Workplace Health & Safety Show unveils 2021 program

The return of the Workplace Health & Safety Show 2021 will see industry leaders and newcomers unite to present a series of live, interactive two-way learning experiences that cover all the latest trends, technologies and issues faced by Australian businesses. Taking place over two days (7–8 September) at the Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park Homebush, the Workplace Health & Safety Show’s comprehensive seminars and forums cover topics including innovation, technology, major hazards, wellbeing, mental health and injury prevention.

“We are excited to create a personalised and interactive space for professionals to hear from industry leaders on how best to foster healthy and safe work environments,” said Marie Kinsella, CEO, IEC Group Australia.

The Free Education program is divided into three streams: the Seminar Theatre, the Interaction Forum and the Show Stage. The first day of the Workplace Health & Safety Show will feature a session by Ian Firth, State Inspector for SafeWork NSW, who will address practical approaches to managing psychosocial hazards in the workplace from a regulator’s perspective. The session will take place at the Seminar Theatre. The Seminar Theatre will also feature a session titled ‘WHS Prosecutions — What’s your exposure?’, delivered by Alan Girle, Director of Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors.

The full free education program will also include:

Day one — Tuesday, 7 September 2021:

Seminar Theatre:

• Practical approaches to managing psychosocial hazards in the workplace — a regulator’s perspective

Speaker: Ian Firth – State Inspector, SafeWork NSW

Through a People at Work case study, this session will cover what the psychological hazards and challenges are in the workplace and what the practical approaches to manage these risks.

• Making Your Business Compliant with Technology

Speaker: Corey Burford – Managing Director, Skytrust

Look at the benefits of transforming into a digital world and provide some tips and tricks to look for when considering any single system for all your compliance needs.

• Navigating the Psychological Safety Climate

Speaker: Carolyn Parish – Director of Workplace Wellbeing, OzHelp

This talk will give practical guidance on how to navigate psychological safety, breaking down the approach into four key areas of action to simplify and manage psychological safety in the workplace.

• Wellbeing anchors at work: Powerful tools to improve workplace health, safety and productivity

Speaker: Samuel Eddy – Executive Coach

This interactive session will demonstrate how employees can reduce their ‘stress temperature’ and set up simple but powerful wellbeing anchors that will enable workplaces to not only be safe and healthy, but to thrive and boost productivity.

Interactive Forum:

• Virtual Reality is making workplaces safer

Speaker: Michael O’Reilly – Founder & CEO, Next World

Explore examples of cases where VR for learning is improving safety performance and helping to make workplaces safer.

• Creating a culture of safety using better business intelligence

Speaker: Thai Phan – Head of Growth, Clade Solutions

This session will discuss how the leap from spreadsheets to SCRIM has opened up opportunities to progress towards improved workplace health and safety.

• Forklift Safety Week

Speaker: Craig Williams – Clark Equipment; Mike Croxford – Crown

This forum will include: an overview of the types of fork trucks, Australian Standards’ safety requirement updates, recent changes and trends, Operational Safety and a Q&A session.

• How to ensure your people feel the need to prioritise safety

Speaker: Todd Levi & Susan Fleming – ACT Australia

How do leaders ensure their people are committed to prioritising safety? Join an industrial theatre with professional actors to learn how to engage people to commit to the best practice in safety.

• Compliance and safety – are they the same thing?

Speaker: David Davis – Hi-Rise Access

Does compliance with Regulations, the Standards and Codes of Practice mean that the system is automatically safe for use? David explores the issues of safety vs compliance, asking us to consider the core issues when prescribing these systems for access in high-risk areas.

• Using lived experience in the codesign of workplace mental health strategies

Speaker: Stephanie Thompson – Workplaces Program Lead, WayAhead

This presentation outlines the importance of including consumers and people with lived experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of workplace mental health strategies. Using a real-life case study, look at the role workplaces and leaders have on mental health prevention and recovery.

Show Stage:

• Mitigating Risks of the Mobile Office

Speaker: David Schieders – Senior Executive, Pedders Suspension + Brakes

This session will walk you through some of the often forgotten considerations that apply to all vehicles that form the modern-day mobile office fleet.

• Fatigue: Is prevention better than management?

