Practicing my own advice of talking with people you don’t know at conferences, last night at post-conference drinks, I was told about love and protection.
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Category: communication
Exclusive content from 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work
Next week, the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work will occur in Sydney, Australia, with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of delegates from Australia and abroad. I will be reporting on the Congress from before it starts on Monday to its conclusion on Thursday with articles each day, at least a wrap-up of each day and exclusive interviews with global occupational health and safety (OHS) speakers and delegates.
Now is a great time to subscribe to the SafetyAtWorkBlog, starting at only A$24 for a monthly option. Links to all new articles will be emailed to you as they are posted, and you also have access to over 3,000 OHS-related articles, including exclusive content from the 21st World Congress in Singapore from 2017.
And if you are attending the Congress, stop me to say hi, take a selfie, or tell me about your lived experience with OHS.
How to determine the usefulness of what you read
Many employers are continuing to pimp up their well-being programs and employer benefits with the intention of managing mental health pressures. This is often based on advice from multinational business advisory and consulting firms in the form of trend surveys and reports about business attitudes, fears and concerns. A recent report from Mercer was the basis for an article in the Australian Financial Review (AFR, paywalled) written by Euan Black. It is instructive to subject the article and the Mercer report to a little scrutiny to determine their usefulness.
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Effective safety signs
Safety signs can be a mix of symbols, colours and words. On a recent vacation in the United Kingdom, I saw a configuration of pedestrian crossing signs that challenged my interpretation of signs I had seen since I was a child. I wondered if this new configuration still communicated the essential safety message.
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Get rid of dinosaur thinking on workplace mental health
Victoria’s coronial services has been found guilty of breaching its occupational health and safety (OHS) obligations after one of its employees died by suicide, identifying work issues as a major factor in her death. WorkSafe Victoria has released the best source of information on this case. Most of the mainstream media is relying on a newswire report,which is based on WorkSafe’s information.
Significantly none of the prevention strategies identified by WorkSafe are included in the media reports even though this is perhaps the most vital information for preventing recurrences.
This article looks at the advice offered by WorkSafe Victoria in its media release on what actions it believes could prevent the occupational factors that resulted in this suicide from emerging, or not being addressed, in your workplaces.
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Plain speaking on mental health v nuance
Plain speaking is one of the greatest challenges of any profession. Many professionals struggle to communicate their excellent work and knowledge which has created the moves for Research-To-Practice and specialised communicators (as opposed to public relations advisers). Human Resources (HR) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) need communications specialists, or perhaps just interpreters, if a recent article on workers compensation and mental health is anything to go by.
If we are going to achieve a successful and effective change on workplace mental health, we need to start to understand each other.
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Engineered stone and The Block
One supplier of synthetic stone products to Australia, Cosentino, is in the mainstream media after an appearance on a popular television home renovations show on the Nine Network, The Block. Several occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals and organisations have raised concerns about how the product was discussed and presented on a recent episode. The best coverage of this matter has been by an ABC television program, MediaWatch.
MediaWatch revealed the importance of listening to how dangerous products are described and how the guidance of OHS Regulators can be interpteed or manipulated.
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