Small Business

Small businesses are generally considered to be those with less than 20 workers, including sole traders and self-employers. If you own a small business, you are most likely the ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU) regarding work health and safety (WHS) matters, and have the primary duty of care for yourself, your workers and others at your business.

Regardless of your business size, the Work Health and Safety Act (2011)(WHS Act) and other relevant legislation apply to your workplace. Maintaining appropriate health and safety measures is a fundamental part of any workplace and your role as a business owner is to protect your workers and ensure they go home from work safely every day.

For helpful information on small business and WHS please refer to our Safety Basics Factsheet and Small Business Checklist (available in English, simplified Chinese, Nepali, Vietnamese and Punjabi) and the Small Business WHS Basics poster.

How to keep your workplace safe

The information below outlines some of the key things you should consider in ensuring you provide a healthy and safe workplace.

Understand work health and safety duties:

You need to have a good understanding of your work health and safety responsibilities. The WHS Act, and other relevant legislation, outline what all PCBUs must do to keep workers safe.

You must consult with workers who carry out work for your business and who are directly affected by a health and safety matter. You must also consult with other businesses if you are involved in the same activities or share a workplace.

A safe workplace is more easily achieved when everyone involved in the work communicates with each other to identify both physical and psychosocial hazards and risks, talks about health and safety concerns and works together to find solutions.

Plan your work so it’s safe

A safe workplace doesn’t happen by chance; it requires careful planning, consultation and ongoing commitment. This includes thinking about what hazards are present in your workplace, what harm it they cause (this is the risk) and what you can do to either eliminate or minimise the risk. It is best and easiest to identify hazards and manage any risks associated with the work, work environment and equipment before work starts.

Some examples of planning your work to be as safe as possible include:

Set out your workplace so it suits the work. Think about things like allowing sufficient space for storage and ensuring walkways are wide enough where multiple people work or where equipment will be used.
Buy the safest product for the job. For instance, choose tools with safety guards that can’t be removed.
Consider your workers and their needs. This might include adjustable heights for benches, and machines that can automate repetitive physical tasks.

You should continue planning to keep your workplace safe by reviewing and improving existing processes and carefully planning new tasks. Further information about how to manage risks is outlined below.

Manage the risks

As a PCBU, managing risks is your responsibility. A risk assessment can help you put appropriate measures in place. This process should include the following steps.

Identify hazards: look for anything that could potentially cause harm in your workplace. This includes physical hazards (such as machinery), chemical hazards (such as cleaning products), and psychosocial hazards (such as customer aggression).
- Some ways to identify hazards include talking to your workers, conducting a safety walk-through at your workplace, and reviewing past safety incidents and near misses.
Assess the risks, if necessary: identify the likelihood and severity of harm that could result from each hazard (if the risk and controls are well known you do not have to assess them).
- Consider factors such as how often the hazard is present or used and what might happen if a worker was exposed. For example, a tool with sharp edges that is used daily would likely pose a more of a risk than a machine with no sharp areas that is rarely used.
Control the risks: Put measures in place to eliminate or minimise the risks. You must do this following the hierarchy of controls, which ranks possible control measures in order of how effective they are:
- Eliminate the hazard where possible. For example, switching to a cordless appliance to remove a cord across the floor (trip hazard).
- If elimination is not possible, manage the risks through substitution, isolation and engineering controls. This may include swapping a chemical for something safer, separating workers from a hazardous area, or adding guarding to tools.
- Administrative controls rely on people using them correctly and should be used alongside higher order controls. Some examples of administrative controls include providing training, writing policies and standard operating procedures, and scheduling and rostering work.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the lowest level of control and must be used to protect workers from any remaining risks after higher-order controls have been implemented. PPE includes helmets, googles, gloves, protective clothing and masks. It should not be the only control you manage risks.
Review and update: Regularly review your control measures to ensure they remain effective. You should repeat the risk assessment process whenever necessary, especially when there are changes in the workplace or new hazards are identified.

For more detailed and practical guidance on managing work health and safety risks, see the Code of Practice: How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks.

Psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards are hazards that arise from the work or workplace that can lead to a psychological injury (e.g. bullying leading to a sleep disorder) or physical injury (e.g. fatigued worker making a mistake and getting injured). The process to manage psychosocial hazards is the same as for physical hazards; you must identify the hazards, assess each hazard’s likelihood and impact, eliminate or manage those risks in line with the hierarchy of controls, and then monitor and review effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

Identifying psychosocial hazards can be more challenging than identifying hazards you can see. Consulting with workers (e.g. toolbox talks and surveys) is an effective way to gather feedback and identify potential issues. Common psychosocial hazards include:

Lack of role clarity (e.g. workers not understanding what they need to do)
Role overload and conflicting job demands (e.g. long hours due to too much work)
Exposure to traumatic events or material (e.g. seeing a serious injury occur)
Isolation (e.g. home-based workers being unable to communicate with their manager), and
Bullying, harassment or work-related violence (e.g. being yelled at by customers).

Managing psychosocial hazards is a legal requirement and must be done in the same way you manage physical hazards – through implementing control measures using the hierarchy of controls. Some examples of control measures include:

Design work to balance workloads, set reasonable deadlines and schedule regular rest breaks
Clarify roles and responsibilities with up-to-date job descriptions and clear reporting lines
Schedule additional workers to be available during busy periods
Provide appropriate security for your workplace (e.g. security personnel at night or where alcohol is served)
Train workers and supervisors on expected workplace behaviours and have clear policies in place for responding to bullying and harassment, and
Provide access to peer-support networks or an Employee Assistance Program.

Remember, you must monitor and review control measures regularly, especially after changes to work processes.

The Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work provides practical guidance on identifying, assessing and controlling psychosocial risks. More information is also available on our psychosocial hazards webpage.

Provide a safe work environment

Using the risk management process outlined above, you must ensure that your work environment, including temperature, lighting, air quality and building/environmental conditions, do not pose any risks to health and safety. You must also ensure that you and your workers have access to adequate facilities at the workplace, such as bathrooms, changerooms, fresh water and breakrooms. What you need to provide will depend on your workers and the nature of the workplace. For example:

If your workers are at a fixed or more ‘traditional’ workplace (e.g. office buildings, retail stores, warehouses or restaurants), you are responsible for making sure workers have access to safe and clean facilities. This may involve providing bathrooms and breakrooms, organising cleaners and providing maintenance. You may also need to work with other duty holders (such as the owner of the building) to ensure this happens.
If your workers work offsite (e.g. electricians working in people’s homes), you should make sure they have adequate break times and know where public facilities are available.
If your workers are on a construction site, ensure there are adequate facilities available to them (e.g. portable toilets, break areas) – this might require you to consult with other duty holders, such as the principal contractor, to confirm that the necessary facilities are available.
If your workers work from home, you should consult with them to ensure they have a safe and functional work environment.

For more detailed information on proving a safe work environment, see the Code of Practice for Managing the Work Environment and Facilities.

First aid facilities

Being ready to respond to injuries requires suitable first aid equipment and trained personnel. You must make sure you provide accessible first aid facilities for workers whenever and wherever they work, including those working night shifts or overtime. When deciding what first aid facilities your workplace needs, you must consider:

The nature of the work and hazards, meaning what your workers do and how dangerous it can be (e.g. the types of machines/equipment used).
The size and location of your workplace (e.g. response times for emergency services and how large and spread out the workplace is).
The number and needs of the people at your workplace (e.g. how many people will be at your workplace—including subcontractors, visitors and volunteers—and any specific needs they may have, such as known disabilities).

After considering the above, you can determine what you need to provide. At a minimum, you must:

Provide first aid kits with suitable contents for your workers and hazards (at least one in every workplace).
Ensure workers have access to a trained first aid officer.

You should make sure workers know where to find the first aid kit and how to access the first aid officer and the facilities (e.g. the first aid room). For further information on what you need to do to provide adequate first aid in the workplace, see the Code of Practice: First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice Approval 2020.

Emergency management and plans

You must ensure that an emergency plan is prepared and maintained for your workplace. Similar to first aid requirements, when developing an emergency plan, you must consider the hazards, the size and location of your workplace, and the number of people at your workplace, including any particular needs they may have. When developing your emergency procedures:

Make sure your plan clearly outlines how people should respond to an emergency, including evacuation procedures, how emergency services will be notified, medical/first aid assistance procedures, and how the person you have authorised to coordinate emergency responses will communicate with people at the workplace.
Outline what equipment you need and how often it will be maintained, e.g. fire extinguishers (classes A, B or C), spill kits, eyewash stations, AEDs and any other emergency or rescue equipment required.
Run a full evacuation drill to test the emergency procedures, at least once a year and brief all new workers at induction.

