Worksafe NZ – Introduction of SafePlus

by | Oct 23, 2017 | Business, Employment Relations, Policies & Processes, Strategy, Systems

Worksafe NZ have recently introduced ‘SafePlus’, a new voluntary health and safety performance improvement toolkit for businesses.

New Zealand has an unacceptably high rate of serious workplace injury, illness and fatality. The social and economic cost of people being hurt and killed in New Zealand workplaces is conservatively estimated at $3.5 billion each year, and inflicts an enormous emotional toll on the people affected. SafePlus has been created to assist businesses in reducing this appalling rate by defining what good health and safety looks like – above minimum legal compliance. This latest tool from Worksafe is a performance improvement initiative that is not a traditional compliance audit type product.SafePlus assesses businesses’ health and safety performance and provides them with tailored recommendations on what they need to do to improve. The Onsite Assessment and Advisory Service also goes further and provides businesses with tailored ‘how to’ advice and best practice guidance on how they can implement improvements to help make sure everyone in your workplace gets home healthy and safe.

Health & Safety Performance Requirements

Health and safety performance focuses on three core areas of Leadership, Worker Engagement and Risk Management. Within each of these core areas are specific performance requirements such as governance, commitment, communication, worker empowerment, identification and assessment of risks, etc. Each of the performance requirements are measured on a maturity scale that measures a business’s performance initially and then over time. Assessment of performance will focus on people, resources, behaviours, systems, practices, attitudes, culture and perceptions.Performance is measured against each of the requirements above and the three level maturity scale of: developing, performing and leading. These levels are used to determine the business’s current health and safety strengths and areas for improvement.

How do I use SafePlus?

Businesses can chose how they want to use SafePlus. There are three products to chose from, based on what works best for your business.
  1. Free resources and guidance.
  2. Independent onsite assessments and advisory service.
  3. Free Online Self-Assessment.
via: Worksafe NZ