Strategic Alignment: The Missing Ingredient in Australian Safety Leadership

From Data-Rich to Insight-Driven

Australia Post's internal audit identified 189 safety-related data points, yet outcomes hadn't materially improved. The solution was strategic simplification: narrowing focus to seven due diligence-aligned metrics with clear actions that drive outcomes rather than generate reports.

Across organisations, we're collecting massive volumes of safety data without improving decision-making. The organisations making progress ask whether their metrics help to predict and prevent harm.

Strategic Alignment: The Non-Negotiable

Mirvac's approach illustrated strategic alignment in practice. Safety has transformed from compliance to becoming embedded in business strategy. This requires:

• Board and ELT alignment. Unified vision across Board, executive, and functional leaders makes strategy executable. This demands consistent messaging, resource allocation, and accountability that reinforces safety as a business priority.
• Discipline to stick to the plan. When initiatives don't align with strategy, successful organisations have the courage to say no.
• Speaking the language of the business. Safety professionals who frame work in terms of business outcomes – reputation, operational efficiency, talent retention – earn influence at decision-making tables.

Research demonstrates that organisations with strong leadership commitment see significantly lower injury rates and higher productivity. Facilities where leaders complete 80% of scheduled safety observations average better than 60% voluntary employee participation in safety initiatives.

The Critical Gap: Where Decisions Really Happen

Ninety percent of safety decisions occur at layer one of leadership (frontline supervisors and team leaders) yet most strategic safety discussions happen at ELT and Board level. Many critical events occur in simple, routine work, making capability investment at this level essential.

Success requires having the right capability and capacity: doing more with less through higher quality outcomes. Strategic investment in junior and middle management is critical. These leaders make dozens of safety decisions daily about work methods, resource allocation, and risk assessment.

Psychosocial Risk: The New Frontier

Regulatory expectations around psychosocial risk have evolved faster than organisational maturity. According to Safe Work Australia, mental health conditions accounted for 9% of serious workers' compensation claims in 2021-22, with median time lost more than four times greater than physical injuries.

Integrating psychosocial risk into leadership capability development is essential. Leadership behaviour, work design, and daily experience drive psychosocial outcomes, requiring all risk and change management to incorporate a psychosocial lens with HSE leaders connected to transformation initiatives.

What Actually Shifts the Dial

A powerful theme emerged: much work done "in the name of safety" doesn't meaningfully drive change. Over-complexity and low-impact activities dilute effort.

How to move forward:

• Capitalise on existing momentum. With heightened regulatory focus, now is the time to drive change through strategic focus, not by launching fragmented initiatives.
• Influence without authority. The most effective safety leaders balance genuine care with clear accountability through exceptional relationship-building.
• Do less, but do it better. Seven metrics that drive action beat 189 that generate reports. Deep investment in frontline capability beats spreading resources thin.

Research from Australian construction emphasises that effective safety leadership requires accountability, "walking the talk," and leading by example, foundations that enable safety performance throughout organisations.

The Business Case for Strategic Safety

For business leaders, legal obligations mean there’s an inherent investment in safety. But does that safety investment deliver strategic value or merely check compliance boxes?

Strategic safety delivers measurable outcomes. Safe Work Australia research shows that in the absence of work-related injuries, Australia's economy would be $28.6 billion larger annually.

Moving beyond siloed safety responsibility is essential. Successful organisations embed safety accountability across HR, legal, and operations, with shared ownership and aligned incentives.

The Path Forward

Organisations that will thrive in Australia's evolving regulatory environment treat safety as a strategic business function. This starts with alignment between Board, ELT, and operational leaders about what safety success looks like and how it integrates with broader business objectives.

Capability investment must focus on frontline leaders making daily decisions that determine whether people go home safely, with discipline to focus effort on initiatives that genuinely move the dial.

The regulatory environment will continue tightening. Prosecutions will continue rising. Penalties will continue escalating. Those that focus on strategic capability building, genuine leadership commitment, and capability investment where operational decisions happen will be the ones ahead of the curve.

Aaron Neilson is CEO of The Next Group, which includes The Safe Step, Australia's leading specialist HSE recruitment and capability development firm.