ASSESSMENT: BSBWHS401A - Implement and monitor WHS policies, procedures and

programs to meet legislative requirements

SECTION 1: PROVIDE INFORMATION TO THE WORK TEAM ABOUT WHS POLICIES AND
PROCEDURES.
Information relating to these activities can be found in section 1 part 1 – Learning support materials.

Assessment 1
Activity 1: Accurately explain to the work team relevant provisions of WHS Acts,
regulations and codes of practice.

1. The impact of a workplace injury is wide reaching. Explain.

Yes. According to WHS acts there are four types of hazards, accident and disease (physical and
physiological), and low work life quality and stress (socio-psychological). And, for all the listed hazards
the impact are wide reaching to the work life of the employee and personal life.

The impacts will be for the physical and physiological: high compensation costs, medical claims, lost
productivity time and poor productivity affecting mostly the working environment, and for the socio-
psychological: inefficiency/ineffectiveness, high work dissatisfaction and low job involvement, affecting
personal working environment and personal life, in this cases of hazards the consequences can deal with
depression.

2. How is the integrity (validity) of information ensured?

The integrity of the information is ensured based on the legislation of health and safety under the PCBU
(person conducting a business or undertaking) these individuals are described as officers and they will be
the ones to take steps and support the health and safety culture, accountability and the allocation of
resources and policies.

3. List three sources of health and safety information that are relevant for your state/ territory.

For the State of WA, the department will be the WorkSafe WA. And, also to find more relevant
information about the health and safety the sources will be Fair Work Australia, The Dust Diseases Board
and The Workers Compensation Resolution Service.

4. Scenario: In every workplace there will be relevant provisions of WHS Acts, regulations and
codes of practice that apply. You are a team supervisor and it is your role to ensure that work
teams are aware of these. The teams you supervise comprise relatively new workers who did
not receive adequate induction and need to be brought up to date. How will you do this?

There are different ways of approaching new workers, they are new workers because they never worked
before in a specific industry, in the specific duty, or just never had experience in any work environment
before. Based on that, to make sure as team leader you are going to provide them the specific training
and information related to the work duties, responsibilities and working policies, it is possible to use
from as a Formal and Internal Source: providing to them policies and procedures of the company (printed
documents, that they can sign assuring they read and understood) and providing to them specific
training. As an External source: will be providing to them instruction manuals, hazardous material
reports and training workshops.

Activity 2
1. Why is it important that all workers have access to health and safety information?

It is important to ensure the integrity of the information, first of all. The information needs to be
reliable, be valid, for that the upper management might use of a variety of sources to find out the
reliability of the information, comparing, correlating and matching information help determinate
consistency of information.

It is important that the workers have access to health and safety information in order to properly support
healthy and safety procedures in the workplace. Officers and need to know where to source healthy and
safety information – both internal (policies, records and procedures) and external (legislations and
requirements).

2. If a worker had made suggestions for improvement regarding the design, development and
management of health and safety in a company in which they worked, how could they go about
having them ratified and implemented by senior management?

To be able to be implemented the suggestions need to be correlated with the external information:
regulations, legislations, requirements in each state and territory. These legislative bodies can inform
enquiries of the legislation pertinent to their state/territory and industry, and of their applications.

After the suggestions checked with the legislative bodies for their validity, integrity and legality the
upper management can establish the new procedures, or, either new policies, but maintaining work and
safety in any work environment depends largely in the workers themselves.

So, plan effectively it is important and place the best techniques for training and motivating staff to
work safely into practice.

Workers who believe that their work environment is safe and secure and that their organisation cares
sufficiently about their welfare to implement those policies,and ensure compliance, will work more
efficiently and effectively.

3. Before submitting these strategies to senior management for approval, should the worker consult with
the members of their team/ department to get their input? Why/ why not?
Yes, they should consult with their managers, team leader and/or supervisors about their input because they
are the responsible in their operations management capacity for efficiency and productivity. These
professionals oversee the processes which contribute to achievement of organisational goals. Productivity
(meeting target and goals) is measured in terms of input to outputs cost ratios. Productivity and profitability
of an organisation relate to quality of products, increased performance and reduced resource costs (mistakes,
wast and rework).

Resuming, health and safety policies, processes and procedures directly contribute to reduced organisational
costs and to productivity improvements. Workers who believe that their work environment is safe and secure
and their organisation cares sufficiently about their welfare to implement new policies, and ensure
compliance, will work more efficiently and effectively.

Activity 3: Regularly provide and clearly explain to the work team, information about
identified hazards and the outcomes of risk assessment and control

1. Where might information about hazards and the outcomes of risk assessment and control result
from?

They might come from the Health and Safety programs.

