’s injury or illness
gets worse.
People
The employer, the injured or ill employee, their representatives and medical team, and any
identified support people.
Reference
• The ACC website Managing Employee Injuries has useful information and links on good practice
and injury management, and how ACC can help: http://www.acc.co.nz/for-business/small-
medium-and-large-business/managing-employee-injuries/index.htm

• ACC Injury management / back on the job guide for industry: http://www.acc.co.nz/for-
business/small-medium-and-large-business/managing-employee-injuries/injury-management-
guide-for-industry/index.htm

Purpose
You cannot control your business’s risks if you don’t know what they are. Risk identification is the
first step in the risk management process. Once you have identified and assessed your risks, you can
think about how you’re going to manage those risks.
Guidance
What is risk identification?
Risk identification considers how harm might be caused and what can harm people (workers, visitors
and other people such as your clients or customers) in your workplace. You should think about the
risks from within your business, risks that may be introduced by other work done within your
business (such as work done by contractors), and risks from other activities that could affect you,
such as businesses nearby.
When you are looking for risks in your business, think about the full range of exposure from low level
to serious or catastrophic. Any risk that could cause notifiable injuries or illnesses, or notifiable
events such as unplanned explosions, should be classed as a risk for your risk profile. The outcome
doesn’t need to have happened in your business for it to be a risk. For example, just because no-one
has been hurt on an unguarded piece of equipment in your business doesn’t mean that the
equipment does not pose a risk. You learn from the experience of other businesses that have had
serious events, and consider the most credible serious outcome when you’re deciding how risky a
situation is.
When you identify your risks, you need to think about risks to both the safety of people, and the
risks to their health in both the short and long term.
Standard:
10. The business (with workers and representatives) identifies risks.
10.1 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively identifies risks to
health and safety.
10.2 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively identifies risks arising
from the activities of other parties.

Areas of risk Some examples
Physical Risks from your plant, equipment and structures
Pressure vessels
Work at height, confined spaces and so on
Falling objects
Slippery surfaces
Chemical Hazardous substances at your workplace
Chemical storage and use
Occupational
environment
Noise
Dust
Fumes and steams
Extremes of temperature (very hot and very cold)
Vibration
Weather
Ergonomic Difficult access to work areas
Requirements to over-reach
Manual handling
Work area setup (all work areas, not just computer workstations)
Interaction of people with machinery and equipment
Location of switches and shaping of handles
How work processes are arranged
Non-routine operations
Changes to plant and processes
Psychosocial Stress
Violence
Threats
Fatigue
Bullying
Sleep deprivation
Shiftwork
Work practices, such as productivity incentives that drive unsafe behaviour
Biological Bacteria and viruses
Insects
Birds
Exposure to animal or human bodily fluids or body parts
Radiation X-rays
Caesium 137
Cobalt
UV radiation (from sun or other UV emitters)
Activity Driving
Routine and non-routine maintenance
Cleaning
Installing and removing structures, plant and equipment

How to identify risks
Good practice is to use more than one method to identify risks. This means that you’re more likely to
identify a wider range of risk areas. Remember in each of these methods, you should apply
information put out by regulators and from other businesses to help you identify your risks.
There are many ways of identifying risks in your business. Good practice will use as many of the
following methods as possible.
Internal and external sources of risk
Risks can arise from your own business processes, and from other businesses nearby that may affect
you. Businesses are required under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to communicate and

