Proposed changes to the New South Wales Workers Compensation Act (1987) have been receiving much attention within the industry and across various media outlets in recent months, as the Labor Government seek to push through what they feel are necessary changes to stem the increasing costs of psychological injury in both the Private and Government workplace sectors. It has been reported that psychological injury within NSW incurs, on average, $126,000 in claims costs versus the average physical injury incurring $29,000 in claims costs. The flow on effect to the injured worker (for example, quality of life and financial strain) and businesses (absenteeism, workers compensation premium increases, legal and cultural reputation) is substantial; and has led to claims the NSW Workers Compensation scheme is presently unsustainable. Conversely, the positive effects of a healthy workplace culture have been heavily investigated with this YouTube Video created by Heads Up providing a succinct appraisal of potential benefits to business.
Much of what is being debated in parliament and behind closed boardroom doors is outside of our control, but what is in our control is how we better understand the key motivational drivers of our employees, and foster a healthy workplace culture to positively drive productivity, satisfaction, and reduced financial strain on all. One key process a business can implement in today’s economy is a Psychosocial Audit tool which seamlessly collects clean, valid and accurate data; and provides subject matter experts and persons conducting a business or undertaking with solutions to not only meet WHS Regulatory requirements, but drive these greater financial and cultural outcomes.
SS&T is partnering with InCheq whose platform takes the guesswork out of understanding these growing risks and developing tailored solutions for businesses here in NSW, and across all states and territories in Australia. And lets be honest, when it comes to the Psychosocial Codes of Practice, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to how to understand, validate, support and act to the requisite levels of regulation and expectation across government and business. SS&T has found InCheq’s platform to be a top-tier solution to support our customers, and would recommend any business who is interested in this risk contact us today to discuss the tool in more detail, or to arrange a demo of the platform.
References:
www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=3101
www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/workers-compensation-exposure-draft-released