Senior Management  Health and Safety representatives committee  Reporting/ recording systems
Audits

2. List five ways that a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) can provide clear
explanations to work teams about identified hazards and the outcomes of risk assessment and
control.

 Advertising to workers that officers and the company place a high value in work safety
 Providing workers with detailed information regarding to company procedures and other safety
requirements related to the work they do
 Promoting team spirit and the notion that safety is a really a team effort
 Providing a forum for workers to ask specific questions
 Creating opportunities to generate feedback from those who know what it is like to work with
existing safety policies

SECTION 2: IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR PARTICIPATION ARRANGEMENTS FOR

MANAGING WHS

Information relating to these activities can be found in Section 2, Part 1 – Learning support
materials.
Activity 4: Communicate to workplace parties the importance of effective
consultation mechanisms in managing health and safety risks in the workplace.

1. What types of changes in the workplace would benefit from consultation between PCBUs and
workers (or their representatives)?

 Improve operations (effectiveness and efficiency)

 Build, maintain and improve effective, trust based, reliable workplace relationships
 Encourage mutual respect between workers and managers
 Reduce stress levels for both management and workers
 Improve job satisfactions levels

Activity 5: Apply consultation procedures to facilitate participation of the work team

in the management of work area hazards.

Explain the role of the Health and Safety Representative (HSR) in each of these consultation procedures:

1. Attendance at team meetings

Interaction between representative and presenter need to be encouraged by asking questions and answers,
these will demonstrate their ongoing commitment with safety and communication processes.

2. Early response to work suggestions, requests, reports and concerns put forward to management.

When improvements in attitude and work practice are noticed, they should be acknowledge.

Recognition and reward for this kind of behavior acknowledges the worker’s contribution to workplace safety
and acts to encourage further improvement. Showing the team that actions have been noticed promotes team
spirit and boost morale.

3. Requirements as specified in Commonwealth and state/ territory legislation, regulations and codes of
practice.

With new work inductions programs including health and information relevant to the new worker’s job
specification. As a result of effective induction workers will be aware of the expectations placed upon
themselves and other workers.
Activity 6: Promptly deal with issues raised through consultation, according to
organisational consultation procedures and WHS legislative and regulatory requirements.

1. What strategies can PCBUs use to consult with workers on health and safety issues?
The PCBUs can use a number of different strategies to consult with workers on health and safety
issues. One of the most common way is though the health and safety committees (HSC), holding
regular meetings. During this meeting documentation of the exchanged information is recorded under
the form of an agenda and a minutes. These allow the recording of the meeting outcomes and can
then be passed on to the working team.

2. Health and safety issues raised through consultation should be dealt with promptly. Why is this?
Upload your answer for assessment.
Health and safety issues come under the heading of industrial issues. Issues raised through
consultation should be dealt with promptly in order to avoid having to resolve a grievance or dispute
under the jurisdiction of quasi-judicial bodies and tribunals which’s function is to conciliate or
arbitrate the given matters.

Activity 7: Promptly record and communicate to the work team, the outcomes of
consultation over WHS issues.

1. Create a meeting agenda template suitable for a HSC. Upload your template for assessment.

Company XY

Location: 1140 Albany Hwy, Bentley, Perth/WA

Date of meeting: 11/04/2014

Time of meeting: Starting at 9.00 am till 12.30 pm

Agenda:

1. Introduction of visitors and others where necessary

2. Apologies

3. Attendance
4. Confirmation of minutes from previous meeting
5. Matters arising from minutes

6. Safety Officer/s Report

 Risk management
 Workplace Safety Inspections (actions arising)
 Hazard & Incident reports (Corrective/Preventative Action review)
  Staff & Student Induction
 Occupational Health and Wellbeing
7. Specialty Officer/s report including incidents and other statistics

8. Health & Safety representative/s report

9. Plan Review

10. New or other business

11. Next Meeting Dates

2. Create a meeting minute template suitable for a HSC. Upload your template for assessment.

1. Time, venue and date of meeting

2. Attendance
3. Items discussed (reports, problems, statistics)

4. Reason for recommendation (and counter arguments voiced)

5. Recommendations: specifying actions needed by when and by whom?

6. Next meeting time and date

7. Signature of chairperson

SECTION 3: IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR ORGANISATIONAL PROCEDURES FOR PROVIDING

WHS TRAINING.
Information relating to these activities can be found in Section 3, Part 1 – Learning support materials.

Activity 8: Identify WHS training needs according to organisational requirements, and WHS
legislative and regulatory requirements.

