icare and SafetyCulture announce partnership to improve health and safety for construction workers

Insurance and Care NSW (icare) is partnering with SafetyCulture on a six-month pilot program to provide NSW businesses with access to digital safety tools.

In the physically demanding building and construction industry, safety and wellbeing of workers is a top priority and many businesses in this industry are turning to cutting-edge technologies to protect their workers.

This has created an opportunity for icare to partner with the world's fastest-growing operations platform SafetyCulture. Together we have launched a six-month pilot program aiming to improve workplace safety for building and construction businesses and to protect their workers.

Navigating industry dangers

Working in building and construction comes with many potential risks and challenges, such as fall from heights, electrical shock, and heavy machinery incidents. Despite safety regulations and best practices, the unpredictable nature of these worksites adds additional complexity to mitigating safety risks.

In response to the pressing need for safer and more efficient workplaces, 100 icare customers who are NSW small businesses from the construction industry were offered a free premium-level trial of SafetyCulture's workplace operations platform.

This initiative aimed to not only meet legal requirements for work health and safety, but also to make risk management a proactive – rather than reactive – component of business operations.

Through this pilot program, the SafetyCulture platform offers to help building and construction businesses to:

  • Meet their legal requirements for frontline worker health and safety
  • Create safer, healthier, and more productive job sites
  • Easily document work health and safety-related activities.

icare's Acting Group Executive Workers Compensation, Tony Wessling, said: "Small businesses are the backbone of the NSW economy and they make up 94% of businesses that have a Workers Compensation policy with icare. Over the past five years there's been a 20% increase in workplace injuries (PDF, 0.8MB) for small businesses in the construction industry."

"Our partnership with SafetyCulture is one of many ways icare is supporting small businesses to take a proactive approach to making safety attainable – meanwhile, saving businesses time and money. Tackling these industry-specific challenges requires an all-around commitment to the continuous improvement of safety processes and practices."

Initial impact of the pilot program

The pilot began in November 2023 and users including residential builders, plumbing and fire and electrical protection businesses, have already seen improvements. Early adopters of the program noted the comprehensive training, streamlined onboarding process, time-saving audit system, and improved communication channels.

Some of the positive feedback from businesses in the pilot

"I need these for all my large contracts. Now I can show them I do have an audit system in place." – NSW employer

"I can communicate to everyone at once – that is awesome." (About Heads Up, SafetyCulture's internal communications app feature) – NSW employer

"This is amazing. It will be great for rolling out toolbox talks and training new starters. Often, we onboard new starters six weeks before, but this is a game changer, and will reduce time to onboard." – NSW employer

Building a better path forward

SafetyCulture's user-friendly platform can help businesses to streamline operations through its mobile app. A unique feature includes pre-populated, industry-specific safety inspection checklist templates. It can also provide online work health and safety training – including risk assessment, pre-start checks, job safety analysis, daily site safety audits, and contractor management.

icare's partnership with SafetyCulture is one of many ways icare is delivering on our promise to make it easier for NSW employers to protect their workers from workplace injuries. As the pilot program continues, our teams are excited about creating safer workplaces for workers in building and construction – and beyond.

For more information on SafetyCulture please visit their website. While spaces are available, you can register for the trial.

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