Officeworks - Health, safety and wellbeing

The safety, health and wellbeing of team members and customers is Officeworks’ number one priority. Officeworks’ goal is to ensure everyone arrives home after working, shopping or visiting the business free from any kind of harm or injury. 

Officeworks recognises that the health and safety of its team is not just about physical wellbeing, but also about supporting them to achieve positive mental health and wellbeing outcomes. In doing so, Officeworks is enabling team members to bring their best selves to work every day.  

During the 2021 financial year, Officeworks continued to see improvement in its safety performance, with TRIFR reducing to 6.1. In real terms, this means during the past 12 months, 57 team members have lost one or more shifts due to an injury at work. While one injury is one too many, a TRIFR of 6.1 represents a 22.8 per cent reduction when compared to the previous financial year.  

Contributing to these results was the hazard reduction strategic initiative, which delivered a transformation in the way team members and customers interacted with more than 300 big and bulky products. Transitioning these items to a direct delivery model reduced the need for manual handling by Officeworks’ team and customers, and therefore avoided the exposure to manual handling risks. From a physical safety perspective, Officeworks made positive progress in reducing sprain and strain injuries instore, which are attributed to performing manual handling tasks. 

Beyond physical safety, Officeworks is giving its team access to tools and programs that support their mental health. Officeworks’ mental health and wellbeing program, Your Best Life, is a holistic program that provides team members with tools, resources and investment to improve wellbeing, supporting team members to live their best life. Some of these initiatives include: 

• the introduction of a 12-week wellness initiative, Moving Mindz, that supported the wellbeing of team members’ mind, body and soul. More than 35 per cent of team members voluntarily participated in the program, enabling them to connect, move and thrive during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic 
• the appointment of Converge International as the new provider of the Officeworks Employee Assistance Program, increasing the support and services for the team and focus on their mental health 
• creating an environment where team members are comfortable talking about mental health and reducing stigma, which included promoting conversations and sharing stories around mental health, and by recognising events such as RUOK? Day 
• the formation of a Workplace Safety Committee and Mental Health Oversight Committee to create the foundations for Officeworks’ safety due diligence and mental health frameworks. The Officeworks Leadership Team is committed to and actively leads these committees to ensure team members stay safe and well.  

Officeworks’ focus in the coming year continues to be empowering its team to live their best life through investment in mental health and wellbeing programs and embedding a safety mindset into everything they do. Teams will work collectively to assess and solve current challenges, correct each other’s behaviours and identify new ways to support continuous improvement. Officeworks plans to increase investments across mental health programs to empower all team members to care for and prioritise their mental health. This will include providing ongoing education to help reduce stigma around mental illness and to ensure leaders are equipped to best support their teams. Following the success of the Moving Mindz program in 2020, a new iteration of the program will be launched.  

_{GRI 103-1, GRI 103-2, GRI 103-3, GRI 403-1, GRI 403-2, GRI 403-3, GRI 403-4, GRI 403-5, GRI 403-6, GRI 403-7}