Quick Answer
What are the WHS responsibilities of supervisors and managers? Supervisors and managers must take reasonable care for their own and others’ safety and carry out the business’s WHS duties in their area: identifying hazards, controlling risks using the hierarchy of control, consulting workers, reporting incidents and making sure workers are trained and supervised. Senior managers who are officers also have a personal duty of due diligence.
In this guide
- Why is creating a safe and healthy workplace for supervisors and managers course important?
- What responsibilities do supervisors and managers have when it comes to eliminating work health and safety incidents in the workplace?
- What does the Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers online course cover?
- What topics are covered in the Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers online course?
- WHS Duties of Supervisors and Managers Under Australian Law
- Why would you deliver the creating a safe and healthy workplace for supervisors and managers training at your workplace?
- FAQs
- Other online compliance courses for supervisors and managers
Sentrient is proud to release the new Creating a Safe and healthy workplace online course as its latest online course that forms part of a series of online compliance courses to help supervisors and managers take proactive steps to mitigate against breaches of safety, invasion of privacy, and incidents of bullying, discrimination, and sexual harassment.
Why is creating a safe and healthy workplace for supervisors and managers course important?
Supervisors and managers have a duty to act on behalf of their employer to prevent and respond to work health and safety incidents, both physical and mental. This requires supervisors and managers to take proactive steps to mitigate against work health and safety incidents.
What responsibilities do supervisors and managers have when it comes to eliminating work health and safety incidents in the workplace?
Education
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to understand the law relating to work health and safety, recognise the drivers and impacts of health and safety issues, and assist others how in identifying and responding to risks to health and safety through information sharing.
Identify, assess, and control risks
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to identify workplace health and safety risks and implement effective systems such as consultation with employees, regular workplace inspections, review of control measures, development of safe work procedures and analyses of records.
Prevention
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to contribute to the development, implementation and continuous improvement of your employers’ work health and safety policy, procedures, and/or prevention plan.
Set and maintain standards
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to set and maintain standards for a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace.
Risk management
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to contribute to a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace culture by considering the factors that may give rise to risks of work health and safety incidents in your workplace and implementing measures to mitigate those risks.
Reporting and responding
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to address incidents of work health and safety consistently and confidentially, to hold wrongdoers accountable for their conduct, to support all staff, and to demonstrate to bystanders that your employer has zero tolerance for behaviour that is considered unsafe in the workplace.
Monitoring and evaluation
Supervisors and managers have a responsibility to participate in the monitoring and evaluation of your employer’s prevention plan for eliminating work health and safety incidents in the workplace.
What does the Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers online course cover?
This online course on creating a safe and healthy workplace for supervisors and managers will help you to circumvent instances of work health and safety incidents and includes guidelines for responding to concerns about work health and safety in the workplace.
What topics are covered in the Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers online course?
The topics covered in the Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers course are:
- What is a safe and healthy workplace?
- Duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace
- Developing mental health strategies
- Responding to incidents that pose a threat to work health and safety
- Reporting health and safety incidents in the workplace
- How to manage work health and safety risks
- Contributing to a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace
WHS Duties of Supervisors and Managers Under Australian Law
Under the model WHS laws, the business carries the primary duty, but supervisors and managers play a central part in meeting it. Some senior managers are also “officers” with a personal duty of due diligence. Safe Work Australia data shows 222 workers were killed at work in 2025, the highest toll since 2012, which is why these roles matter.
| Who | Duty under the model WHS laws | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| The business (PCBU) | Primary duty of care for the health and safety of workers and others, so far as is reasonably practicable | Provide safe systems of work, training, supervision and a way to report hazards |
| Officers (senior managers who make decisions affecting the whole or a substantial part of the business) | Due diligence to make sure the business meets its WHS duties | Know the risks, provide resources and check that controls work |
| Supervisors and managers as workers | Take reasonable care for their own and others’ safety and follow reasonable instructions | Model safe behaviour, act on hazards and follow WHS procedures |
| Supervisors and managers in their role | Carry out the business’s duties day to day | Consult workers, manage risks in their area, report incidents and support injured workers |
Risk management for supervisors and managers in 5 steps
- Identify hazards: walk the floor, review incidents and ask workers what worries them, including psychosocial hazards such as workload and conflict.
