Making the most of industry publications

Making the Most of Industry Publications

We all know the importance of keeping up to date with industry publications and research, however we often simply don’t ‘get around to it’, as other needs press in on our discretionary time. We meet a lot of Safety and Risk professionals and find that the most successful organisations are the ones that are not only quick to analyse the material but are able to meaningfully incorporate the key findings into the way they do day-to-day business.

The ABS has released the results of its ‘2013-14 Work-related Injuries’ study. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to sit down with the results and see how they relate to your organisation.

The ABS report reveals a heartening trend at a macro level that demonstrates the good work that is being done by Business leaders and Risk and Safety professionals in this area. Of the people who worked at some time between July 2013 and July 2014, 4.3% sustained a work related injury or illness, this figure is down from 5.3% in the 2009-10 period and down from 7.4% in the 2005-06 period.

Of those persons who sustained a work related injury or illness, the 40-54 year old age group saw the highest volume.

31% of illness or injuries sustained by men were sustained by Technicians and Trade workers, whilst the highest proportion (27%) of female incidents were sustained by Community and Personal Service workers. Of the injuries or illness sustained, 34.1% were classified as ‘lifting, pushing, pulling or bending.’ With ‘sprains or strains’ being the most common injury.

61% of persons who experienced a work-related injury or illness had some time off work; 7% took off part of a day or shift, 23% took one to four days off and 29% had five days off or more.

15% of injured or ill workers were no longer working in the job in which the work-related injury or illness occurred, 31% of these cited the illness or injury as their reason for leaving.

72% of persons with paid leave entitlements received financial assistance while 41% of employed persons without paid leave entitlements received financial assistance through various means.

The full report is rather insightful with splits by age, sex and industry. Hopefully these findings will help sharpen our proactively approach to preventing incidents and injuries in 2015.