Successful safety cultures are led from the top, where your actions and attitudes send a message to the people who work in your business that you are serious about their health and safety.

Effective safety management in a workplace requires an involvement from everyone to make it safe. To do this successfully, people need to understand their responsibilities and how they can meet them. You also need to provide the necessary resources to meet those responsibilities.

Employer responsibilities

Employers should:

  • talk with the people who work in your business about all health and safety-related issues
  • develop and implement safe work procedures
  • train the people who work in your business on your safe work procedures
  • ensure tools and equipment are safe to use and regularly serviced and maintained in good working order
  • develop a process for reporting health and safety issues (hazards, near misses, injuries), and act upon any matters raised
  • supply the people who work in your business with appropriate safety gear or personal protective equipment (PPE) where necessary
  • have in place a simple and practical written work health and safety policy, developed in consultation with workers, which can go a long way towards achieving a positive safety culture.

See Employer responsibilities for further information.

Worker responsibilities

Workers should:

  • contribute to a safe workplace by taking responsibility for your safety and the physical and psychological safety of people you work with
  • follow all safe work instructions and procedures
  • participate in training
  • report safety issues
  • use safety gear (PPE), where and when required.

See Worker responsibilities for further information.

Getting started checklist

Check the safety of your business by completing our work health and safety checklist to identify hazards at your workplace and determine which areas you may want to start with for improvement.

Example: Getting started checklist
 AlwaysSometimesNever
Are safety responsibilities clearly defined and understood by the business, managers and workers    
Are time and resources allocated to meet safety responsibilities    
Are the business and managers committed to health and safety as a high priority    
You have a WHS policy which includes consultation, managing hazards, informing/ training/supervising, maintaining a safe workplace, monitoring and reviewing    
The WHS policy is easily accessible    
The WHS policy is regularly updated    

Further resources