HR Management

What Workplace Incidents Should Be Reported?

Wraps up in 9 Minutes

Author: Gavin Altus

Published On January 18, 2023

Quick Answer

What incidents should be reported in the workplace? They include work health and safety incidents such as injuries, near misses, hazards and violence, employee relations issues such as bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination, child safety concerns, security and cyber security breaches, whistleblower matters, and infection-related incidents. Report them all internally. Some serious incidents, such as a death, serious injury or dangerous incident, must also be notified to your work health and safety regulator straight away. This is general information, not legal advice.

In this guide

Incidents to report at a glance
1. Child safety
2. COVID-19 and infection
3. Employee relations and HR
4. Security and cyber security
5. Whistleblower matters
6. Work health and safety
Employer responsibilities
FAQs

Businesses have legal obligations to record and report certain workplace incidents, and recording every incident in a timely and appropriate way is good practice.

Failing to do so can result in non-compliance, hefty fines, operational disruption and even reputational damage.

When incidents are not handled correctly, there is a possibility they can reoccur and create the same problems over and over again.

Every business should give employees a simple way to report workplace incidents as and when they occur.

In earlier days, the process of reporting was done using paper-based forms and evidence.

Modern human resource management systems have now automated this process which makes incident reporting more efficient.

The new way of reporting workplace incidents is to implement a one-stop solution that is an HRMS deployed organisation-wide.

All employees can access the incident reporting module and report incidents or breaches with as many details as available.

Being a centralised system, these reports are displayed to the authorised employees across the organisation.

Compliance challenges are also resolved by using the automated incident reporting system.

The advanced HRMS helps employees generate audit-ready incident reports easily.

The only major responsibility of organisations is to educate their employees about what workplace incidents must be reported.

Again, an HRMS can help your workforce learn about incident reporting through workplace learning courses.

Here are some of the workplace or work from home incidents that Sentrient’s HR management software can help your employees report as per compliance requirements.

What Workplace Incidents Should Be Reported?

The table below sums up the six types of workplace incidents that should be reported, with examples of each, and where a report may also need to go outside your business. External reporting rules vary by state, territory and organisation, so treat the last column as a prompt to check, not a full legal list.

Type of incident	Examples	May also need reporting outside the business
1. Child safety	Child safety concerns, breaches and complaints, unsafe environments	Child protection authorities, under mandatory reporting rules that vary by state and territory
2. COVID-19 and infection	Infection control breaches, unsafe practices, illness-related absences	Usually internal. Check current public health and WHS requirements in your state or territory
3. Employee relations and HR	Workplace bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, victimisation, code of conduct breaches	Usually handled internally first. Complaints can later go to bodies such as the Fair Work Commission or the Australian Human Rights Commission
4. Security and cyber security	Cyber security threats and breaches, physical security breaches, theft	The OAIC, if it is an eligible data breach under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme
5. Whistleblower matters	Fraud, bribery, money laundering, conflicts of interest, ethical misconduct	Usually handled through your whistleblower policy. Some disclosures can go to regulators such as ASIC or the ATO
6. Work health and safety	Injuries, near misses, hazards, violence and aggression, emergencies	Your WHS regulator, immediately, if it is a notifiable incident

1. Child safety reporting

Institutions or organisations where children are an integral part must prioritise their safety.

Any potential incidents that threaten children’s safety can also be reported to allow for the prevention of the incident.

An HRMS can be used to report:

Child safety breaches
Child safety concerns
Child safety complaints
Hazards and risks
Mandatory reporting
Unsafe child safe environment

2. Covid-19/Infection reporting

COVID-19 showed how quickly an infectious disease can disrupt a workplace.

Infection risks have not gone away, so incidents related to COVID-19 and other infections still need to be reported and handled with care.

Employers can allow users to report the following using an HRMS:

COVID-19 absences
COVID-19 breaches
Infection Prevention and Control
Misconduct
Unsafe practises
Working from home reporting

3. Employee relations and HR reporting

Encouraging and maintaining professional and friendly work relations among employees is one of the most sensitive HR tasks.

