Connect with health and safety managers and coordinators
Safety professionals at UQ include:
- Health Safety Wellness (HSW) Managers
- Work Health and Safety Coordinators (WHSC).
If you are new to a safety role at UQ, complete an application via UQSafe R3 (Main menu > Report Something > Requests and Applications > Safety Role Appointment Form). This is required for you to be added to relevant HSW Systems (e.g. UQSafe, Archibus), MS Teams Sites and group email lists.
If you require UniFi commodity approver permissions for drugs and poisons or controlled chemicals, apply through Workday. Search for or select from the menu “Create request” and enter “Safety Role Appointments” as the request type.
Roles and responsibilities
HSW Managers and WHS Coordinators play an important role in minimising health and safety risks. These roles are appointed by management and may be a full-time position or additional duties added to an existing role. This decision is based on the risk profile of the organisational unit.
Key duties include:
- identifying and reporting health and safety risks
- reviewing and investigating reported incidents and hazards
- reviewing and assisting with the development of risk assessments
- conducting health and safety workplace inspections
- monitoring and reporting on health and safety performance
- educating and advising workers about work health and safety.
In organisational units where work activities present the potential for significant risk to the health and safety of UQ workers, the training and appointment of a HSW Manager should be considered.
The appointment of this role does not relinquish the responsibilities of Heads of Organisational Units, managers, supervisors or staff under the Act. These appointments are part of the HSW strategy to assist all parties in meeting their legislative responsibilities and due diligence obligations.
HSW Managers provide additional support and leadership on health and safety matters. They represent the relevant Faculty, Institute, controlled entity or Division when consulting with the HSW Division on UQ policies, procedure and guidelines.
There are ten main responsibilities and functions of HSW positions at UQ. For HSW managers, this includes:
- supporting UQ health, safety and wellness governance and consultative mechanisms
- developing, managing and maintaining UQ's HSW management system within their area
- facilitating risk management processes at UQ
- developing and delivering health, safety and wellness programs relevant to the area
- providing advice, information and services
- monitoring health, safety and wellness performance of the area
- developing health, safety and wellness capability
- incident investigation (reviewing incident reports, and supporting investigations and implementation of preventative measures)
- engagement with regulators and stakeholders as required
- workers’ compensation return to work assistance.
See the Health and Safety Responsibilities Procedure for more detail on fulfilling these responsibilities.
Many organisational units are supported locally by Work Health and Safety Coordinators (WHSCs).
Under the guidance and direction of a HSW Manager or the HSW Division, the WHSC advises the Head of the Organisational Unit, managers, supervisors and UQ workers about responsibilities and obligations under the Act and the overall state of HSW in the work unit.
The duties they provide include, but are not limited to:
- workplace inspections
- training and educating workers about work health and safety
- supporting the implementation of HSW management plans
- assisting in the development of risk assessments
- reviewing workplace hazards and incidents.
See the Health and Safety Responsibilities Procedure for more detail on fulfilling these responsibilities.
Monitoring Health and Safety Performance
HSW Strategic Plan
The UQ Health, Safety and Wellness Strategy (PDF, 4.8 MB) provides a framework for health and safety governance, and supports the core strategic aims of the University.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
A set of annual key performance indicators (KPIs) have been developed as the measures of success to translate our strategic vision into practical delivery. The heads of each organisational unit have responsibility for integrating the strategic priorities into their local operations and management plans, and for reporting on the associated KPIs annually to collectively deliver on the strategy.
HSW Management Plan
To support the heads of organisational units, HSW Managers and WHS Coordinators are required to develop an annual HSW Management Plan (DOCX, 113.78 KB) for their area of responsibility, to facilitate monitoring and reporting of KPI targets, which are embedded in the template. Annual HSW Management Plans are developed and approved at the first meeting of the relevant HSW Committee each year, and submitted to the committee quarterly to monitor performance throughout the year.
Annual performance reporting
At the end of each year, a summary of performance against the strategic KPIs is submitted to the HSW Division. This data is compiled into a University wide performance report, submitted to the Vice-Chancellors Risk and Compliance Committee as a key part of annual reporting.