Safe Work Australia’s research grant recipient, the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtin University, has completed their research to explore interventions to manage psychosocial risks in the aged care sector. The research report is now available on the Safe Work Australia data website – Our Data. Your Stories.

The 2-year research project was conducted across 4 residential care facilities of a large Australian not-for-profit aged care provider. The project aimed to eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks associated with increased job demands in the aged care sector.

The research report concluded a work redesign process can identify effective and cost-efficient ways an organisation may reduce job demands. The key is to tailor a work redesign to the specific needs of the organisation and its employees.

The research found that involving workers in identifying psychosocial hazards and the redesign process can result in improvements over and above just directly implementing control measures.

Good work design improves work health and safety, human performance, job satisfaction, and business success. The most effective design process begins at the earliest planning stage. This is when there is the greatest chance to design-out hazards and design-in efficiencies and effective risk control measures. This research report contributes substantially to the evidence base for effective approaches to work design, and more significantly, to the management of workplace psychosocial risks.

Supporting high quality research such as this is a priority for Safe Work Australia. Rigorous studies by external organisations help expand our evidence base and inform how to tackle future challenges in work health and safety and workers’ compensation.

To explore the report in detail, go to Safe Work Australia’s data website – Our Data. Your Stories.