Systems thinking for a bigger picture healthy and safe workplace

Workplace injuries and occupational and chronic diseases rarely have a single cause—many factors within the workplace and outside it can contribute.

Systems thinking recognises the complex interrelationship of the factors that can contribute to an injury or illness and impact the health, safety and wellbeing of your workers.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has published new films about systems thinking relating to manual tasks and health and wellbeing.

Raising awareness of these matters helps to find the real causes of the risks so you can design your work and work environment to prevent harm and create positive, sustainable change that benefits your business.

This can create a real shift in the way some of your workplace hazards are managed—instead of relying on one-off approaches, using a range of strategies that address all sources of the risks. These include workplace and task redesign, consideration of work-related psychological health risks, and how any potential changes might impact other work areas or your supply chain.

For example, managing the risks of sedentary work by telling workers to take regular breaks ignores other factors such as work demands, scheduling, adequate staffing, along with physical design and layout such as adjustable height desks.

Further information

Watch our systems thinking for health safety and wellbeing short films.