consult and co-ordinate with each other about risks that could have wider implications for other
businesses.
This information sharing applies to all businesses that could affect others, including office buildings
where two or more organisations are sharing the building.
People
Risk identification considers who might be harmed and how they might be harmed, and it is best
done in a group, including workers and workers’ representatives. Involve all types of workers in your
risk identification process, not just those that are easy to work with. In particular consider the risks
to the following groups, and consider how you can engage with these workers.
Workers with
requirements
New and young workers
Workers with English as a second language
New or expectant mothers
Workers with disabilities, injuries or illnesses
Shiftworkers
Lone workers
Contractors
Mobile workers
Those who are not at
work all the time
Lone workers
Mobile workers
Casual workers
Seasonal workers
Visitors
Temporary workers
Contractors and sub-contractors
Shared workplaces or
risks
Workplaces that are close together, or where or when their risks may
overlap or impact on each other
Super Kitchens shares a narrow driveway with ABC Logistics that has deliveries made in
large truck and trailer units. Super Kitchens has identified that the deliveries are a risk to
the visitors and staff coming to their showroom. They consult and communicate with ABC
Logistics about managing the risks associated with the mobile plant movements from
forklifts and trucks at ABC Logistics. After the discussions, ABC Logistics and Super Kitchens
together created a clearly-marked safe walkway for pedestrians with barriers to keep
them isolated from the mobile plant movements. Super Kitchens put up a sign advising
showroom visitors to use the path because of the risks of forklift and truck movements.
.

Ask your workers if there is anyone else that needs to be included in risk identification processes.
Reference
• The Health and Safety Executive (UK) has a helpful publication called INDG163 Risk assessment:
a brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace that has some excellent guidance on risk
identification: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf
• The MBIE document Guidance for a hazard management system for mines contains some useful
general risk identification advice as well as specific information for mining:
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/all-guidance-items/hazard-
management-system-for-mines/hazard-management-system-for-mines.pdf
• WorkSafe Victoria (Australia) has a useful tool for risk identification and control for the mining
industry, but it can be used more widely: http://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/forms-and-
publications/forms-and-publications/risk-control-self-assessment-tool
• ACC’s Discomfort, Pain, and Injury (DPI) toolkit assists businesses to manage the risks of strain
and sprain injuries, and includes a useful injury cost calculator:
http://www.acc.co.nz/preventing-injuries/at-work/workplace-health-issues/pi00082
• The Olympic Delivery Authority’s Learning Legacy contains information on combining
occupational health with safety:
http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/occupational-health-the-combined-
approach-of-both-clinic.php

Purpose
Risk assessment is where you consider how bad the outcome could be (consequence) and how likely
it is that a particular event could occur (likelihood). It is not uncommon to underestimate the level of
risk of a given activity, which is why it is important to consider the information provided from groups
such as regulators and your industry in New Zealand and overseas. Just because a particular event
hasn’t happened in your business doesn’t mean it isn’t a risk.
Guidance
Assessing the risk is linked with identifying the controls that are required to manage that risk to an
acceptable level. When you assess the risk, you need to consider the context of the operation.
Standard
11: The business (with workers and representatives) assesses risks.
11.1 The business (with workers and representatives) uses an effective assessment
process appropriate to the risk.
11.2 The business (with workers and representatives) reviews risk assessments
associated with significant change.
A large hole in the ground in the middle of a footpath on a busy street is a higher risk than a
similar hole out in the middle of a backcountry mountain range. This is due to the likelihood
that someone could fall in. It would be appropriate to fill in the hole (eliminating the risk) in
the footpath, with fencing around the hole until the concrete sets (engineering control). In
the case of the hole in the backcountry, appropriate controls may be to warn trampers that
the ground is uneven and to be adequately equipped.

How risk assessment is done
Your risk assessment methodology should be sophisticated enough for the level of risk faced by your
business. There is no one way to do it. The things you need to think about are:
• who is exposed to the risk
• how likely is it that they will be exposed
• what is the worst credible outcome.
The key question once you’ve identified and assessed the risk is: what steps or controls do you need
to stop this event happening (eliminate) or to minimise the consequences for people, plant, and
equipment?
Some businesses use a risk matrix to help them prioritise the level of risk. There are a number of
different types of risk matrices. A simple example is shown below:
Consequence (outcome) of risk
Low Moderate Severe
Likelihood
riskwill
occur
Unlikely Low risk Low risk Moderate risk
Moderately likely Low risk Moderate risk High risk
Very likely Moderate risk High risk High risk
Using external information
External information should be used as part of risk assessment.
Managing risks associated with changes in your business
Health and safety should be embedded into your change management business process. Risk
assessments should be reviewed before any significant change in your business operations,

