Articles
The goal of this blog is to provide useful information on every aspect of workplace health - from wellness and injury prevention through to rehabilitation and recovery at work.
Injured Workers Can Still Accrue Entitlements
OHS Alert reported earlier this month that a full Federal Court has confirmed that the Fair Work Act does not block injured NSW workers from accruing leave while they're receiving incapacity payments.
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Four Steps to a Successful Health and Wellbeing Program
Bupa recently released their 2015 Workplace health in Australia report which was based on a survey of 150 Australian employers on their work-health initiatives, and aims to provide a benchmark for other organisations.
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Mentally Healthy Workplace
Mental health awareness has become more prevalent within society and highly discussed in health forums. However, with all this focus around mental health, very little of the population understand or know how to help a person in a mental health crisis; especially within Australian workplaces. Recently, a Health Profile of Australian Employees was conducted identifying around 65% of employees indicated moderate to high stress levels, and 41% had psychological distress levels considered a risk to their health. Unfortunately, costing business $10.9 billion annually. The Australian Government has seen this as a concern to our economy due to lack of management within our workplaces and has since developed the Healthy Workplace Alliance.
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Actevate reduces risks for MSS Security
MSS Security is a leading security company offering a full suite of personnel security services across Australia. Actevate and MSS Security have been working together for some time completing the pre-employment health assessments for their employees nationally. For a business that relies on its people power, it is important that the business manages their people risk. Sara Lock the Human Resources and Industrial Relations Manager for NSW/ACT, says “the level of transparency we get at the recruitment stage for potential new employees is invaluable for us in helping our workers at work and for their general wellbeing”. MSS Security is known in the industry for their employees' long tenure, so they are doing something right! She goes onto to say that “the health screenings have helped identify health issues for existing and potential new employees that may have otherwise been undetected”. Men are not good at seeing their doctors for health screening and these assessments have revealed health issues such as diabetes or heart conditions “that we can then encourage them manage with their doctors”.
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Manual Handling Worth Barking About
Actevate and the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) joined forces recently when manual handling issues emerged with their staff. Lauren Paul, Clinical Nurse Educator, noticed that some staff were becoming complacent with safe handling at work; and with significant growth in staff at SASH, wanted to make sure all the new staff got off to a safe start.
Lauren says, “Staff were taking shortcuts without understanding the consequences of what poor manual handling could have on their body”. Lauren noticed increasing manual handling incidents emerging and needed to do something – and fast.
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