Safety and Wellbeing Capability

Workplace Mental Health Is Shaped by How Work Is Designed

Workplace Mental Health Is Shaped by How Work Is Designed

The connection between structure and psychological safety

When people don’t know what is expected, when priorities shift without warning, and when mistakes are punished rather than addressed systemically, anxiety increases. Psychological safety cannot exist in chaotic environments. Clarity reduces stress more effectively than reassurance.

Why leaders influence mental health more than policies

Leaders shape workload, pace, and expectations through the systems they tolerate or design. When leaders operate reactively, pressure spreads. When leaders create predictability, stress reduces. This makes psychosocial risk a leadership issue, not just an HR one.

What effective psychosocial risk management includes

Effective mental health management addresses root causes. Clear role design. Reasonable workloads. Predictable processes. Supportive escalation pathways. Training that focuses on prevention, not just response. These elements reduce risk before it becomes injury.

Workplace Mental Health Is Shaped by How Work Is Designed

Many businesses approach mental health as a support issue. Conversations are encouraged. Resources are shared. Posters go up. These actions matter, but they often arrive after harm has already occurred. Mental health at work is not created in conversations. It is created in systems.

Why stress builds long before burnout appears

Workplace stress rarely comes from a single event. It accumulates through excessive workloads, unclear expectations, constant urgency, lack of control, and unpredictable change. These conditions quietly erode wellbeing over time. By the time symptoms appear, the damage is already done.

The problem with treating mental health as individual resilience

Many businesses focus on resilience training while ignoring the conditions causing harm. This places responsibility on individuals to cope with environments that are inherently stressful. Resilience matters, but it cannot compensate for poor design.

Why this is now a compliance issue

Psychosocial hazards are increasingly recognised within WHS obligations. Businesses are expected to identify, assess, and manage these risks proactively. Ignoring structure is no longer just bad practice. It is exposure. Organisations that design clear workforce structures create environments where expectations are understood, performance improves, and leadership pressure reduces.

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Category: Safety and Wellbeing Capability

Hospitality Industry has 2nd Highest number of Cyber breaches

The Hospitality industry is reported to have the second-highest number of Cybersecurity breaches[1]. How are they still being breached even with expensive technical point solutions?

Several reports indicate the hospitality industry is under attack, as are other sectors, and breaches are commonplace[2].  In 2017 Sabre Hospitality was a victim of a security breach which impacted its SynXis hotel reservation system which allowed unauthorised access to payment card information[3].

However, surely with advanced technology available today, you can mitigate the risk, right?  Well yes and no, technology is only part of the solution, often overlooked is the human factor. This can influence the attack vector to gain access and eventually compromise sensitive information within your organisation.

There are some excellent technical products in the market, and yet large corporates are still being breached even with these products being deployed, through no fault of the vendor providing the solution in the first place.

You cannot mitigate every Cyber risk in an organisation, and if anyone tells you, they can, then you should look elsewhere for advice.

So what can I do about it?

The solution should be tailored for your organisation as not one glove fits all!

Here are some, but not limited to, steps you might want to consider:

  • Conduct a Cyber Maturity Review to ascertain what areas may require further enhancements
  • Conduct a Cyber Risk Assessment to identify the critical assets you need to protect and how.
  • Train all staff in Cyber awareness, onboarding and refresher training can help and is cost-effective.
  • Train selected staff to attend professional Cyber training

So don’t just rely on a technical solution.

[1] PwC’s Hotels Outlook report 2018 to 2022

[2] Insights Study into Cyber threats in hospitality

[3] https://www.phocuswire.com/Sabre-updates-on-unauthorized-access-confirms-payment-details-hacked

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Category: Digital and Cyber Capability, Safety and Wellbeing Capability

Hackers are checking into hotel systems

It’s official, ‘hackers are checking into hotel Systems’, have you been Phished[1]?

Criminals are after your data so they can steal credentials and use them to get money, and this time it seems the gang associated with these attacks are the same as the ones who took USD 1Billlion from banks.

So how do they do it?

The first step is not hacking a computer but socially engineering[2] a person![3]

Step 1 – A phone call is received at a hotel reservation desk by a pretend hotel guest to discuss a problem confirming a reservation. They say they have a question, and can they help?

Step 2 – The caller says they have information about the reservation and would like an email to send to the reservation desk so the hotel can help them.

Step 3 – The caller sends an email to the reservation desk with an attachment.  The hotel opens the attachment, which has malicious software called ‘Malware’.  The malware is designed to find the sensitive information the caller wants and downloads more Malware tools to assist in its search.

Step 4 – The hotel system is now compromised and send all the information that the caller needed to them and the malware can stay on the system if they want to download future reservation information.

While this story was about a hotel chain, the same approach can be used for many businesses alike, and this is called a ‘Phishing Scam’.  There are different types of Phishing scams, depending on the intended victim.

Help me protect myself from a Phishing Scam!

All staff should be trained on how to spot a potential scam, for example, not posting information on social media such as vacation plans, phone numbers, your address.

[1] The fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

“an email that is likely a phishing scam”

[2](In the context of information security) the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes.

[3] https://whatismyipaddress.com/hacking-hotels

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Category: Digital and Cyber Capability, Safety and Wellbeing Capability

Could your business cope with a $650,000 fine?

Bradken Resources Limited was fined in the Melbourne County Court July 2019 after being found guilty by a Wangaratta County Court jury of failing to provide and maintain safe plant following a 10 day trial.

Although there had been no prior incidents of a casting falling back onto the windscreen of a skid steer loader, the court heard Bradken knew, or ought to have known, from previous similar incidents that this could happen.

The court was told it had been reasonably practicable for Bradken to reduce that risk by using alternative machinery, such as a rock excavator, that did not put its employees as close to the castings.

No matter the size of the business you MUST complete and document a Hazard & Risk Assessment.


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Category: Safety and Wellbeing Capability

What's wrong with this picture?

This photo was taken on the third floor of a Melbourne hotel.  The electricians regularly serviced the emergency exit light and it was working, but they did not see anything wrong with this exit light.

Hotel maintenance regularly inspected the hotel but they did not see any issue.

Management when told of the issue brushed me off… can you see the issue?

The issue is that this light is in the middle of a hallway has the words EXIT… yes ideally it should be a running man sign… as not all patrons who sleep on the premises may be able to read english… but that was not the critical safety issue…

Now… imagine it is dark at night and the hallway is filling with smoke… people are trying to evacuate… they gravitate to the exit light… except… there is NO DOOR where the light is…

If the exit light had an arrow pointing to the door it would have been fine.  However the hotel potentially was putting the lives of everyone sleeping on that floor at risk.

Queensland requires that high occupancy buildings have fire safety advisers appointed to the business to ensure compliance with legislation.  Experience here would dictate that this is an unnecessary risk for clients.  This is an example of what experience gives you.

If you have not had an audit done by a Fire Safety Adviser… now is the time to take the first step.


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Category: Safety and Wellbeing Capability

Engineering Control to reduce knee injury

Every business is required by law to conduct a hazard and risk assessment and review every task that workers do.

The Hierarchy Of Control starts with can you eliminate, or substitute a product/task for something else.  Third is engineering controls.

People have accepted that there is little that can be done to prevent injury if they are spending a lot of time bending their knees.

A new engineering control could help prevent injury to the knees

Body Wellspring Knee Device

Category: Safety and Wellbeing Capability

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