HFE team departs WorkSafe leaving valuable resources

Marion Edwin | 28 February 2025

It is with sadness that I write to formally advise that WorkSafe has disestablished all the human factors/ergonomics (HFE) roles, and the programme of work we were carrying out targeting musculoskeletal health risk.

Many of you were aware of this possibility, and we thank you for the support we received as we endeavoured to remain within WorkSafe.

I encourage NZISM members to continue to use the musculoskeletal resources that can be found on the WorkSafe website. The following documents will support businesses and OHS professionals to improve their understanding and approach to musculoskeletal health risk management:

musculoskeletal health position document
work-related musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors quick guide
definitions documents, and
the position statement on ‘how to lift’ training.

Further to the new musculoskeletal risk assessment tools and manual handling screening tools that you may have already seen (the New Zealand version of the Manual Handling Assessment Charts (NZMAC), the Contributing Factors for Musculoskeletal Risks Checklist, and the screening tools for lifting and lowering, carrying, pushing and pulling, and manual handling-while-seated) we are about to publish the final two risk assessment tools in this suite.

So keep an eye out for the addition of the New Zealand version of the Risk Assessment for Pushing and Pulling (NZRAPP), and the NZ Assessment of Repetitive Tasks (NZART- I have included the links to our pages with the UK tools, but ours aren’t quite there yet) and a number of reports on the development of these tools and resources and our overall programme. We hope that these resources will assist you to work with businesses to reduce the workplace risks that workers are exposed to.

Finally, we draw your attention to the importance of notifying WorkSafe where workers are being exposed to health risks, including musculoskeletal health risks. These can be notified via raise a health or safety concern of the formal notify WorkSafe page. Despite the high levels of musculoskeletal harm, WorkSafe has historically received very few notifications regarding musculoskeletal concerns. This may therefore be an avenue to draw the regulator’s attention to businesses with risks that impact worker health.

It is my hope that we may see the development of training for professionals in the use of these new to New Zealand musculoskeletal risk screening and assessment tools. Unfortunately the lead for this will not be from WorkSafe at this time.

I wish you all the best in your work.

Ngā mihi

Marion