Quick Answer
What are workplace incidents? A workplace incident is any unplanned event at work that causes, or could have caused, injury, illness, damage or harm. Incidents include injuries, near misses, dangerous incidents, property damage, security or privacy breaches and psychosocial events such as bullying, harassment or aggression. Record every incident, investigate the cause and fix it so it does not happen again. Only notifiable incidents must be reported to your WHS regulator.
In this guide
Workplace incidents and breaches in policies can disrupt business processes, services, or functions.
They can also lead to monetary and reputational loss for an organisation.
If an organisation does not report and negate workplace incidents as far as is reasonably practicable, there can be greater consequences.
Let’s understand what workplace incidents are, their reporting and follow-up, and how an HRMS can help.
What Are Workplace Incidents?
Workplace incidents are issues that risk the health, safety and security of an organisation’s employees working at a company premise, site, or remotely.
As mentioned above, ignoring workplace incidents can result in huge losses.
Organisations must invest in resolving such incidents from the moment they first occur.
The types of incidents vary based on industries and businesses.
Common Types of Workplace Incidents
Most workplace incidents fall into a handful of groups. Knowing the type helps your team record the right details and take the right first step.
| Type of incident | Examples | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| Injury or illness | Cuts, burns, sprains, manual handling injuries, illness from exposure to chemicals | Give first aid, get medical help and record the details |
| Near miss | A falling object that misses someone, a forklift that nearly hits a pedestrian | Record it and fix the cause before someone is hurt |
| Dangerous incident | An uncontrolled gas leak, an electric shock, a fire or explosion, a structural collapse | Make the area safe, preserve the site and check whether it is notifiable |
| Property or equipment damage | A vehicle collision, damaged machinery, a burst pipe or flooding | Isolate the equipment and record the damage |
| Psychosocial incident | Bullying, sexual harassment, aggression from a customer, a traumatic event | Support the person, record it confidentially and follow your complaint process |
| Security or privacy breach | Theft, unauthorised access to the building, personal information sent to the wrong person, a phishing attack | Contain the breach and check whether the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies |
| Environmental incident | A chemical spill or a leak into stormwater | Contain it and check your state environment regulator’s reporting rules |
Some of these are also notifiable incidents under WHS laws, such as a death, a serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident. Our guide to notifiable incidents in Australia explains what must be reported to the regulator and when.
What Is Incident Reporting?
Incident reporting is the process of recording all details about an incident, which can be related to workplace safety, security, property damage, etc. and acknowledging the nominated contacts for their follow-up and resolution.
It can be done for any type of workplace or remote working incidents.
The follow-up of incident reports includes incident investigation, hazard report, review, and corrective action.
This process helps identify the risks, failures, and hazards that resulted in an incident and improves them to prevent them from occurring in the future. For the investigation step itself, our accident investigation training course shows how to work out what happened and why.
The Role of an HRMS In Incident Reporting
Incident reporting was originally done using paper-based traditional systems until very recently.
This process was time-consuming and prone to errors and privacy breaches.
However, the introduction of automation for incident reporting in businesses has streamlined this process.
Online incident reporting software has also become an important component of a human resource management system.
It leads to better management of every type of incident across an organisation so that each one is followed up with investigations, the identity of the causes and, more importantly, corrective actions.
Listed below are some of the features of an HRMS system for incident reporting.
1. Efficient Management Throughout the Incident Lifecycle
An HRMS allows you to manage the entire incident and breach lifecycle from when it occurred till resolution.
This incident lifecycle involves stages such as investigation, analysis, correction, etc.
An incident reporting system allows all authorised users to access all the required information and the status of an incident report from a centralised database.
2. Automated Communication Workflow
Continuous communication is a requirement when managing a workplace incident.
An incident reporting system also helps users send out automated alerts to selected team members based on the severity of the incident.
Management is empowered to respond quickly and arrange precautionary measures to prevent further issues.
It frees HR or concerned employees from having to remind other employees about the progress of the incident continually.
