Health and Safety Improvement Performance Toolkit

26 May 2017

Message from Accident Compensation Corporation

Dear Southern Employers

Yesterday at the Safeguard Conference, the Minister for ACC and for Workplace Relations & Safety, the Hon Michael Woodhouse, announced the launch of the Health and Safety Performance Improvement Toolkit (previously known as Safety Star Rating).

What is the Toolkit?

The Health and Safety Performance Improvement toolkit shows what ‘good’ health and safety performance looks like in the workplace and checks how well a business is performing against a set of best practice requirements. This approach is behaviour based and it is expected that businesses to use the assessment process to reduce injuries and claim durations which will affect their Experience Rating modifier.

What will it look like?

All businesses are different so it’s important the toolkit caters to everyone’s needs. The Toolkit contains three separate products:

• Web resources and guidance
• An onsite assessment to obtain independent qualified assurance about health and safety performance and receive tailored advice and guidance on how to improve.
• An online self-assessment to identify gaps in health and safety performance and receive tailored advice and guidance on how to improve
• Customers can complete the online self-assessment for free which will help them identify gaps in their own health and safety systems and advice on how to improve.
• The onsite assessment requires a business to pay for an independent assessor who will review their health and safety practices. The business will receive tailored advice and guidance on how to improve their health and safety performance.

When will it be available?

Exact dates have not been confirmed but it is expected that the web resources and the onsite assessments will be available around September 2017. The online self-assessment will be available around mid-2018. (I will keep you updated as things progress.)

Is the tool a replacement for WSD and WSMP? Will businesses get star ratings?

No, it is not a replacement for WSD and WSMP and does not offer a financial incentive. Businesses will not get a star rating to show what level of health and safety they are at. A new name and visual identity will help avoid confusion over stars and ratings and help manage expectations. Options for the new name and visual identity are being worked on now.

Who developed the toolkit?

The toolkit was developed by WorkSafe New Zealand, ACC and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), following the results from the pilot findings in January 2017.

Any questions?

If you have any questions from an ACC perspective, please contact Hirata Harris. Please direct all other queries to the programme team at starrating@worksafe.govt.nz