Culture and employee engagement biggest health and safety hurdles - survey by Madison Reidy.  Available from <http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90136632/Culture-and-employee-engagement-biggest-health-and-safety-hurdles-survey> [Last updated 13:18, March 7 2017]

Business leaders are giving more attention to workplace health and safety but their employees are not, a new survey suggests.

Deloitte's latest health and safety report surveyed 169 chief executives and managing directors of New Zealand companies.

Four in five of the bosses reported that their organisation's health and safety measures had improved in 2016, but their biggest barrier was their workers' negative attitudes to health and safety.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, implemented in April 2015, businesses have a duty to engage with their staff on health and safety matters that may directly affect them.

WorkSafe New Zealand says on their website: "A safe workplace is more easily achieved when everyone involved in the work communicates with each other to identify hazards and risks, talks about any health and safety concerns and works together to find solutions".

Deloittes said the survey suggested there was no room for chief executives to be complacent about their worker participation performance.

Engagement can be achieved by including health and safety in employee engagement surveys, having worker health and safety representatives, or involving employees in strategy development.

The survey found that public sector organisations were more likely to do these things than their private sector counterparts.

Culture and employee engagement biggest health and safety hurdles - survey by Madison Reidy.  Available from <http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90136632/Culture-and-employee-engagement-biggest-health-and-safety-hurdles-survey> [Last updated 13:18, March 7 2017]