Consider the lasting impact of workplace trauma. WorkSafe Victoria recorded 66 workplace deaths in 2021. More than 23,000 workers were injured seriously enough to have a claim for compensation accepted last year.

Safety Walks is the safety audits offering from the Victorian Chamber carried out by our expert Health and Safety Consultants. They ensure that OHS is a critical aspect of your workplace management plan, focusing on identifying and minimising risks and hazards to guarantee the safety and wellbeing of workers.

Have you done a Safety Walk lately? Does your workplace need assistance?

How Safety Walk works

Walkthrough

Safety Walks reviews what is viewed as reasonably practicable systems of work to comply with Section 21 of the OHS Act: providing and maintaining safe plant (machinery and equipment). This ensures the safe use, handling, storage and transport of machinery, equipment or substances.

One of the Victorian Chamber’s Health and Safety Consultants conducts a walkthrough of your workplace to identify potential risks and provides an action plan to give you some insight into the requirements of the OHS Act.

Doing so will help keep workplaces that you manage and control in a safe condition, minimising risk and injury to employees. It also gives your employees the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to enable them to carry out work in a way that is safe and without risk to health and safety.

The goal of the Safety Walks is to gain practical knowledge of safety in the workplace. This will also include insights into the role that psychology and culture play in workplace safety. The Victorian Chamber recommends conducting Safety Walks just to focus on this aspect.

Report

Following the walkthrough, a Health and Safety Consultant will produce a report detailing an action plan that outlines areas that the organisation needs to improve on to comply with the OHS Act, and recommendations and guidelines for implementation.

The Chamber incorporates photos and detailed recommendations of systems, controls, policies and procedures and recommend training to help you set up a successful safety management plan.

Follow-up

A Health and Safety Consultant will then organise a time after you have reviewed the report to discuss the recommendations, outcome of the audit and next steps for implementation.

How to register

The Victorian Chamber takes a holistic approach to ensure businesses are prepared for the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment (Psychological Health) Regulations, aimed at reducing psychological hazards and injuries in the workplace. They require employers to assess, monitor and mitigate hazards in the same way they would a physical hazard. These regulations will likely be implemented in Victoria in late 2023.

If your business is concerned about the physical and psychological safety of employees in the workplace, please contact our Health, Safety and Wellbeing team on 03 8662 5196 or at HSW@victorianchamber.com.au to talk about how we can help your business organise a Safety Walk.