Effective induction, supervision and training

Providing inductions for new workers helps make sure they understand the business, the safety procedures and who to go to for help. Some induction activities could include:

Conducting safety tours of your workplace to discuss hazards, controls, emergency procedures, first-aid and emergency contacts, and emergency exits.
Establish clear lines of communication early on to encourage workers to raise safety concerns.

You must make sure workers have adequate supervision to do their work safely. This applies for all workers who need it, particularly new, young, or less experienced workers. You should also ensure you have a plan in place for when managers or experienced staff members are absent to maintain consistent supervision.

You also have a duty to provide the information and training that workers need to carry out their work safely. You must provide it in a way that they can understand, which may involve the use of images or infographics. Some training or information you may provide may include:

Providing information on their roles, expectations, and any safety policies and procedures.
Provide detailed training on workplace risks, hazards and use of controls, personal protective equipment (PPE), and emergency procedures.
Provide information on expected behaviours, and policies such as bullying and harassment.

Reporting hazards and incidents

Every worker should be able to report safety incidents or near misses. Having clear reporting procedures helps you capture and address safety issues in your workplace. Some examples of reporting methods include:

Paper forms or a whiteboard log in a central location
An online form (e.g. Google Forms), and
Toolbox talks where staff raise issues verbally and you record actions in writing.

You should record:

Reporter’s name, date, time and location
Brief description of what occurred (or almost occurred if a near-miss)
Immediate controls applied (e.g. “spill cleaned”)
Investigation notes (root cause, corrective actions, deadlines), and
Review date to confirm controls remain effective.

After being made aware of the report, you should:

Review the report promptly
Investigate underlying causes
Implement and track corrective measures, and
Communicate outcomes back to your team.

Wherever possible, you should also make sure workers are able to report incidents anonymously or have procedures in place for workers to report concerns about their manager without needing to have them aware (e.g. anonymous online reporting without the need for manager approval).

Workers’ compensation

Workers’ compensation is a type of insurance which provides financial support to workers who become injured or ill due to their work. It is a separate form of insurance and is not covered under other business or public liability insurances. All employers must have a workers’ compensation policy. You must also display the insurance company’s return to work program where workers can access it. These requirements are set out in the ACT’s workers’ compensation laws (see the Workers’ Compensation Act 1951)

In the ACT, workers’ compensation is provided by private insurers. If you need to organise workers’ compensation insurance or require further information on your obligations, please refer to the workers’ compensation webpage on the WorkSafe ACT website and the workers’ compensation FAQ document (available in English, simplified Chinese, Nepali, Vietnamese and Punjabi).

Please note that WorkSafe ACT does not provide workers’ compensation insurance or have a role in making decisions on claims. WorkSafe ACT is responsible for regulating the ACT’s private sector workers’ compensation legislation.

Notifiable incidents

If certain incidents occur at work, WorkSafe ACT must be notified immediately. These include:

Serious events: Any incident that results in the death of a person or a serious injury or illness.
Dangerous incidents: Situations that expose a worker or any other person to a serious health or safety risk, such as an uncontrolled escape of a substance, an explosion, or a structural collapse.
Sexual assaults: Any incident of sexual assault, including suspected incidents, must be reported as soon as you become aware of it.

For more detailed information on notifiable incidents and how to report them, please visit the Notify WorkSafe ACT page on our website. To submit your report, use the Notification of Incident Form for all incidents except sexual assault. For workplace sexual assault incidents, use the Sexual Assault Incident Notification Form.

Contact and notify WorkSafe ACT

Call WorkSafe ACT on 13 22 81 Monday to Friday, 8am to 6 pm, and on weekends or public holidays from 9am-5pm.

International callers please use +61 2 6207 5111. International call rates apply.

After hours, for emergencies, call us on 0419 120 028.

Email WorkSafe ACT at worksafe@worksafe.act.gov.au.

Safety alerts: Stay informed about the latest safety alerts, updates, and news from WorkSafe ACT. To receive these alerts directly to your inbox, please email media@worksafe.act.gov.au to subscribe. For more information and to view current safety alerts, visit the Safety Alerts page on our website.

Additional resources

Safety Basics Factsheet

Small Business Checklist

Small Business WHS Basics

Workers' Compensation FAQs