1. What is a training needs analysis (TNA) and how can it be conducted

It is the formal process for determining training needs, that is, the gap between the required skill and
knowledge level of workers to enable them to perform their tasks and the current skill and knowledge
level of worker.

2. What tools can be used to identify the skills a worker needs?

- Direct observation
 - Question the worker about work tasks
- Feedback from supervisors
- Formal assessment
- Examine existing assessment reports
- Examine employment records
- Formal interview

3. What are the steps in developing a training program?

- Analyse the survey resluts
- Create a worker training profile
- Develop a training development plan to all employees
- Implement the training
- Evaluate the training effectiveness

Activity 9: Make arrangements to meet WHS training needs of team members in

consultation with relevant individuals.

Your team is concerned that they have insufficient knowledge/ understanding of safety procedures and
legislative requirements in your workplace. They also feel that the incidence of accidents in your section is
higher than it should be. They have asked you to submit, to senior management, a proposal for a formal health
and safety training program.

1. What information would you include in the proposal and how would you encourage senior
management to support this initiative? What procedures would you follow in gathering data and
information to support your proposal? How likely is it that this or a similar proposal would be
accepted in your workplace?
The information included in the proposal should include what the training program might cover, (e.g.:
health and safety responsibilities and roles, hazard and risk identification and reporting procedures
and so on. The senior supervisor should be presented with the team concerns and reports of increased
incidence of accidents in given section. Proposal should be supported with statistical analysis of
incidence reports and team TNA evaluation such as formal assessment, or consultation between
managers, supervisors, HSCs, HSRs and workers. Also the senior management should be made aware
of their legislative and regulatory requirements. It is very likely that this or a similar proposal would
be accepted in the workplace as team feedback underlines an apparent need for it.

2. What critical information must be contained in a new worker induction program?

- Specific job task training to ensure that workers have the skills and knowledge they need to
complete tasks in a competent and safe manner
- Health and safety training

3. Why is only providing induction training and no follow-on training unsatisfactory?

 Because workers need skill, personal and professional development programs to stay up to date with
WHS, and to allow the development of new and transferrable skill and knowledge (e.g.: new work or
promotions areas).

Activity 10: Provide workplace learning opportunities, and coaching and mentoring
assistance to facilitate team and individual achievement of identified WHS training needs.

1. What are the benefits of evaluating training to both workers and the organisation?
Itwill help determining the appropriateness and effectiveness of: the training objectives, the content
of the training, the learning of participant, the trainer’s skills.

2. When evaluating health and safety training, how can you determine the appropriateness and
effectiveness of the training?
Compare and map against past performance in given areas, allowing reasonably accurate evaluation.

3. What should be evaluated in relation to a health and safety training program?

- Demonstrated safe work practice
- Demonstrated understanding of the reasons behind safety procedure
- Reductions in the number of workplace accidents and incidents
- High levels of worker satisfaction
- Increased perceptions of PCBU credibility
- Reduced attrition and absenteeism percentages, as they relate to health and safety issues and
concerns

Activity 11: Identify and report to management, the costs associated with providing
training for work team, for inclusion in financial and management plans.

Your organisation has identified an increase in injuries to workers who use the new plant. You are
responsible for training in the area where the injuries occur. Your rate (for the exercise) is $360 per day.
A training needs analysis concludes a training program will reduce the injury rate.

Consider:

o the training needs analysis will take two days, including reporting to management

o it will take you five days to develop the training program

o you can get a good training video at a cost of $375

o you will need to hire a TV/ video for each session, cost $120

o handouts will cost $12 per participant

o management wants you to conduct the training at a venue that costs $195 per day

o catering is available, $25 per participant per day

 o you will deliver the training

o lost production is costed at $320 per day per participant

You will train 20 workers in five groups. Each course runs for one day. Administrative support
works out at $28 per participant.

Calculate a cost for training. Upload your answer for assessment.360*5

Training Cost

Trainer Cost (12 days) $4.320

Training video (1) $375

TV/ video (hire for 5 days) $600

Handouts (20 workers) $240

Venue (5 days) $975

Catering (20 workers) $500

Lost production (20 workers) $6.400

Administrative support $560

Total: $13.970,00

SECTION 4: IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR ORGANISATIONAL PROCEDURES AND LEGAL

REQUIREMENTS FOR IDENTIFYING HAZARDS AND ASSESSING AND CONTROLLING
RISKS

Information relating to these activities can be found in Section 4, Part 1 – Learning support
materials.

Activity 12: Identify and report on hazards in work area according to WHS policies and
procedures, and WHS legislative and regulatory requirements.

