Safe Work Australia has produced a handbook to help businesses meet their legal obligations, reduce worker injury rates and improve productivity.

CEO Michelle Baxter says “well-designed, healthy and safe work” allows staff to lead more productive lives, which brings greater business efficiency.

The guide, Principles of Good Work Design, shows businesses how to “design out” potential hazards.

Avoiding incidents that result from poor work design delivers “tangible savings”, according to Ms Baxter.

“It is often easier and more cost-effective to address hazards and risks during the planning and design stage. This applies to the places we work in, the things we use at work, as well as to how we design organisational structures, roles and tasks.”

The handbook is part of the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-22, led by Comcare and WorkCover Queensland. It contains 10 principles of good work design, showing how they can be applied to any workplace, business or industry.

It is available online, and will be updated regularly with links to case studies and examples from businesses that have successfully applied good work design principles.

“Failure to consider how work is designed can result in poor risk management and lost opportunities to innovate and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of work,” Ms Baxter said.

The guide can be downloaded here.