equipment or processes. You need to plan to allow enough time and resources to control the risks
before the change process fully begins.
The impacts of change on health and safety should be thought about in two parts:
The purpose of risk assessment during change is to:
• Identify potential issues or risk that could arise before the change begins
• Identify potential issues or risks arising during the change
• Identify potential issues or risks arising once the change is complete
• Potential flow on impacts to other areas not directly affected by the change, such as if you
overhaul machinery.
Examples of change risks:
Change risk Examples
During the change Temporary premises may have different risks and controls
Maintenance may affect downstream work
Stress from restructuring or changing business practices
After the change New equipment may have different risks and require changed controls
New equipment or processes may affect downstream work or workplace
layout
More capability (workers, equipment, time, resources) may be required
Direct and indirect
effects
Maintenance of equipment may impact the workers that are using the
equipment
Workers and representatives should be involved early in planning changes, in discussions and
decisions on procurement and design, and at the appropriate stage of the change process.
A key part of considering health and safety when you’re changing your business is to identify what
new risk controls should be put in place and which existing ones are no longer required or need to
be updated (see the section on controlling risks). You will need to identify which of your risk
assessments need to be updated before, during and after the change process, and identify any
updated or new controls for those risks.

People
Workers and their representatives should be involved in your risk assessment processes. They are in
the workplace and are more likely to notice things that are not obvious to you. They are also more
likely to have a good idea about what works and what does not.
Reference
• The UK guidance INDG163 Risk Assessment contains some excellent information on the risk
management process: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf
• ACC’s Discomfort, Pain, and Injury toolkit includes HabitAtWork, an online tool for helping
businesses manage strain and sprain risks: http://www.habitatwork.co.nz/

Purpose
Once you have assessed the risks, it is important that you put in effective controls to eliminate or
minimise the risks as far as reasonably practicable. These controls are intended to protect your
workers and others who may be affected by your work activities from being harmed at work.
Standard
12: The business (with workers and representatives) applies risk controls.
12.1 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively applies a hierarchy
of risk control.
12.2 The business (with workers and representatives) considers applicable
standards when implementing risk controls.
12.3 The business (with workers and representatives) effectively manages risk
associated with suppliers and contractors.
12.4 The business (with workers and representatives) cooperates with other
relevant parties when managing risks.

Guidance
Hierarchy of risk control
Risks should be reduced to the lowest reasonably practicable level by putting controls in place that
reduce the likelihood of the event occurring. This is what is meant by a ‘hierarchy of control’. You are
required to work from Level 1 do what is reasonably practicable to eliminate risk first, then do what
is reasonably practicable to use Level 2 controls, and if that is ineffective, supplement them with
Level 3 controls. Level 3 controls on their own are generally ineffective as they rely on people to
comply with the controls.
The best way to control risk is to get rid of the risk all together: eliminate them. Some examples of
elimination are redesigning the job or equipment, or putting in a new process, tool, machine or
substance so that the risk is removed or eliminated. You do what is reasonably practicable to create
a safe place for people to work, rather than relying on controls that make a safe person. Where this
is not reasonably practicable, minimise the risk that remains: level 2 controls create a safer and
healthier work environment for workers than just using level 3 controls. Level 3 controls support the
higher-level controls.
Where good practice guidelines or guides exist, follow them. Many controls are already well
documented. If there is a documented control, you need to do what is reasonably practicable to
make sure the control is suitable and put in place. If the control is not suitable, you need to clearly
identify in your risk assessment process why it is not, and what alternatives you’re going to use
instead.

If you can’t eliminate the risk, think about controls to minimise risk. The list below sets out the order
to follow when planning to minimise risks you have identified in your workplace:
MakeIt Manufacturing guarded all of their process equipment for when it is in use, making
a safe work area for their workers. The maintenance engineers at MakeIt plan their
maintenance tasks using a safe system of work for when they have to remove the guarding
to repair and maintain equipment. They have also installed inching buttons so they can
safely check that their repairs are effective. When the operators at MakeIt are cleaning the
machines, they are all fully isolated using personal locks so that there is no way the
machinery can be started until everyone has finished.

