What Are Workplace Incidents

What are workplace incidents? Broadly, any unplanned event that caused harm or could have. The definition is wider than what most organisations actually record.

Recorded almost everywhere. Injuries requiring medical treatment, lost time injuries, and damage to property or plant.

Recorded inconsistently. Near misses, where nobody was hurt but the circumstances were the same. First aid only events. Hazards noticed but not yet realised.

Rarely recorded at all. Psychosocial incidents. Aggression from a client, a bullying episode, exposure to a distressing event. These meet the definition and almost never reach an incident form, because the form was designed for physical injury.

That last gap matters, because psychosocial hazards now carry the same management duty as physical ones, and you cannot manage what nobody ever records.

Safe Work Australia covers incident duties. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s incident reporting software and risk management system.