Encouraging businesses and workers to take responsibility for healthy and safe work is complex. WorkSafe needed a partner who could uncover what really influences decisions in the workplace – beyond stated attitudes – and provide evidence to support more targeted and effective interventions.
We were engaged to design and deliver a multi-year insights programme (ongoing since 2018) that would generate deep understanding and track how knowledge and practice shift over time.
Our task was to build a robust framework that mapped knowledge, vulnerability, and markers of exploitation across the employment landscape, and to identify where targeted intervention would
We began by establishing a rich qualitative foundation: over 80 in-depth interviews with workers and employers across industries. Using ethnographic and enabling techniques, we uncovered what shapes decisions – from automatic, instinctive responses to more deliberate reasoning.
These insights shaped the design of large-scale quantitative surveys with workers and employers. So far, we have gathered input from 12,000+ workers and 10,000+ employers. We’ve reached diverse and hard-to-access audiences, with tailored strategies for priority sectors including forestry, construction, manufacturing and agriculture.
Methods included online panel surveys, phone interviews, push-to-web recruitment using the electoral roll, and face-to-face fieldwork in high-deprivation communities.
Throughout the programme, we applied innovative techniques such as commitment theory to understand the conditions that support follow-through, segmentation to assess workplace safety maturity, and data modelling to map the pathways that lead to safer decisions and actions.
Project outcomes
We delivered insights to WorkSafe’s internal teams, external partners, and the WorkSafe Board.
The findings have informed advice to Ministers, guided decisions on where harm prevention efforts should be concentrated, and strengthened the design and targeting of initiatives and engagement activities with workers and businesses.
The programme has equipped WorkSafe with clear evidence to support decisions and interventions that encourage healthier, safer work – grounded in an understanding of how workplaces operate in practice.