Prevent a colleague being injured by proactively reporting a hazard or near miss incident! Our UniSA community is our biggest asset therefore, keeping our people safe is paramount. Prompt reporting of hazards and near miss incidents can prevent another person's injury.
There are many benefits in promptly reporting incidents which are explained in the Health and Safety Hazard / Incident Reporting Guide along with reporting responsibilities and timeframes. Please read and distribute this guide within your workplace.
The Safety and Wellbeing team are available to answer any queries you may have.
The person involved, or if they are unable to do so, a person on their behalf shall report an incident to their supervisor/manager as soon as possible and submit a report within 48 hours of its occurrence using the online Hazard/Incident Reporting & Investigation System.
An employee or other authorised person shall log details of an incident on behalf of a student, external contractor or other person (i.e. member of the public, visitor, volunteer, work experience person etc.) using the online system.
Safety is everyone's responsibility! If you identify a hazard that cannot be immediately and permanently eliminated (e.g. a cord over a walkway that poses a tripping hazard), you must report it immediately to your supervisor/manager via the University's Hazard Reporting System. All relevant hazards should be communicated within the workgroup to ensure the hazard does not reoccur.
If you identify a hazard and you cannot fix it safely or control it quickly, you must report it to your supervisor/manager and complete the online hazard report. If an incident occurs you must report it to your supervisor/manager and complete the relevant online report (refer to the information below - 'Which report form do I complete?') within 48 hours of the occurrence.
If you experience persistent, reoccurring pain or discomfort, early reporting can prevent the problem from developing and becoming more serious (e.g. performing repetitive tasks, computer use, manual handling tasks or work related anxiety).
There are five (5) different online report forms. To ensure accuracy of data maintained in the system, please select carefully from the following:
A situation or object that has the potential to harm a person, the environment or cause damage to property. Hazards may include, but are not limited to, noisy or unguarded machinery, chemicals, electricity, working at heights, a repetitive task or poorly designed workplace/workstation.
An incident that could have resulted in injury or illness to a person, danger to health and/or damage to property or the environment but did not.
An incident that causes bodily harm to a person.
An incident that has led to the death of a person.
A significant critical incident involving multiple people where injury or illness may not have occurred or may not be known at the time of the initial reporting of the incident. Some examples include: an uncontrolled explosion; fire; flood; food poisoning; structural collapse; natural disaster.
An event may have duration where circumstances and effects occur over a period of time i.e. a fire that continues for multiple hours.
The immediate supervisor or the person responsible for the work area / task or process where an incident occurred or hazard identified is responsible to investigate.
The immediate supervisor or the person responsible for the work area/task or process (nominated by the reporter) will receive an auto-generated email notification from the HS&IM system immediately after a hazard or incident report is submitted.
This notification informs them that an incident has occurred or hazard identified and an investigation must commence as soon as possible. A direct link to the hazard/incident report is provided in the email notification.
The investigation shall be conducted by the supervisor (or appropriate delegate), in consultation with the person involved, the health and safety representative (where applicable) and any other relevant personnel or subject matter experts (e.g. Work Health and Safety Consultants) where necessary.
Factual information should be gathered on the circumstances that led to an incident occurring and contributing factors identified in order to determine root cause.
Investigation findings and corrective action taken or planned must be entered into the online investigation report by the nominated investigator and submitted.
Where selection of the immediate supervisor as the investigator is undesirable another selection can be made by choosing an appropriate alternative.
Note: If you have been incorrectly selected as the responsible person to investigate a hazard or incident, or you are unavailable at the time i.e. on leave or overseas, you must notify the reporter of the occurrence and the Safety and Wellbeing Team and advise of the next appropriate responsible person to allow the necessary changes and notifications to be made.
For more detailed information refer to the Hazard / Incident Reporting and Investigation procedure.
The logging process is a series of forms organised into a wizard. The system has in-built work flows and business rules based on the information entered by the user. Auto-generated email notifications are sent to appropriate UniSA employees after an occurrence is logged, investigated and closed.
The Safety and Wellbeing Unit:
The system is accessible through the Staff Portal with single sign on security, using existing user name and password from anywhere in the world (assuming an internet connection) at any time of the day or night.
For more information on how to use the system, refer to the following links: