Research

Harm index: Heat maps of work-related injuries

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's (WHSQ) harm index and associated heat maps can be used when developing educational, advisory, intervention and leadership programs that are aimed at reducing the incidence of workplace health and safety deaths, injury and illness.

For more information, email Data and Evaluation Services on oirdata@oir.qld.gov.au

Methodology

The harm index combines workers' compensation claim numbers and costs of workplace incidents to produce a visual representation, broken down by industry or occupation, of the relative harm workers are likely to sustain during their working lives.

The harm index is a ratio of total statutory costs (an indicator of severity) to the exposure (i.e. all persons employed) within a given cohort to give an assessment of risk.

Initially, the harm index was produced at the two digit ANZSIC level for the 2011 planning cycle.

All business industry heat maps

The heat maps produced in 2018 compare the index of each industry sector at the three digit ANZSIC level across two Census years, 2011 and 2016.

The industry heat map provides a visual representation of relative risk by industry to give an indication of the relative risk to workers across industry sectors.