Design and layout of workplace

Make sure the design and layout is safe and meets the needs of your business. Consider:

Maintain a healthy and safe workplace

You should:

• clean spills immediately
• keep walkways clear
• store work materials neatly
• remove waste
• replace consumables, like soap and toilet paper
• keep electrical appliances in good working order
• replace damaged furniture, fixtures and fittings.

Check equipment

Before you buy new or second-hand equipment, make sure it is fit-for-purpose. Test it, and consult with your workers to make sure it won’t introduce new problems.

Hazardous chemicals

Many chemicals used for commercial and industrial purposes are dangerous to human health. You must identify all harmful substances and materials and prevent or control exposure by:

• making sure labels are correct
• cleaning chemical containers when emptied
• keeping a register of chemicals used, stored and handled
• having a safety data sheet for all chemicals
• displaying warning signs
• keeping chemicals stable
• managing spills and leaks
• storing, handling and disposing of chemicals safely
• supervising your workers.

Chemical manufacturers, importers and suppliers have additional requirements. See the Code of practice for managing hazardous chemicals in the workplace.

Psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards at work are aspects of work and situations that may cause physical and psychological harm to workers. You must manage psychosocial hazards using the hierarchy of controls (see Managing Risk).

Psychosocial Hazards include:

Bullying

• Repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers.
• Can be between workers or by clients, patients, visitors or others in the workplace.

Harassment, including sexual harassment

• Single or repeated incidents of harassment about a person’s race, religion, gender, age, disability.
• Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.

High workloads

Some examples are:

• Too much to do in a set time or with insufficient resources.
• Unachievable task deadlines.
• Unpredictable shifts or rosters that do not allow adequate time for workers to recover (fatigue).
• Tasks that require workers to continually show false displays of emotion, e.g. customer service roles.

Poor workplace relationships

Some examples are:

• Frequent disagreements about how work should be done.
• Frequent interpersonal conflict.
• Harmful workplace behaviours.

Workplace violence

• Any type of violence or aggression that happens in the workplace.
• By co-workers, clients, patients, visitors or others in the workplace.

Remote or isolated work

• Where there is limited access to other people, reliable communication or technology to get support, if required.
• Working alone or in other peoples’ homes if accessing help is difficult.

Developing and implementing control measures

A psychosocial risk is a risk to the health and safety of a worker or other person arising from a psychosocial hazard. You must manage psychosocial risks in the same way you would manage a physical risk. This means talking to your workers to identify what the psychosocial hazards are and developing control measures to reduce the risk, such as:

• Focusing on building good working relationships in the workplace by talking regularly to your workers.
• Having an open-door policy and genuine conversations about psychosocial hazards in your workplace.
• Developing and implementing a bullying and harassment policy or code of conduct for your business.
• Looking at how the work is done, e.g. Reviewing delivery timeframes, rather than expecting workers to work overtime to meet deadlines.
• Matching workers to jobs based on their skills and abilities.
• Clarifying roles, responsibilities and expectations.
• Involving workers in decision making and providing feedback.
• Encouraging workers to report all health and safety concerns and respond quickly to those reports.
• If needed, connecting workers with available mental health services.

Emergency Plans

You must have a plan for responding to emergency situations and plan your response for each. An emergency may be a fire, explosion, gas leak, chemical spill, medical emergency, natural disaster, bomb threat or violence.

Your emergency plan depends on the:

• type of work you do
• workplace safety issues
• size of your workplace
• location of your workplace
• number of workers.

Your plan should include:

• Information on how to use alarms and alert staff and other people of an emergency.
• Contact details and responsibilities of first aid officers, fire wardens, traffic controllers and the like.
• A floor plan, showing the location of emergency exits and routes to safely exit the location, utilities, fire extinguishers and first aid supplies.
• Emergency contact details of all workers (including out of hours).
• Actions for those with special needs.
• Information on how to use and maintain emergency equipment, such as spill kits, fire extinguishers, gas monitors, smoke detectors and sprinklers.
• Information on when to review your plan.
• Frequency of emergency procedure test - e.g. fire drills at least every 12 months.

First aid

You must give workers access to first aid equipment and facilities. Keep first aid kits close to areas where there is a higher risk of injury or illness, such as the kitchen, warehouse and inside all work vehicles.

Additional first aid requirements vary depending on the nature of the work, type of hazards, workplace size and location, as well as the number of workers. To identify your requirements, see the Code of practice for first aid in the workplace.