The Importance Of Health Surveillance In The Workplace

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The COVID-19 pandemic has remained at the forefront of everyone’s minds over the last two years, meaning workplace health surveillance testing has understandably fallen to the wayside. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic starting to settle down a little here in Australia, now is the perfect time to get your regular employee health monitoring back on track, helping you ensure your team remains happy and healthy at work.

This process is known as health surveillance and enables you to monitor your employee’s health, ensuring your team members are not adversely affected by potential hazards in your workplace.

Here is a further in-depth look at health surveillance in the workplace:

What is ‘Health Surveillance’?

Health surveillance is a system of ongoing health checks, conducted within a workplace during the pre-employment period, as well as during an employee’s time working within a business. These health checks may be required by law for employees who are exposed to noise or vibration, fumes, dust, chemicals and other hazardous substances.

The frequency of health surveillance activities varies from industry to industry and company to company depending on regulatory requirements, internal policies and processes.

What is health surveillance important for?

Health surveillance is important for businesses in a range of industries, as they assist in providing employers with valuable information pertaining to the health of their employees and how their work environment impacts their overall health and wellbeing.

Health surveillance assists in:

  • Detecting ill-health effects at an early stage, allowing employers to introduce better controls to prevent them from getting worse.
  • Providing data to help employers evaluate health risks in their workplace.
  • Enabling employees to raise concerns about how work impacts their overall health.
  • Providing an opportunity to reinforce employee training and ongoing education.

It’s important to note that health surveillance is a legal requirement in some industries and should not be confused with regular workplace wellbeing checks (such as promoting healthy living amongst employees), fitness to work examinations (such as fitness to operate cranes or drive a forklift) and activities to monitor health where the effects from work are strongly suspected and are difficult to establish.

How we can help?

We’re excited to announce that Bodycare have recently expanded our health surveillance offering into the medical assessment space, complementing our functional offering and allowing us to become a one-stop shop for our diverse range of clients.

To learn more about how we can help you implement health surveillance in your workplace, get in touch with our team at 03 8317 5303.