Workplace safety – what are you accountable for?

Every leader wants a safe workplace. But in today’s regulatory environment, wanting safety is not enough. Leaders must actively demonstrate safety leadership, meet legal obligations, and create a culture of safety that ensures every team member goes home in the same condition they arrived.

At Safety Dimensions, we’ve worked with over 10,000 leaders across Australia and New Zealand. What we’ve learnt is clear: knowing what to do isn’t enough—you must also know how to implement safety. That’s where due diligence comes in.

Understanding your safety obligations as a leader

When an incident occurs, investigators will ask two critical questions to determine if you exercised due diligence:

• What have you done personally to ensure safety?
• What would your team say you’ve done?

If you can’t answer both with clarity and evidence, you’re at risk—legally, financially, and morally.

To protect yourself and your team, you must do three key things:

• Confront the risk
• Ensure compliance
• Instil safe daily work practices

Let’s break down what each of these mean in practice.

1. Confront the risk: ask the right questions

Leaders must take ownership of the risks in their areas of control. This starts by asking the right questions. At Safety Dimensions, we teach the “Powerful Six” questions that help leaders identify and manage safety risks:

1. What am I accountable for?
2. What are the key hazards and risks in each task I oversee?
3. How do I maintain a current picture of these risks?
4. What critical controls are in place? Do they eliminate or reduce risk?
5. How do I know these controls are consistently applied?
6. Are the controls effective? Am I challenging the status quo enough?

Asking these questions regularly, documenting responses, and involving your team helps build a culture of transparency and accountability.

2. Ensure compliance: Go beyond tick-and-flick

Legal compliance is more than paperwork. Simply handing someone a procedure to read and sign does not meet legal requirements—and it certainly doesn’t change behaviour.

True compliance requires engaged conversations where team members:

• Understand the safety procedures
• Can paraphrase and explain their responsibilities
• Speak up about concerns or gaps

Interactive conversations, not checklists, are what demonstrate genuine compliance.

3. Instil safe daily work practices

Workplace safety isn’t just about systems—it’s about behaviour. Your team watches what you do and listens to what you say. If you cut corners, they’ll assume that’s acceptable. If you ignore fatigue, stress, or missing PPE, you’re silently endorsing unsafe behaviours.

To build a culture of safety:

• Role model safe behaviours at all times
• Insist on standards being upheld
• Integrate safety into every decision and plan
• Be rigorous with operational and behavioural expectations

Remember: your actions set the tone. Safety must be visible, consistent, and non-negotiable.

It’s about more than compliance – it’s about care

While legal consequences, reputation, and cost are important, your real safety obligation is ensuring that every member of your team returns home safe and well.
This is leadership. This is accountability.

And there’s nothing more important than that.