Best Ways to Prevent Notifiable Incidents at Work

Over the course of the past six years, data from WorkSafe NZ shows there has been a gradual increase in notifiable incidents being reported (see graph below). This blog explores the best methods to prevent notifiable incidents at work, as well as a range of possible reasons behind this increase in New Zealand.

Reported Notifiable Incident Yearly Totals

What are the Best Methods to Prevent Notifiable Incidents at Work?

There are a range of ways to combat notifiable incidents occurring within your workplace, and SME business owners would all benefit from incorporating these into their business management strategy.

Cultivating a Strong Safety Culture in Your Workplace

Having a robust safety culture within your organisation will help to reduce the likelihood of notifiable incidents occurring, as your team will have confidence knowing they can communicate whether a situation or process doesn't seem safe. A safety culture starts with management, as they need to lead by example and prioritise safety as a core value within the organisation.

When you lead by example, it helps ensure that your team will feel more comfortable reporting issues without fear of repercussions.

Identify and Manage Hazards Proactively

When you have a robust health and safety management system, you'll have clear policies and procedures for managing your organisation's health and safety. Ensure you are systemically identifying and managing the risks and hazards within your workplace to best prevent notifiable incidents from happening.

Involve your team when assessing potential hazards and the associated risks, as they'll often have first-hand knowledge of potential problems area.

Provide Thorough Health & Safety Training

Ensure your team have all been properly inducted and trained for their role. Make sure your team know how to perform their jobs safely and understand how to use necessary equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) correctly. If you don't have a health and safety officer within your workplace, you can employ the services of a health and safety consultant to orchestrate and run a training session for your team as necessary.

We offer a range of training services for our management and one-off clients and personalise the training specifically for your team's needs.

Clearly Communicate Health & Safety Information

It goes without saying that a safe workplace is one with clear signage of hazards and PPE requirements, but it's also important to communicate safety information with your team regularly. Whether it's a full-blown safety meeting or touched on in a toolbox meeting, make safety a routine part of workplace discussions.

Utilising clear health and safety communication, such as clear signage and markings, as well as encouraging safety to be an everyday awareness, you can greatly reduce the risk of a serious incident occurring.

By implementing some or all of these health and safety management strategies, your organisation can significantly reduce the chances of a notifiable incident occurring, making your workplace a safer environment for everyone.

Why Has There Been a Rise in Notifiable Incidents Occurring in New Zealand?

There are a few potential reasons behind why notifiable incidents have seen an increase in the last few years. Namely, COVID-19's impact on New Zealand's workforce and the economic hardship experienced by many in 2024 and 2025.

How Did COVID-19 Impact Workplace Notifiable Incidents?

With the whole of New Zealand going into lockdown back in March of 2020, and parts of New Zealand going into lockdown again in 2021 (Beehive, 2025), many people weren't going into their workplace as usual.

When looking at the graph above, we see a drop coming into 2020 of notifiable incidents occurring (1485 reported). Considering that 2018 had 1700 notifiable incidents and 2019 had 1800 notifiable incidents, it's safe to say 2020 saw a drastic decrease in reporting.

During lockdown level 4 in New Zealand, only essential services remained open (RNZ, n.d.), while we did see a bit more freedom in lockdown level 3, many people still weren't having to go into work like normal.

However, it would take years for remote work to decrease. The ability to work from home (WFH) became a common component of many jobs, with hybrid roles being a happy compromise for some. Data shows that from 2020 to 2023, WFH continued to climb and only started to fall at the end of 2023 in December (Seek, n.d.).

This reduction in notifiable incidents reported in 2020, 2021, 2022, and even 2023 can be explained by the increase in WFH roles for many people, which significantly lowered the likelihood of notifiable incidents occurring.

How Does the Economy Affect Workplace Notifiable Incidents?

It's no secret that the last couple of years have been financially challenging; economic hardship can impact the number of notifiable events, as business owners may try to cut corners and workers face concerns of job security. The mantra of 2024 was to "survive to 2025", and then the economy would be better, but this unfortunately wasn't the case, with the economy in 2025 remaining poor (Newsroom, 2025; RNZ, 2025)

Businesses may be tempted to try to cut corners when faced with financial hardship, and not seek expert advice when they should; studies show that throughout different economic cycles, workplace incidents themselves do rise and fall too, but it's more likely that this is a result of how companies engage health and safety systems within their organisation, rather than an unavoidable truth of specific economic cycles (The Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum, 2023).

It's important for leadership to be understanding of the pressures that many of their workers will be experiencing due to financial hardship; be mindful of the impact this can have on their mental and physical health, too. Workplace Wellbeing (2024) conducted a survey, which found that two in every five employees' wellbeing was affected due to concerns of cost-cutting and restructuring, as well as job security in general. Make wellbeing a routine part of your conversations with your team, allow them to express if they're struggling, and then you can better understand what you can do to support them.

---

Maintaining a thorough and consistent health and safety management system throughout all cycles of the economy will help SMEs prevent notifiable incidents from occurring.

Make health and safety a routine part of daily discussions or meetings, have management lead by example and encourage the cultivation of a health and safety culture at work, proactively identify and manage hazards and risks before they can become a serious problem, and ensure your team is trained properly and feels capable of performing their roles, utilise the support of outside experts if you need help with your health and safety systems, and last but not least, ensure health and safety information is clearly and consistently communicated through signs and markings. All of these work together to cultivate a strong health and safety environment at work.