Comcare, the workers’ compensation insurance body, has put out a handy tool to help reduce the psychological damage of rapidly changing workplaces.

Specifically, the new self-assessment tool is designed to assist government agencies and organisations to be flexible, adaptable and able to respond, as all levels of Government head into a new age of efficiency and reform.

The tool is called ‘Putting You First’, and is intended for use in change programs by those tasked with undertaking preparatory assessments.

“This includes change managers, WHS managers, HR Managers, project managers or people with leadership responsibilities,” Comcare says.

“During times of organisational change it is important to take a preventative approach to managing the risks of change and monitor the impact on workers,” the insurer said.

“The tool is a guided self-assessment, monitoring and review process for workplaces to identify key risks and corrective actions.

“This will assist in minimising psychosocial risk factors during workplace change.”

Putting You First consists of four steps;

  • Reviewing the current change process for WHS risks – identifying the organisation’s performance and determining if any areas require improvement.
  • A Perceptions Pulse Check - a series of statements where workers can rate their level of agreement with planned moves or changes.
  • The Action Plan – using data from the first two steps to create an organisational risk management system, targeted to areas where workers have rated their agreement as low and areas of the self-assessment identified as high and medium risk.
  • Monitoring and review – Comcare says a review mechanism must be implemented along with the Action Plan, so that there is a person or team with responsibility to check if workers are additionally stressed during the change process.

More details as well as copies of the workplace change–self-assessment tool are accessible here.