Speaker: John Toomey – Wellness Thought Leader

What are the factors that impact wake time alertness and energy levels? How can workers handle these to limit their impact? Come along and learn what really causes wake time yawning, drowsiness, lethargy and premature sleepiness.

• Make SafeWork NSW Inspector

Panellists: Kevin Murphy, Ian Firth, Genevieve Fleming – SafeWork NSW

A panel Q&A featuring three SafeWork NSW inspectors who collectively are experienced in building and construction, psychological health, and manufacturing.

• Early intervention: Why it’s critical to get this right (before anything else)

Speaker: Dr James Murray – Managing Director, Work Healthy Australia

When talking about workplace injury prevention and treatment, before you start mining data, analysing trends and predicting injuries, you need to ask yourself: has your workplace got the basics right? In this presentation, James will take visitors through what ‘early intervention’ really means, what best practice looks like and how important it is to get it right. Only then, can the rest flow beautifully.

• HSE in Australia – the journey so far… and what direction next?

Speaker: Anna Rickards – General Manager, Health by Design

An insight into what is and isn’t working with HSE in Australia, the role that behavioural science can have in increasing engagement and impact against risk, and the argument for joining the dots between safety, mental health, injury risk, sleep/fatigue, and health and wellness.

Day two — Wednesday, 8 September 2021

Seminar Theatre:

• Driving action to improve mental health at work in NSW – Towards 2022 and beyond

Speaker: Jim Kelly – Director of Health and Safe Design, SafeWork NSW

An examination, through a regulatory perspective, on workplace mental health, covering the role leaders play in driving a culture of safety, and the proactive and preventative approaches to managing psychological hazards in the workplace.

• The Blueprint for the Workforce post-COVID

Speaker: Sue Jauncery – CEO, Appellon

This topic illuminates the evidence-based science in understanding the effects of COVID-19 on organisations, what kind of response they are taking, the importance of preparing the workforce foundation for the ‘new normal’ and how to do so effectively.

• The care equation in preventing mental health challenges

Speaker: John Toomey – Wellness Thought Leader

What if we could change the way we operate in the world and have great awareness of the people around us and stepping in to help them when they start making bad decisions, or expressing unhelpful ideas and thoughts? John Toomey discusses how we can learn to use care as an effective prevention tool.

Interactive Forum:

• Wearable Technology: A Benefit or a Distraction?

Speaker: David Bick – Director of Professional Services, Joint Action

Wearable Technology that automates manual task risk assessment for work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD) hazard management is increasingly available. Does this technology lead to effective task focused risk-control or purely focus on the worker, and does it result in better hazard management or bigger collections of assessments?

• Forklift Safety Week

Speaker: Craig Williams (Truck Types) – Clark Equipment; Craig Williams (Operational Safety) – Clark Equipment; Todd Brennan (Fork Truck Licencing Requirements) – Forkpro Australia; & TBC (Fork Truck Attachments).

This forum will include an overview of the types of fork trucks, Operational Safety, Fork Truck Licencing Requirements, Fork Truck Attachments, and a Q&A session.

• Digital Transformation – The Safety Journey

Panellists: Mary Nizamis – Skytrust; Ann Tomlinson – Alium Works; & Dave Cooper-Smith – Schneider Electric

Explore the journey from paper to digital and gain insights into the benefits on making this transition whether in small business or at a corporate level. The panel will discuss the importance of compliance for business and how to achieve this.

• Keeping remote and isolated workers safe

Speaker: Peter Bolger – CEO, Pivotel

Understand your legal obligations for a remote workforce and how satellite communications technology allows your organisation to protect a workforce in situations where traditional communication methods may be inconsistent and unreliable.

Show Stage:

• Using data and analytics to predict and prevent injuries to the workforces of the future

Speaker: Rodney Hampel – Head of Business Development, Bodycare Workplace Solutions

Hear how digital technology and advanced analytics are disrupting and transforming how companies work and understand the health status of their workforces.

• Making WHS work in an Enterprise Risk Management framework

Speaker: David Tattam – Director Research and Training, Protecht Group

This session looks at how WHS can be incorporated efficiently and effectively into an Enterprise Risk Management Framework.

• EMF monitoring in the workplace

Speaker: Cyril Bourke – Director, EMF Safety

A presentation and demonstration of new devices that can monitor the entire range of electromagnetic pollution that workers are exposed to in all types of environments.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Fluky