1. What is the difference between a risk and a hazard?

A hazard is any source that has the potential to harm life, health, property or the environment.

A risk is the chance of something harmful occurring, the likelihood that harm will occur as a result of hazard.
 2. Create a checklist for a manager/ supervisor to assist them with the identification of hazards. Upload
your checklist for assessment.

 Conduct regular, well-organised, documented and recorded safety inspections of work areas and work
practices;
 Objectively and regularly analyse and evaluate procedures and systems of work
 Investigate all accidents, injuries, incidents and near miss events immediately after the event (in
order to keep accurate records)
 Inspect all new items purchased and installed to determine potential hazards
 Implement waste disposal and recycling procedures which will ensure both worker and environmental
safety
 Ensure that purchase orders contain specifications with regard to health and safety considerations for
new plant and equipment
 Ensure workers understand correct and safe working and operating practices
 Respond promptly to concerns or enquiries made by workers – acting on, and providing prompt
feedback regarding issues raised, will encourage workers to report hazards and become more safety
conscious
 Conduct or organise regular health and safety training, coaching or mentoring for workers
 Encourage workers to list and report hazards of which they are aware – hazard identification and
reporting is everyone’s responsibility
 Consult personally with workers to discuss any problems they have in their work area
 Ensure that worker job descriptions and KPIs state health and safety responsibilities with regard to
job requirements

Activity 13: Promptly action team member hazard reports according to organisational
procedures and WHS legislative and regulatory requirements.

1. Why should organisations have comprehensive risk assessment procedures?

Because accurate recordkeeping is essential. The records will become part of the periodic risk assessment
system, providing valuable information for comparisons, decision-making, verification of past actions and for
demonstrating legislative compliance.

2. A hazard has been assessed as being unlikely, but would have major consequences. Using the risk
assessment matrix, identify the risk and what it means to the organisation.

The risk is High – indicates unacceptable level of risk. Controls and measures must be developed and
implemented in the short to medium term.

Being unlikely means the rate potential severity is 10 to 25%, this will be:

 Exposure of one or more person, two to three times per month

  Exposure to hazard less than 25% of the time the task is operational
 Exposure for less than one hour per shift

But the risk is major, so if it happens the company might offer some benefits to the employee, they will be:

 Medical treatment that results in hospitalisation

 More than five days off work
 Loss of limb or bodily function (includes noise induced hearing loss and chronic industrial dermatitis
etc)
 Loss of a half day’s production or vital plant/equipment etc
 Between $500.000 and $1.000.000 damage
 Compensation requirement
 Potential for the above is high in a near miss situation

3. What are the factors that impact upon the severity of an incident?

There are two dimension of the factors that can impact at the severity of the incident, one is inside (internal)
the company environment and the other one is the environmental impacts (external).

Internal:

 The number of people who might be affected in one incident

 Special characteristics of the person/people involved
 Concentrations of chemicals
 Volumes of materials
 Speed of projectiles and moving parts
 Heights and distances
 Weights
 Forces and energy values

External:

 The size of the environmental release

 The affected medium – land, air or water
 Concentration of materials
 Containment
 Degree of difficulty with the clean-up
 The number of people affected (both company personnel and external persons/stakeholders
 Degree of permanent damage or lasting effects

Activity 14: Implement procedures to control risks using the hierarchy of control according
to organisational and WHS legislative requirements.

1. Give an example of each of the five strategies for managing hazards.

 a. Elimination

Design processes factor in controls and specifications to eliminate hazards (example: noise or vibration
control, enclosed machinery.

b. Substitution.

Sandstone grinding wheels containing silica (silicosis risk) have been largely replaced by wheels made from an
inert, less harmful, artificial abrasive called aluminium oxide.

c. Engineering

Equipment, work processes, tasks, machinery can be redesigned to reduce or eliminate worker risk
(mechanical lifting devices versus manual handling risks).

d. Administration.

Shared jobs or reduced time attending to a particular activity can limit the risk of exposure to hazards -
chemicals, difficult processes, isolation, sunlight, repetitive strain and etc.

e. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

PPE in use at a workplace indicate the need to revisit risk management on a programmed basis. If exposure
cannot be prevented or reduced by ways other than the use of PPE, the PCBU must ensure that persons who
may be exposed are supplied with and properly instructed in PPE use.

2. How often should risk assessments be conducted?

Once a control has been implemented, another hazard identification should be conducted to make sure the
control is effective or its introduction has not caused a new hazard. If a hazard is found, a fresh risk
assessment should be made and control measures implemented.

