OHSE611 - Improving OHSE Performance

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

OHSE601 Principles of OHSE Management AND OHSE602 Occupational Health Safety and Environmental Management Systems

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

Improving OHSE performance is one of the core aims for OHSE practitioners as doing so reduces the risk or likelihood of harm to workers and others, including organisations and communities, both nationally and globally. This unit will help students understand practical OHSE data characteristics, applications and limitations. It will also assist students to interpret and make recommendations from third party research and reports. Students will develop skills in influencing decision makers through the persuasive interpretation of empirically grounded data, such as leading and lagging indicators of OHSE performance, and alignment with organisational culture and values and understand ethical practice for OHSEM. The unit also provides students with the opportunity to develop a business case for an OHSE intervention evaluating the time-line for financial return as well as appraising the non-financial benefits for organisations and workers. Students will be exploring the relational paradigms in gaining the best outcomes from their own auditing and audit teams; as well as effectively communicating results and recommendations to boards and key decision makers. Finally, students will have the opportunity to explore, and use, emerging global reporting frameworks which provide a platform to demonstrate corporate social responsibility as a form of best practice in OHSEM. The aim of this unit is to provide students with the necessary knowledge, acumen and skill to not only make valid interpretations of technical data but to value add by its successful translation into influencing business stakeholders' responsible and ethical decision-making through recognising their responsibility to workers' rights and dignity, the environment and society.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Apply and appraise contemporary measures of OHSE performance including OHS leading and lagging indicators, in order to influence business stakeholders’ responsible and ethical decision making (GA3, GA5) 

LO2 - Critically compare and apply techniques used to improve OHSE performance including constructing a business case to improve OHSE performance to meet national and international obligations and standards; (GA5, GA6)

LO3 - Critically appraise the steps and processes in OHSE auditing and relate these to other organizational systems to maximize improvements in OHSE performance, through demonstrating values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession; (GA4, GA5)  

LO4 - Communicate effectively with business stakeholders and key decision makers, from senior leaders to employees and external stakeholders, to measure, report findings, and improve OHSE performance (GA5, GA9). 

Graduate attributes

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics include:

• Introduction to OHSE Performance and the common good 
• Application of OHSE Performance Measures – their derivation and use  
• Critical Review of OHSE Performance Measures  
• Strategic Planning and Business Case for OHSE  
• Communicating OHSE with Senior Management and Boards of Management  
• Communicating for Influence with Employees – Psychology of Safety Behaviour  
• OHSE Performance and the Role of Audit  
• The Audit Process  
• OHSE Auditing  
• Interview Skills for OHSE Practitioners  
• Leading OHSE Teams  
• Ethical Issues for OHSE Practitioners  

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This Unit employs a learning and teaching strategy that combines active learning (engaging with online lecture videos, reading, writing and case studies to analyse, synthesise and problem solve) and peer learning methods (engaging with peers and the lecturer via online tools to collaborate, query and elaborate). Live online classrooms will be offered at regular intervals throughout the teaching period to allow students synchronous access to their lecturer and peers at defined times. Use of applied case studies and scenarios with reference to legislation and standards as well as national and international contexts are used to facilitate applied action learning. The provision of timely student feedback is also a key aspect of the learning and teaching strategy as this allows students to direct future learning behaviours and performance in a meaningful way. The online learning environment can be challenging in terms of encouraging student interaction and participation, and the unit’s teaching methods have been chosen because they are most likely to support the achievement of learning outcomes and participation by a geographically diverse cohort of students.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

Three assessment items are required in this Unit. The first assessment is participation in a guided discussion which requires engagement in discussions on topical issues related to Improving OHSE Performance. The task requires students to respond to the questions/activities and respond to other students through online discussion. The second assessment task is a business report which requires students to develop the business case for an OHS intervention and then to show through a cost -benefit analysis the financial and non-financial outcomes from the proposed intervention. The third assessment item requires the bringing together key learnings from the Unit into a sustainability report in the role of an OHSE manager. In this report students will need to make a case for any recommendations from the report in the context of ethical practice and the stated values of their organisation. 

To pass this unit, students are required to achieve an overall mark of at least 50% and must make an attempt at all three assessment items. The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome. 

Overview of assessments

Electronic submission, marking and return is being used for this unit. Submission will be via Turnitin and checking for academic honesty will occur.  

Representative texts and references

AIHS (Australian Institute of Health & Safety), 2019. Ethics and professional practice. In The Core Body of Knowledge for Generalist OHS Professionals. Tullamarine, VIC: Australian Institute of Health & Safety.

Almond, P. and Elbester, M. 2016. Chapter 8, The Changing Legitimacy of Health and Safety at work, 1960– 2015. Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Wigston, UK.  

Asbury, S. 2013. Chapters 2, 3, 5-7, Health, safety, environment and quality audits: a risk-based approach, (2nd ed.). Routledge, London.  

Borys, D. 2015. Do occupational safety and health professionals improve the occupational safety and health performance in an organisation? Journal of Health and Safety Research and Practice, 7(1), 2-13.  

Centre for Safety and Health Sustainability (CSHS), 2016. Best Practice Guide for Occupational Health and Safety in Sustainability Reports. Park Ridge, Illinois.  

Erikson, J. 2016. Interdisciplinarity: Increasing safety performance. Journal of Professional Safety, November 2016, 26-32.  

Janicak, M. 2015. Chapters 8-11, Safety Metrics: Tools and Techniques for Measuring Safety Performance, (3rd ed.). Bernan Press, Maryland.  

O’Niell, S. and Wolfe, K. 2017. Measuring and Reporting on Work Health and Safety. Safe Work Australia, Canberra.  

Shea, T. De Coero, H. Donohue, R. Cooper, B. and Sheeha, C. 2016. Leading indicators of occupational health and safety: An employee and workplace level validation study. Journal of Safety Science, 86, 293-304.