Publications

Our report, Respect & Resilience: Development, Implementation and Program Evaluation, provides a concise overview of findings relating to customer misbehaviour in the retail and fast food sectors. The role of the Respect & Resilience Program seeks to address this problem. 

Customer misbehaviour has a significant and harmful impact on employees, businesses and the wider community. 

Our ground-breaking pilot program Respect & Resilience delivered a 48 per cent reduction in customer misbehaviour incidents at retail and fast food outlets.

We partnered with Griffith University and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) NSW to undertake research and develop and pilot a training package for retail staff at KFC and The Reject Shop. 

Customer misbehaviour ranges from physical violence and abuse to rude and disrespectful comments. It can affect a worker’s physical, psychological and social health and can have severe consequences for the business – poor workplace morale, higher levels of absenteeism, sick leave and staff turnover, and escalating workers compensation and other insurance claims.

We are always looking for ways we can better support our customers and simplify their experience across the schemes we manage.

Feedback from our workers compensation customers showed us that they are frequently confused about which government agency they need to engage with for support. There is no simple answer for this as it depends on their specific issue and each government agency website says something slightly different.

After significant consultation by with SafeWork NSW, Independent review office (IRO), State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) and the Workers Compensation Commission (WCC), we have produced the first NSW workers compensation industry brochure that provides a clear overview of the different types of support available from each government agency and guides them to the right place, depending on whether they are a worker or an employer.

Shine provides participants of Lifetime Care and the Workers Care Program with an opportunity to share stories about life after a severe motor accident or workplace injury. Each issue people can share their unique and moving stories in their own voice.

We hear stories of resilience and rehabilitation, stories from families and carers, heartfelt stories of life before and after a serious injury, and stories of strength and courage.

Shine Magazine

Advances in technology, a more holistic understanding of the link between work and health and the ongoing evolution of the traditional workplace are all having an enormous impact on our working lives. Better helps readers to understand how icare is embracing the challenges and opportunities of the changing nature of work to deliver high-quality, relevant services for the people of NSW. Access the publication using the link below.

Better Magazine 2019

This white paper summarises the endemic problem of workplace stress and outlines three key responses to stress. The paper clarifies what mindfulness really is, provides an overview of the benefits and outlines strategies to ensure mindfulness is skilfully deployed to create results using insights from real case studies.

Bullying inquiry action plan

Our progress report outlines actions and progress against each of the recommendations that were supported by the Government arising from the General Purpose Standing Committee No. 1 Inquiry into allegations of bullying in WorkCover. The Inquiry’s recommendations that were supported by the Government will continue to be implemented across WorkCover’s three successor entities: the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), SafeWork NSW and icare.

Can digital interventions help to improve mental health and reduce mental ill-health in small businesses?

Every person working in small business in NSW deserves to live and work with optimal mental health and wellbeing. To achieve this, we need to better understand the mental health needs of small business and prioritise evidence-based approaches that meet the specific needs of small business owners and workers.

icare investigating “What good workplace rehabilitation looks like”

At icare we are dedicated to working with our customers to provide best in class service and quality outcomes. In keeping with our commitment to evidence-based best practice, icare commissioned our internal Research and Design team, Ufirst, to launch an in-depth research into current workplace rehabilitation practices and to understand “what good workplace rehabilitation looks like”. 

Ufirst has undertaken this research through various forms of engagement including surveys, workshops, feedback sessions and focus groups with our customers and service providers along with comprehensive literature review. The resulting insights are outlined in the report available to download below.