Lead the way

This year’s State of a Thriving Nation 2025 report highlights the ongoing need to prioritise workplace health and safety as a critical business strategy. However, similar recommendations have been made in previous years, reflecting a consistent message since the Pike River mining tragedy. 

Notably, the current call for businesses to "lead the way" echoes the guidance provided by the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety in 2013. Despite these repeated appeals, harm-related costs totalled $5.4 billion last year, underscoring the continued necessity for meaningful change in 2025.

Although workplace fatalities and injuries have declined since 2013, New Zealand workers are still 6.5 times more likely to die at work than their UK counterparts. Our safety record remains poor compared to other OECD countries and the promised reforms have not materialised. The initial consensus among political parties, businesses, and unions has faded, leaving us largely unchanged and waiting for another major incident.

Meanwhile, businesses blame the government for not providing enough guidance to clarify their responsibilities. Unions criticise businesses for not taking sufficient action and the government for being too lenient on enforcement. The government, in turn, points back at businesses, declaring that they need relief from a climate of fear. 

This blame game results in reduced capacity and capability to break the cycle of $5.4 billion in harm-related costs that we all, directly or indirectly, pay for each year.

It is an indisputable fact that while injury claims have declined, the time off per incident has doubled. This impacts workforce availability and increases ACC costs. The report also notes that 41% of workers have been in their roles for less than a year, which weakens safety culture and operational stability. As a result, national productivity suffers.

Advice to boards

So, what can directors do? Focus on your first line of defence. Our clients often seek third-party assurance safety reviews to assess their current state. They also want to know if they have the right capacity and capability in their second line of defence (health and safety and risk management expertise). Both are important, but not as crucial as investing in frontline operations. This is where the safety risk resides and where it can be best managed.

I recommend that directors and executives profile their safety risks and investment opportunities. Organisations need to invest in safety, like any other strategic initiative, but often don’t know how. At HSE Global, we apply the 5Ps of safety governance. This framework – People, Place, Plant (and equipment), Process, and Performance – helps identify and enable targeted investments in safety capacity and capability, driving productivity and reducing liability. Each time we work with a business, we identify investment gaps in the first line of defence that are often not visible to directors.

Once the targeted investment has been identified, directors should inquire about the ROI of any strategic safety investment. By applying the 5Ps, the organisation can shift its mindset from measuring the costs of harm to focusing on the presence of safety capacity. This approach will drive management to concentrate more on lead indicators such as the capacity to handle work variations, staff retention, safety leadership training and brand reputation.

I’m not optimistic about nationwide transformational change in the near future. History and the experience of other similar jurisdictions suggest that it will take another significant shock to the system for that to happen. 

However, individual actions by directors, their boards and organisations will continue to drive the incremental changes we have seen over the past 15 years. These efforts will gradually move us closer to the safe and productive economy we all aspire to achieve.