Insights and Research

Doing Safety Differently

The ‘Doing Safety Differently’ documentary is one example of new view safety brought to life. Produced by Kym Bancroft with Professor Sidney Dekker, the documentary explores a different way of thinking about people, work and safety. It challenges traditional assumptions about why things go wrong, how organisations learn and what leaders can do differently to create safer work.

Case Studies

Published Research

The big idea:
Commissioned by BYDA, this report by New View Safety provides one of the most comprehensive examinations of utility strike risk in Australia. It highlights the scale of the challenge and identifies opportunities for industry, regulators and government to strengthen the national utility safety framework.

Available: Australias-Underground-Utility-Safety-Reckoning_BYDA_screen-preview.pdf

The big idea:
Worldwide, there are many approaches to health and safety laws, regulations, and organisational management approaches. In this groundbreaking research with the International Labour Organisation, Dr Tristan Casey reviews global health and safety regulations and develops practical tools to uplevel developing nations’ OSH capabilities.

Occupational safety and health professionals at the workplace level: a review of qualification systems and regulatory approaches in selected countries.
Available: https://researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/outputs/report/Occupational-safety-and-health-professionals-at/995264836202676

The big idea:
Often, we think of safety as being in tension with other important goals such as productivity. To improve safety, we must make it an unwavering priority. In a certain and controllable world, perhaps such a strategy would be viable, but in reality, resources are scarce and priorities shift. This industry-leading research that involved Dr Tristan Casey encourages us to shift from ‘either/or’ to ‘both/and’ thinking. In other words, from safety vs production to safety AND production.

Paradoxical safety leadership: Conceptualisation and measurement.
Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/job.2826

The big idea:
Compliance is often stated in terms of quantity: how much compliance do we have? What if we focused instead on the quality of compliance? Conducted during the pandemic, this international and widely-cited research involving Dr Tristan Casey explored the mechanisms through which organisations can foster ‘deep’ compliance.

Creating a safe haven during the crisis: How organisations can achieve deep compliance with COVID-19 safety measures in the hospitality industry.
Available: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7456279/pdf/main.pdf

The big idea:
Partnering with Safe Work Australia, Dr Tristan Casey led a multi-institutional team that explored the evolutionary basis of workplace stigma, and proposed a number of practical interventions that organisations can adopt to reduce stigma, improve psychological safety, and enhance employee wellbeing.

Sticky interventions for a sticky problem: A systematic review of recent workplace mental health stigma reduction interventions with implications for training transfer. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437525000039

The big idea:
Safety professionals routinely go beyond their job descriptions in service of harm reduction and organisational resilience. This research, led by Dr Tristan Casey, examined the ‘job crafting’ practices that safety professionals used during the pandemic and how these practices shaped their wellbeing and status/credibility within the organisation.

Crafting safety in the storm: An occupational health and safety professionals’ job crafting scale.
Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437525001124

Books

Lead Safety: A Practical Handbook for Frontline Supervisors and Safety Practitioners by Dr Tristan Casey and Professor Mark Griffin

LEAD Safety concentrates on self-development and education in safety leadership. It takes safety leadership in an exciting new direction, with practical tools that will give organisations the skills they need to make a difference in their safety program. The book provides a non-technical overview of safety leadership and outlines the core skills safety managers should demonstrate and practice. Organisations will see improvements in engagement, morale, trust, and motivation in the workplace. Readers will gain an appreciation of a new and evidence-based safety leadership model, as well as formulate a personalized action plan to improve safety in their workplace. Order here.