WorkSafe New Zealand, ACC and MBIE work to reduce workplace injuries and deaths, and to improve work-related health outcomes in Aotearoa. Ackama was engaged to build the SafePlus tool, a self assessment application which is filled out by workers across an organisation, to identify gaps in health and safety policy and provide support to improve performance.

Ackama’s solution leveraged the experience and codebase from building the NZ Navigator tool. Both of these applications faced the same broad challenges, such as:

• consistent scoring of complex measures across non-expert users,
• transforming a compliance burden into valuable data and advice,
• engaging users to return and update progress over time for meaningful change,
• delivering timely information to help users improve their own practices.

Central to the success of this project was that business owners would feel informed and empowered to make positive changes in their workplaces. The system was built upon a complex algorithm which records answers from workers in different groups (senior managers, frontline staff, etc) and when the requisite minimum number of people in different groups have filled in the survey it determines what advice to produce in the different sections of the survey. This advice is produced by the WorkSafe Education and Guidance team to ensure it is thorough and up-to-date. 

Test automation and performance testing were incorporated throughout the project.  Several rounds of user testing were done, with client stakeholders watching from a second room as the tests were happening in real time, incorporating feedback and making continuous improvements to the tool. 

The SafePlus tool caters to all sorts of businesses of different sizes, in multiple locations and across different sectors. It provides ‘dashboard reports’ that illustrate their aggregated overall performance across the business and perception gaps between business roles. Crucially, it provides advice and support to help businesses improve in particular areas, and track their progress.