It can be improved by using an HRMS to report the issues or incidents related to the following:

Code of Conduct
Discrimination
Sexual harassment
Unlawful adverse action
Victimisation
Workplace bullying

Reporting these issues matters. In Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025, mental health conditions made up 12% of all serious workers’ compensation claims in 2023-24, up 14.7% on the year before. Dealing with bullying and harassment early, while they are still incidents, is usually easier than dealing with them later as claims.

4. Security and cyber security reporting

Workplace security and cyber security breaches are serious incidents.

Reporting them helps to reduce such incidents or breaches or reduce their impact in the future.

Some of these issues can include:

Cybersecurity threats
Cybersecurity breaches
Physical security threats
Physical security breaches
Theft
Misconduct

5. Whistleblower reporting

Every business must encourage employees to raise their voices against prevailing malpractices that are not in the best interest of their organisation.

Australian whistleblower laws protect people who report certain kinds of wrongdoing, and many companies must have a whistleblower policy.

Some of the issues that can be highlighted using a HRMS include:

Anti-competitive behaviour
Anti-money Laundering
Bribes
Conflict of interest
Ethical misconduct
Fraudulent behaviour

6. Work health and safety reporting

Last but not least, every company must prioritise employee work health and safety.

Providing employees with a safe workplace must be one of the most important duties of an organisation. Employees should draw their employer’s attention to conditions that threaten their health and safety.

This might include:

Accidents
Emergency and evacuations
Hazards and risks
Near misses
Violent and aggressive behaviour
Workplace injuries

Some work health and safety incidents are also notifiable incidents. Employers must tell their work health and safety regulator immediately after becoming aware of a work-related death, a serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident, even if nobody was hurt. Safe Work Australia’s incident reporting guidance notes that the model laws were updated in December 2025 to cover more types of incidents, and that those changes only apply once your state or territory adopts them. Victoria runs its own occupational health and safety laws. Check the current rules with your regulator before changing how you report. Our complete guide to incident reporting covers how to make and manage a report.

Responsibilities of employers

All employers are responsible for educating their workforce about workplace incidents and providing the facility to report any incidents.

That is not all, other employer responsibilities may include:

An employer has to provide appropriate first-aid equipment and facilities
Employees must be made aware of what to do in case of emergencies (evacuation and first aid)
Reporting notifiable incidents to the governing body (state or territory)
Manage incident reports properly for insurance purposes

End Note

Compliance becomes easier when employees are educated about reporting and dealing with workplace incidents properly.

Sentrient’s HR management system can help your employees learn about workplace incidents and how to report such incidents. Sentrient’s incident reporting software gives staff one place to report incidents and lets managers track each report through to resolution.

It includes a wide range of features that allow managers and HR to perform the HR management function easily.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What incidents should be reported at work?

Report work health and safety incidents such as injuries, near misses, hazards and violence, as well as bullying, harassment and discrimination, child safety concerns, security and cyber security breaches, whistleblower matters and infection-related incidents. When in doubt, report it internally and let the right person decide what happens next.

2. Should bullying and harassment be reported as workplace incidents?

Yes. Workplace bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation are workplace incidents and should be reported through your normal process, or through a confidential channel if that feels safer. Bullying and harassment are also psychosocial hazards under work health and safety laws, so they need the same attention as physical hazards.

3. Does a data breach count as a workplace incident?

Yes. Cyber security and data breaches are security incidents and should be reported internally straight away. If a breach is likely to cause serious harm to the people whose information is involved, organisations covered by the Privacy Act may also need to notify the OAIC and the affected individuals under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

4. Do incidents that happen while working from home need to be reported?

Yes. Work health and safety duties still apply when people work from home, so injuries, hazards and other incidents in a home workspace should be reported the same way as incidents at the office or on site.

5. Can employees report workplace incidents anonymously?

Many reporting systems allow anonymous reports, which can help people raise sensitive issues such as bullying, harassment or misconduct. Whistleblower laws also allow some disclosures to be made anonymously. Anonymous reports can be harder to follow up, so where possible give people a way to stay in contact without revealing who they are.

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Reporting and notification duties vary by state and territory, industry and organisation, so check with your regulator or seek legal advice for your situation.