If a hazard is not eliminated, the risk merely reduced, the hazard should be included in the hazard register
and subject to a regular review.

Activity 15: Identify and report inadequacies in existing risk controls according to the
hierarchy of control and WGS legislative requirements and monitor outcomes of reports on
inadequacies, where appropriate, to ensure a prompt organisational response.

You are the safety supervisor at a commercial construction company. The company employs 12 administration
personnel, 18 construction personnel and 60 construction subcontractors.
The workers who work on-site face a changing work site each day and are often working with people from
other companies. Three months ago you were alarmed at the number of back injuries being reported and
introduced new procedures that were aimed at ensuring heavy items were lifted in accordance with the
legislative requirements of your state/ territory and work requiring bending for long periods was minimised.
You provided a toolbox meeting to inform the workers of the new procedures and techniques. You now need to
evaluate this strategy to determine whether it has met your aim of reducing back injuries.
 Data Reason Data Source

Company back injury Core data. Injury reports.

rates

Company near miss for Leading indicator for actual back Near miss reports.
back injury rates injuries. Anecdotal conversations
with key workers.

Company overall injury Determine whether there are Injury reports.

rates + causes other reasons for a change in
rate.

Company near misses Leading indicator for other Near miss reports.
injuries. Anecdotal conversations
with key workers.

Industry benchmarks Establish a norm for Employer association.

on performance. State jurisdiction
back injury rates

Using the information provided above, develop a procedure for systems evaluation that covers:

o inclusion of external data in the evaluation process

o external input into the evaluation process, e.g. stakeholders

o how identified areas for improvement will be documented and actioned

o how top management will be involved in the review process

The evaluation procedure will need to include external data:

 safety committees, suggestions, recognizing/rewarding

The external input into the evaluation process will be held by:

 engineering, management, PPE, interim measures, maintenance

The identifications for improvements will be documented beyond:

 inspections, observation, surveys, interviews

The Top management will be involved in three different ways:

1. leading, following, managing, planning, funding

2. Providing: orientation, instruction, training, personal experience
3. judging effectiveness of conditions, behaviours, systems, results
SECTION 5: IMPLEMENT AND MONITOR ORGANISATIONAL PROCEDURES FOR
MAINTAINING WHS RECORDS FOR THE TEAM

Information relating to these activities can be found I Section 5, Part 1 – Learning support materials.

Activity 16: Accurately complete and maintain WHS records of incidents of occupational
injury and disease in work area, according to WHS policies. Procedures and legislative
requirements.

1. Why is it important to keep health and safety records?

Because the records will be available to support improvement initiatives, design and develop new policies and
procedures, and act as proof that the organisation is upholding its responsibilities to workers and legislation. It
also need to be available in the case of worker’s compensation claim or as evidence in a litigious action. In this
way, health and safety is integrated into organisational systems.

2. Name three health and safety records that must be kept by every organisation.

1. Incident records
2. The first aid register
3. The register of all injuries

3. If you were the health and safety representative of a company, how could you ensure that the
workers you represent are aware of the recordkeeping requirements?

Beyond manuals, guides, handbooks or instructional lists, accident report forms, and complaint/grievance
procedure forms. These documents need to be registered in some way (electronically, or, hand-writing) to
make sure the documents were filled in, named and stored in non-restricted folders, or network locations.

Activity 17: Use aggregate information and data from work area records to identify
hazards and monitor risk control procedures in work area.

1. Based on the workplace experience of eight lost time injuries for the year, and using the
information provided in the examples 1, 2 and 3, calculate the following:

a. Frequency rate.

b. Incidence rate.

c. Average lost time/ severity rate.

 Your Findings

Frequency rate 22.85

Incident rate 55.33

Average lost time / severity rate 12

2. You are required to present these statistics to your next senior executive weekly committee meeting.
Describe how you will present this information. Upload your answer for assessment, including any
graphs or tables that might be relevant.

The company employees 150 workers, the total of working hours a year is 350,000.

The total of lost time injuries for this year is 8 (injuries that have resulted in the loss of at least one entire
shift). These results in a total of 96 days off.

The frequency rate for that year is calculated as follows:

FR= Lost time injuries times 1,000,000 divided by the total number of hours worked.

That is:

FR= 8 X 1,000,000
350,000

The frequency rate is: 22.85

The incident rate for that year is calculated as follows:

IR= Lost time injuries times 1,000 divided by the number of wages earners.

That is:

IR=8 X 1,000
150

The incident rate is: 55.33

The severity rate for that year is calculated as follows:

SR= Number of working days lost divided by the number of occurrences in the period.

That is:

SR=96
 8

The severity rate is: 12