Konekt Safe Work Month Expo

Date: Monday 16 October

Venue: Konekt Office Canberra - Suite 42, 2 King St Deakin

Cost: Full day $175pp and half day $100 per person – both inclusive of lunch and the afternoon sessions will include light refreshments

Bookings and Payments: Book via Eventbrite or call +61 2 6129 5200 or email Ms Kaylene Harper.

Parking: Parking is available on Kent St at a cost of $7 per day

Time

Session Name and Synopsis

9:30 – 10:00

Registrations

10:00 -12:30

GUEST SPEAKER

Workplace Mental Health – Understanding Your Psychosocial Climate and Systems Based Approaches to Developing a Psychologically Safe and Healthy Workplace – Dave Burroughs, CEO and Principal Psychologist, CommuniCorp

Terms like Workplace Mental Health, Mentally Healthy Workplaces, Psychosocial Risk, and Psychological Health and Safety have increasingly gained prominence in the international corporate lexicon. Globally, there has been a surge in interest in how the workplace can influence psychological health and the psychosocial factors that need to be addressed to not only mitigate stress and the risk of work-related psychological injury, but to manage and support good mental health.

The costs and impact of mental –ill health in the workplace have been well quantified, and there has been somewhat of an evolution in how corporate workplaces are tackling this complex issue. Regrettably, despite the huge interest in this domain, most strategic approaches to workplace mental health are destined to fail - many initiatives, despite their best intentions, confuse mental health with mental illness, are inadvertently designed to perpetuate injury and illness, and may even lead to a decline in over workplace wellbeing.

Looking at lessons learned and international best practice, this seminar will cover contemporary trends in workplace mental health, debunk many of the myths around workplace mental health and demonstrate the critical importance of moving beyond low-impact community, diagnosis and symptom reduction reliant approaches to more systemic and quantifiable efforts.

This candid, informal, interactive and practical seminar will cover the:

• The practicalities of Psychologically Safe and Healthy Workplaces (PS&HW)
• Psychosocial Climate, what is it and how do I measure it
• Developing a Workplace Mental Health Strategy - why most are destined to failed
• Undertaking a Gap Analysis - System, policy, procedural and people considerations
• Leadership and other key roles and responsibilities
• Determining program effectiveness - what, how and when to measure and what to expect

12:30 -1:00

Lunch

1:00 -1:45

What went wrong? Investigating workplace incidents - Lachlan Abrahams

When a workplace incident or accident occurs, it is often easy to say it that the worker was at fault, but there are usually a number of factors involved. So what did go wrong and how do you avoid the same thing happening again? Conducting a structured investigation to find the cause and to avoid it happening again (not to apportion blame) is not only a legislative requirement, but is also key to establishing all the factors involved in the incident and determining appropriate action/s to prevent a recurrence. This short session offers an introduction to incident investigation, highlighting the key elements and outcomes.

“A health & safety problem can be described by statistics but cannot be understood by statistics”

1:45 -2:30

Surviving an Audit: Common areas to improve - Sandra Fisher

The letter (or email) has arrived from Comcare – “we’re very pleased to inform you that your organisation has been included in Comcare’s upcoming Audit program as part of which, your organisation’s WHS and/or RMS systems will be audited”. While this might strike fear into the hearts of many, it is a great opportunity to pause and review your systems prior to the audit, either using internal resources, or external eyes or a combination of both. Either way, knowing how to prepare thoroughly for the audit and some of the common gaps identified will have you well prepared by the time Comcare arrive. This short session provides some hints and strategies for looking at your current system and getting things ready.

2:30 – 3:15

Light Refreshment

Why don’t they get it? Adult autism spectrum behaviours at work – Kristy Zimmer

Working with someone on the autism spectrum can be an enriching experience for managers and co-workers alike, but it may also present some challenges.

Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates, relates to other people and how they experience the world around them.

In the session you will increase your understanding of Autism, its impact on someone in the workplace and how to avoid or overcome any difficulties in order to ensure you optimise strengths and encourage effective working relationships.

3:15 – 4:00

Getting the work done and return to work after injury: Supporting managers – Suzanne Schultz

As managers and leaders in any workplace we have increasing pressures to meet key performance indicators and productivity targets. This especially applies as data accuracy and data dashboards provide us with information about our performance and the performance of our teams.

We know that early return to work is almost always the best way to recover from an injury and improve life outcomes for workers. We also know that workplace culture, manager capability and communication techniques play a vital role in the success of this intervention and protecting the employer from complex and protracted HR matters and possible industrial disputes.

This session will cover :

• ways to support managers in the tension between productivity and supporting early return to work for individual workers
• building and creating a culture which encourages trust, transparency and reporting of injuries/ or risk of injury before employment, after a non-workplace injury or after a workplace injury
• ways to avoid a performance management process becoming a work injury claim