3. Realtime and Platform-Independent
A well-crafted HRMS should be able to be accessed using a variety of hardware and operating system platforms.
Hence, it allows users to gather all incident information and feed it into the system as and when they occur.
The incident reporting module of an HRMS can be used through a workstation or tablet device.
This makes the reporting more accurate as no incident information is lost in transition.
Benefits of Incident Reporting Software
Mitigate risks
Future risks of monetary and reputation loss can be avoided if each incident is recorded and analysed carefully.
Without appropriate reporting, corrective actions, and strategic changes, incidents tend to repeat, resulting in similar losses being incurred time and again.
Limit disruptions
When all incidents are studied carefully and acted upon so they are prevented in the future, a company can limit the disruptions occurring to its processes, services, and functions.
Support compliance
WHS laws require a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) to notify the regulator of notifiable incidents and keep a record of each one for at least 5 years. Recording other incidents and near misses too is good practice and shows how you are managing risks.
Incident reporting software can help businesses comply with these regulations and generate audit-ready reports whenever required.
Gain complete transparency
Empowered by HRMS and incident reporting software, every authorised user can access the required information.
The centralised and readily accessible database brings transparency to a process that used to be cumbersome and hence prone to errors or misrepresentation of data.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between an incident, an accident and a near miss?
An incident is the broad term for any unplanned event at work that causes, or could cause, harm. An accident is an incident that results in injury, illness or damage. A near miss is an incident where no one was hurt and nothing was damaged, but it could easily have happened. Recording near misses helps you fix hazards before they cause harm.
2. Do all workplace incidents have to be reported to the regulator?
No. Only notifiable incidents must be reported to your WHS regulator. These are the death of a person, a serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident arising out of the business or undertaking. You must notify the regulator immediately after becoming aware of it and preserve the site. Updates to the model laws published in December 2025 add violent incidents and some extended absences and suicides, but these apply only once your state or territory adopts them, so check with your regulator.
3. Should psychosocial incidents such as bullying be recorded?
Yes. WHS laws cover psychological health as well as physical health. Recording bullying, harassment, aggression and traumatic events helps you spot patterns and manage psychosocial hazards. Keep these records confidential and limit who can see them.
4. Who should report a workplace incident?
Any worker who is involved in or sees an incident should report it to their supervisor, or through your incident reporting system, as soon as possible. Contractors and volunteers should be able to report too. The person conducting the business or undertaking (PCBU) is responsible for notifying the regulator when an incident is notifiable.
5. How long should incident records be kept?
A record of each notifiable incident must be kept for at least 5 years from the day notice is given to the regulator. Many organisations keep all incident records for the same period so trends and repeat issues are easy to track.
6. How does an HRMS help report workplace incidents?
An HRMS with incident reporting lets workers log an incident from a phone, tablet or computer, sends alerts to the right people based on severity and tracks each incident through investigation and corrective action. Every record sits in one place, which makes trends easier to see and audits easier to prepare for.
The Takeaway
An effective incident reporting system supports an efficient and effective incident reporting process.
Sentrient’s HR management system comes with in-built incident and breach reporting software that allows users to easily manage workplace safety and security incidents, breaches, and whistleblowing incidents.
Contact Sentrient HR today to make your workforce aware of the process of incident reporting and take one more step towards becoming a responsible employer.
Sources
Safe Work Australia: Incident notification, reporting an incident
Safe Work Australia: Notifiable incidents, extended absences and suicides handbook
Safe Work Australia: Psychosocial hazards
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: Notifiable data breaches
Last reviewed: October 2026
Read More About Incident Reporting Software :
- Best Practices For Incident Management In Australian Businesses
- Tracking Psychosocial Hazards With Incident Reporting Software
- Benefits of Mobile-First Incident Reporting Software
- Top 10 Incident Management System Platforms In 2026
- The 10 Best Incident Reporting Software In Australia For 2026
- How Important Is Incident Reporting For Better Compliance
- How To Select An HRIS For Mid-Size Companies