A note about PPE: You should only use PPE as a control for risk exposure after all the previous
measures have been tried and found ineffective in controlling the risks to a reasonably practicable
level. For example, where you cannot eliminate the risk of dust created during your work process,
use specific ventilation to reduce dust levels (engineering control). If ventilation cannot fully control
the risk of dust exposure, you could use task rotation to reduce a worker’s exposure. If that control
is ineffective, respiratory protective equipment (RPE) may be required, and all controls should be
recorded in the SOP. Remember, PPE does not control the risk, and it is a control of last resort,
because it requires workers to wear and maintain it properly.
If necessary, PPE should be selected and fitted by a competent person to ensure that the worker is
fully protected. Workers must be trained on how to use it properly, and you must clean, store and
maintain it in good condition. Non-use of PPE should be treated as a breach of workers’ employment
conditions and treated as a disciplinary matter.
What to think about when selecting controls
When selecting possible controls in your risk assessment, you will have considered:
Question to consider Examples
Will the control you choose introduce
any new risks?
Downstream risks, such as the introduction of a forklift
to reduce manual handling could introduce more serious
mobile plant risks
Are the introduced risks better or worse
than the original risk?
The mobile plant risks introduced by the forklift could
need traffic management planning and physical
separation of workers from mobile plant
Will your new control change or modify
an existing risk control to make it less
effective?
Introduction of new equipment may make it harder to
reach existing equipment for operation or maintenance
How user-friendly is the control? The new control could make it harder for workers to do
their job and so they find ways around it: for example,
introducing controlled access areas making it harder for
workers to get to their workplaces, meaning they go
around the barriers or prop controlled doors open
Is the control proportionate to the risk? Issuing a full hazmat suit to protect workers against
controls might be an overreaction
What actions do you need to plan or
schedule to reinforce the controls?
You may need to plan training, meetings, toolbox or
prestart talks, poster campaigns and so on, to help
workers understand why the new controls are in place
Involving and consulting workers in selecting risk controls should answer a lot of these questions.
Residual risk
Once you have controlled the risk, you are often left with ‘residual’ or ’leftover’ risk: for example,
once you have erected barriers around a frangible (breakable) skylight to protect workers on the
roof from falling through it, the residual risk might be that someone falls over the temporary barrier
and falls through the skylight. The likelihood of this happening is very low, and so you can decide
that you are comfortable with the degree of ‘residual risk’. However, if the controls around the

skylight were simply instructions to be careful around the skylight, the residual risk is significantly
higher due to weak controls, and therefore unacceptable. Further controls will be required.
Applicable standards
You are not left on your own when trying to identify appropriate controls for the risks you’ve
identified. There is a lot of guidance produced that you can look at to help you choose controls for
your risks. Good guidance is available from a number of places. Some examples are given below:
Contractors
Controlling the risks introduced by using contractors includes using administrative controls such as
checking competence, which could include a formal contractor prequalification. The contractor’s
activities will need to be assessed and managed. You cannot only rely on the contractor to manage
the risks of their activities. Risk controls should be agreed between you and your contractors, and
actively monitored and reviewed by both contractor and principal.

