In every organisation, workplace health and safety (WHS) begins with leadership. Under Australia’s WHS laws, company officers, including directors, CEOs and senior executives, must demonstrate due diligence in ensuring their organisation meets its health and safety duties. This responsibility is active, ongoing, and personal.
But officers often aren’t health and safety specialists. They rely on the expertise and leadership of WHS Managers to meet these obligations. The WHS Manager’s role is pivotal, not only in maintaining safe systems and practices, but in guiding and informing the executive so they can lead on WHS with confidence and credibility.
It’s the WHS Manager who builds the bridge between strategy and operations, between boardroom decisions and frontline outcomes. Supporting officer due diligence isn’t a side responsibility. It’s central to the WHS Manager’s purpose.
Understanding the officer’s duty
Under the model WHS Act, officers must exercise due diligence. This includes:
- Staying informed about WHS matters
- Understanding the nature of the organisation’s operations and associated risks
- Ensuring appropriate resources and processes are in place to manage risks
- Responding to incidents and identifying areas for improvement
- Ensuring compliance processes are functioning
- Verifying the effectiveness of the above efforts
This is not a box-ticking exercise. Officers must lead WHS through informed decision-making, resource allocation, and cultural influence. They cannot defer this duty to someone else.
However, officers depend on accurate insight and timely advice to meet their obligations. They need someone inside the business who can translate WHS performance into meaningful information and flag risks before they escalate. That’s the job of the WHS Manager.
Leadership through influence
WHS Managers often sit outside the executive team but hold significant influence. Their insight into risks, compliance gaps, and frontline culture provides a unique perspective on organisational health. Their ability to influence depends not only on technical knowledge but also on how well they engage senior leadership.
This influence must be used with purpose. Supporting officers involves more than delivering reports or facilitating audits. It means leading up, actively engaging the executive, prompting action, and challenging decisions that compromise safety.
That’s not always easy. Executive priorities often focus on financials, operations or strategy. WHS Managers must ensure safety stays on the agenda, not through fear or compliance pressure, but through clear, evidence-based advocacy.
The role in action
Here’s how WHS Managers can actively support officer due diligence:
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Provide clarity
Senior leaders need accurate, relevant WHS information. Data overload is common, but insight is rare. WHS Managers should present information that highlights key risks, emerging trends, and performance gaps, clearly linked to business impact.
How?
Use analysis and visualisation to show the current state, track actions, and identify areas that need executive-level attention. Replace technical jargon with risk language executives use in financial or operational settings. Make WHS performance part of the leadership conversation.
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Keep WHS knowledge current
WHS Managers help officers stay up to date by providing briefings, sharing regulatory updates, and explaining implications for the business. When the laws or codes change or industry risks shift, executives need to know what that means in practical terms.
How?
Offer tailored updates that focus on accountability and impact. Encourage executives to participate in site visits and engage directly with workers. Exposure to real-world operations strengthens understanding and builds credibility.
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Align WHS and business strategy
WHS is often seen as a compliance issue but it’s also a leadership opportunity. WHS Managers can highlight how health and safety connects with broader goals like workforce retention, operational stability, and brand reputation.
How?
By linking WHS to business value, safety becomes part of strategic decision-making. This supports due diligence by making health and safety an executive priority, not a delegated task.
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Monitor and verify systems
Officers must verify that WHS systems and processes are effective. WHS Managers support this by ensuring systems are functioning, gaps are identified, and corrective actions are implemented.
How?
More than maintaining compliance, this involves a cycle of review, refinement, and assurance. Internal audits, management reviews, consultation outcomes, and incident analysis all contribute to this picture. WHS Managers provide the evidence officers need to meet their verification duty.
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Lead a culture of accountability
Due diligence doesn’t sit in a spreadsheet; it shows up in decisions, behaviours, and culture. WHS managers influence culture through their visibility, responsiveness, and consistency. When they hold themselves and others accountable, the standard is clear.
How?
Executives watch what their WHS leaders tolerate, reinforce, and reward. A WHS Manager who engages openly, raises concerns early, and follows through on actions sends a powerful message. This leadership supports officers by showing what WHS accountability looks like in practice.
Beyond compliance
The consequences of failing to meet due diligence obligations are significant. Penalties, prosecution, reputational damage, and workplace harm all stem from a lack of leadership. Regulators no longer accept ignorance or passive compliance. They expect to see proactive WHS governance.
But the goal isn’t just to avoid legal consequences. WHS due diligence is a cornerstone of good business leadership. It protects people, builds trust, and strengthens performance. WHS Managers make this possible, not by doing the executive’s job, but by enabling and influencing it.
Conclusion
WHS Managers play a vital role in ensuring the success of health and safety at all levels of the organisation. Officers are legally accountable for WHS performance, but they require the right support to fulfil these obligations.
That support doesn’t come from passive compliance. It comes from WHS Managers who are willing to step into a leadership space, advising, informing, influencing, and when necessary, challenging decisions that put people or performance at risk.
By providing clarity, insight, and assurance, WHS Managers help officers meet their legal duties and lead health and safety with integrity. In doing so, they create stronger, safer workplaces where responsibility is shared, and leadership is visible.
Building the capability to lead and audit
Too often, WHS Managers are expected to provide this level of leadership without the right training or tools. Understanding ISO 45001 and how it aligns with WHS due diligence obligations is critical; so too is learning how to audit effectively, influence executive thinking, and lead cultural change.
Our 3-day WHS Due Diligence Lead Auditor training, delivered in partnership with Mills Oakley, has been developed for professionals who want to lead WHS with purpose and provide clear, credible support to the executive.
What the course covers:
- How to plan, lead, and report on WHS audits against ISO 45001
- How to assess the effectiveness of WHS systems and controls
- How to evaluate leadership and due diligence in practice
- How to build influence and communicate effectively with senior leaders
- How to support officers in meeting their legal obligations
This is more than a technical course. It’s an opportunity to build the skills that matter most when supporting WHS leadership at an organisational level.
Enrol in our 3-day WHS Due Diligence Lead Auditor training
Our 1-day WHS Due Diligence Refresher is for WHS professionals who have already completed our OH&S Lead Auditor course (or equivalent).
Delivered in partnership with Mills Oakley, this focused course provides:
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An update on WHS due diligence expectations
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Practical guidance on applying obligations in today’s context
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Insight into recent changes in regulation and best practice
It’s designed to help experienced auditors and WHS leaders stay current and apply due diligence with confidence.
Enrol in our 1-day WHS Due Diligence Refresher training
A stronger approach to WHS leadership
Regulators expect accountability. Workers expect safe, healthy workplaces. Communities expect responsible leadership. WHS Managers help make that possible.
By developing skills in auditing, risk assessment, system evaluation, and executive engagement, WHS professionals are better placed to influence the decisions that affect health and safety outcomes.
Our training, whether the 3-day WHS Due Diligence Lead Auditor course or the 1-day WHS Due Diligence Refresher, prepares you for that role by combining audit capability with a deep understanding of due diligence and its practical application.
Join the next course and gain the knowledge and tools to lead WHS audits, strengthen governance, and support executives with confidence.