- Assess the risk: consider how likely harm is and how serious it could be.
- Control the risk: use the hierarchy of control, starting with eliminating the hazard before relying on procedures or PPE.
- Consult: involve workers and health and safety representatives before deciding on controls.
- Review: check controls still work after an incident, a change at work or a concern raised by workers.
Why would you deliver the creating a safe and healthy workplace for supervisors and managers training at your workplace?
Work Health and Safety (WHS) is a serious issue, and supervisors and managers should be aware of their roles and duties to eliminate work-related incidents to the extent possible or minimise them. Apart from physical safety, they should also understand the impact that mental health issues can have in your workplace.
Businesses have a duty to provide a safe workplace, so far as is reasonably practicable. To achieve this, it is expected that everyone:
- takes care of their own health and safety and that of others while at work, working from home or working in any other location
- works together to keep the work environment healthy and safe.
Once your supervisors and managers have completed this online Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers course, your organisation will be able to:
- Reduce incidents of work health and safety incidents.
- Mitigate the risk of claims for vicarious liability associated with unlawful workplace behaviour carried out by workers or agents.
- Protect your reputation from the damage caused by incidents of workplace health and safety incidents.
- Present a vision for all workers to do the right thing.
- Build a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace culture.
- Gain a competitive advantage by becoming an employer of choice.
Like to learn more?
To find out more about the responsibilities of a supervisor and manager when it comes to creating a safe and healthy workplace, please refer to the Sentrient Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers online course from our website.
FAQs
1. What are the WHS responsibilities of supervisors?
Supervisors must take reasonable care for their own and others’ safety, follow WHS procedures and carry out the business’s safety systems in their area. In practice that means identifying hazards, controlling risks, consulting workers, reporting incidents and making sure workers have the training and supervision they need.
2. Can a manager be personally liable for WHS breaches?
Yes, in some cases. Every worker, including managers, can be prosecuted for failing to take reasonable care. Senior managers who are officers also have a duty of due diligence and face higher penalties if they fail to meet it. Get legal advice for specific situations.
3. Is every manager an officer under WHS law?
No. An officer is someone who makes, or takes part in making, decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business, such as directors and senior executives. Most line managers and supervisors are workers, not officers, although they still have duties.
4. What WHS training do supervisors and managers need?
They need training on WHS duties, risk management, psychosocial hazards, incident reporting and how to consult and support workers. Our WHS course for supervisors and managers covers these topics.
5. What is the hierarchy of control?
It ranks risk controls from most to least effective: eliminate the hazard, substitute it, isolate it, use engineering controls, then administrative controls and finally personal protective equipment. Supervisors should work down the list and rely on lower-level controls only when higher ones are not reasonably practicable.
Other online compliance courses for supervisors and managers
The Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace for Supervisors and Managers training is one of a suite of six online compliance courses that deal with the duty that supervisors and managers have to represent their employer and contribute to a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace culture.
- Preventing and responding to sexual harassment for supervisors and managers
- Preventing and responding to workplace bullying for supervisors and managers
- Creating a safe and mentally healthy workplace for supervisors and managers
- Enabling diversity and workplace flexibility for supervisors and managers
To get a free demonstration of the online course on preventing and responding to workplace bullying for supervisors and managers, please get in touch with us today.
Sources
Federal Register of Legislation: Work Health and Safety Act 2011
Safe Work Australia: Model WHS laws
Safe Work Australia: Identify, assess and control hazards
Safe Work Australia: Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia
Last reviewed: October 2026
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