You need to be confident that you have undertaken sufficiently detailed assessments so that you are
confident that the activities your contractors are engaged in are not putting your workers at risk, and
that your activities and premises are not exposing your contractors to risk either.
Co-operating with other relevant parties
Risk controls need to take into account other relevant parties that may affect your risks. For
example, if you share a building with another business and you were planning renovations that
would create a lot of dust and noise, you are required to consult with other businesses in the
building to ensure that the risks of dust and noise are managed so that they do not affect the
activities of other businesses.
People
The following people should be involved in selecting risk controls:
Group Reason
Workers and representatives More likely to observe the risk and how controls work in practice
Suppliers May have new or innovative ways to control known industry risks
Contractors Affected by the risk and its controls
Other relevant parties May be affected by your risk controls
Reference
• WorkSafe New Zealand has a large number of resources available on their website
www.business.govt.nz/worksafe under the information and guidance menu
• Guidance sorted by risk type can be found on WorkSafe New Zealand’s website here:
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/guidance-by-hazard-type and
on the Health and Safety Executive (UK) website here:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/guidance/topics.htm
• Industry-specific guidance can be found on the Health and Safety Executive (UK) website at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/guidance/industries.htm and on WorkSafe New Zealand’s website:
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/information-guidance/guidance-by-industry
• ACC’s guide How to work safely in risky situations has some clear, simple advice on how to
work safely around significant risk areas:
http://www.acc.co.nz/PRD_EXT_CSMP/groups/external_ip/documents/publications_promot
ion/pi00353.pdf

Purpose
Having risk controls in place in your business does not mean they will always continue to be
effective, or that they were effective in the first place. You will need to check or monitor how
effectively you are controlling your identified risks. This process can reassure you and your workers
and workers’ representatives. It can also help identify weaknesses in your controls and any
corrective actions needed to fix the weaknesses.
Guidance
Checking or monitoring your risks and their controls involves knowing what the controls were
designed to be, and checking that they are still in place and still controlling the risk as they were
intended to do.
Controls do not always remain in place. For example, you may have erected a barrier to protect
workers from a piece of equipment. Over time, people have forgotten why the barrier was there,
and found it made it hard to move around the workplace, so it was removed. Remember that
controls also include behaviour and administrative controls such as Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) and your business processes.
Standard
13. The business (with workers and representatives) checks that risk controls are in place
and are effective, and takes any corrective actions
13.1 The business (with workers and representatives) checks that risk controls are in
place and are effective
13.2 The business (with workers and representatives) takes corrective action, where
required

Some types of risk monitoring or checking include:
One form of monitoring is health surveillance. This is where you use medical testing of your
employees to confirm that your risk controls are effective.
Any health surveillance testing must be done with the employees’ informed consent, as the testing
is medical and subject to all the requirements of the Health Information Privacy Code and the
Privacy Act 1993.
When you’re using health surveillance as a monitoring measure, it is important to establish a
baseline when your employee begins work with you, test their exposure at least annually, and have
an exit test when they leave you. This means that you have tracked their exposure to the risk the
whole time they are working with you, and if there are any long-term consequences to their
exposure, you have clear records of their exposure and health.
When you put a health surveillance programme in place, you also need to establish what your
processes are if one of your employees returns a test that shows they have been exposed to the risk.
You will also need clear processes for critical event testing. For example, if there is an explosion on
During routine blood lead level testing, a worker at a metal recycling plant was identified to
have an elevated blood lead level. An investigation was carried out: the worker was
wearing all required PPE, washing hands before eating and after going to the toilet, and
following all procedural controls. However, it was identified that the worker smoked roll-
your-own cigarettes, and didn’t wash their hands before rolling the cigarette or smoking it.
The worker was stood down until their blood lead level was within safe levels, and they
were retrained and supervised in their practice around lead.

your site, you will need all of the employees that were exposed to the explosion to have audiometry
and spirometry (hearing and lung function) testing immediately after the explosion. You may also
need testing for chemical exposure, depending on the nature of the explosion and on an ongoing
basis, to confirm and monitor any damage caused by the event.
Your health surveillance programme should feed back into your overall risk management processes.
If you have noticed from your health surveillance that a certain group of your workers has been
exposed to the risk, you need to go and check why that group is showing exposure, including
whether the controls on that risk are effective and are being fully implemented. If the controls are
fully implemented, then you will need to reassess the risk and apply more robust controls.
Important note: health surveillance is not a risk control in itself. It is a monitoring method to check
risk controls are working and must be used to inform overall risk management without
compromising the privacy of the employees involved.
Occupational environment monitoring
You carry out occupational environment monitoring, such as noise surveys, dust fall testing,
chemical fume tests, vibration or radiation testing, asbestos testing, heavy metals testing, and so on,
to ensure that the controls for the environmental risks are working adequately. Much of the
environmental testing may require the assistance of experts such as occupational hygienists or
occupational health nurses.
Maintaining risk controls in good working order
Another form of monitoring is planned or preventative maintenance on the risk controls and the
equipment they’re protecting, to ensure that the equipment is always working at optimum
efficiency. This reduces the likelihood of unplanned interventions such as fixing breakdowns (which
introduces risk).
Corrective action
When you identify that a risk control is not working, you need to put corrective actions in place to
control the risk, and then identify why the risk control is not working the way it was intended to.
What actions are appropriate for you to take will depend on the level of the risk. If the risk is likely to
cause immediate serious injury or damage to plant or equipment, the most effective control may be
to stop the process until more permanent risk controls are found.
People
Workers, contractors, representatives, senior and line managers are all involved in risk monitoring.
Your workers and their representatives are key people to help your business identify whether the
risk controls you have in place are effective.
Reference

