This is an article I wrote for the OHS Professional Magazine published on 25 November 2019.

As the newly elected chair of the Institute, I wanted to take the opportunity in my first article to welcome new members who are reading the magazine for their first time and to recognise and thank everyone who continues to support the Institute through their ongoing membership. I am very honoured to be given the opportunity by my peers to represent and lead you.

The theme for this edition of OHS Professional is Governance, which is slightly ironic for a new Chair writing their first piece. However, the significance of the increasingly complex and challenging governance and risk landscape is not lost on me. As an avid follower of enterprise governance, risk and compliance issues, I am mindful that Companies, Boards and Executives are feeling the impact of the Hayne and other Royal Commissions, Senate inquiries and inquests with increased regulatory action, investigation and personal exposure for directors.

While this is an area of interest of mine, I do encourage all OHS Professionals to ensure they are aware of the issues and challenges facing directors, executives and ‘officers’, so that you can effectively support or advise those you work with. In particular, with the strong focus being placed on non-financial risk after being recognised as a ‘critical governance issue’ by the APRA’s prudential inquiry into CBA and The Hayne Report.

In his final report, Commissioner Hayne observed that “the evidence before the Commission showed that too often, boards did not get the right information about emerging non-financial risks; did not do enough to seek further or better information where what they had was clearly deficient, and did not do enough with the information they had to oversee and challenge management’s approach to these risks”.

Even though the attention has been on the financial services sector, to many even the not for profit sector this has been a big wake up call. Directors are being urged to consider their risk management frameworks and satisfy themselves, on an ongoing basis, that their policies and processes are robust.

I am finding in my work, boards are starting to dedicate greater attention to assessing culture and governance, including more appropriate metrics (let’s hope we can finally move on from LTIFR). They are wanting to better articulate their risk appetite and increase their understanding of where the risk of harm is greatest. They are placing more focus on stakeholders with whom to engage and seeking independent, external support that may be required.

For OHS Professionals, I see this as an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation with directors about the structures, frameworks and resourcing for health and safety within your (or client’s) organisations. The time to take a good look at what is in place, how it could be improved and to influence leaders with sound, evidence-based strategies to improve health and safety in the workplace and potentially the industry and broader community. I think it is important as individuals and collectively as a profession, we harness the opportunity to provide insightful information to our leaders and the officers of our organisations.

To that end, as the ‘gatekeepers’ for the Institute’s we have taken it time to reflect on our structures, risks and performance. Recognising we operate in a challenging environment and one that is changing constantly under the influence of governments and regulators and in the face of changing technologies. And when it comes to managing risks, in particular non-financial risks, we continue to ensure our Finance, Risk, Audit, Performance and Compliance Committee receives adequate non-financial risk information, including indicators of emerging risks, to support constructive debate and challenge.

More strategically and as an industry leader, we believe it is essential that we come to clear positions on emerging challenges so that we can prosecute these positions to those with influence without fear or intimidation. We recognise we must ‘walk the talk in an authentic manner” so far as risk management, not only internally but in the broader sphere of influence we have.

Most importantly, it is incumbent on the Board to establish and maintain on an ongoing basis, good methods of communication with members, corporate partners, industry groups and the broader community. To ensure we share our strategic direction, how our goals and objectives will be achieved and to provide mechanisms for feedback in terms of our progress and performance.