Purpose
Reviewing risk controls and overall risk management processes allows you to assess whether all the
work you have put into identifying, assessing, controlling, and monitoring your risks is making a
difference and keeping your workers safe at work.
Guidance
Good risk reviewing gives you an opportunity for continual improvement to make your workplace
safer. Using your risk profile, ask yourself some questions about each risk:
Risk reviews are informed by your business’s monitoring processes that you have carried out on the
risks.
You will find it helpful to plan a structured process for your risk review. Identify the risks you’re
planning to consider (you may find it helpful to divide your risk profile into several sections and
review different sections on a planned basis, to spread the review work out) and identify who needs
to be part of the process. You will also need to identify how you’re planning on capturing any
changes and corrective actions.
Standard
14: The business (with workers and representatives) periodically reviews the effectiveness
of its risk management activity.

Collect your data and keep asking yourself if there are any reasonably practicable steps that you can
apply that will control the risk more effectively, that is controls that are higher up the hierarchy of
control.
There are many ways you can review risks. One useful way is to get a group of people together,
including a diverse group of representatives and workers from around your business, to discuss:
• Whether your risks are adequately controlled
• What has changed about the risks since your last review
• Whether you need external advice on technical issues
• What your risk and accident/non-injury reporting has identified
• What new guidance or information has come out from regulators or industries
• What information your suppliers can provide about new or more effective ways of
controlling your risks.
Once you’ve gathered your information you need to take your risk profile into your business to see if
what is recorded there is what actually happens in practice. Internal and external experts may be
very useful in this process.
Once you have reviewed your risk profile, set some SMART objectives to measure whether the new
version of your risk profile is making a difference to your losses: personal, business, equipment,
reputational and so on.
How often should risk reviews be done?
How often you review risks will depend on how serious the risk is, how often workers are exposed to
it, and how often the work area changes. At the very least, risks should be reviewed each year to
make sure that any changes in your operations are taken into account in the way you manage risk.
If your risk monitoring and data analysis (accidents, reporting, health surveillance etc.) show that
your risk controls are ineffective, you will need to review your risk, how you manage it, and its
controls more frequently.
Changes to guidance and regulation
If there are changes published in guidance material from regulators or industry, or changes in the
regulatory framework (new regulations and legislation), you will need to review your risk profile to
ensure that you’re still complying with good practice and any legal changes.
Review outcomes
You should expect corrective actions or recommendations to come from review or audit processes.
You can look at those actions as your opportunities for continual improvement in the ways you keep
your workers safe and healthy. Remember to assign those actions and track them to completion.
Sharing what you learn
One of the most valuable things you can do is to share what you have learned about risk within your
business, showing workers how the risk management process is helping to keep them safe and
healthy, so they can enjoy their work and go home safe to their families.

It is also valuable to share what you have learnt through your risk management processes with your
industry peers.
People
Workers, representatives, senior and line managers, contractors, suppliers of plant and equipment,
and other external experts may be helpful in risk management reviews.
Reference

SSRS Guidance final 19 Nov 2015

SSRS Guidance final 19 Nov 2015

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