The Corrs Workplace Relations team is pleased to present our third annual review of the Australian employment, workplace and safety landscape.

In this year's review, we have chosen to explore five key issues that we consider Australian employers need to be engaging with in the modern workplace:-

  • digital disruption and the future of work
  • Australia's 21st century infrastructure needs
  • the public sector workforce
  • social enterprises and the not-for-profit sector
  • business culture and risk

These five themes are discussed in detail and examined in the context of safety, risk and culture.

The new, thematic approach taken in this publication reflects the increasing integration of issues that have traditionally been siloed into the categories of employment, discrimination, industrial relations and safety.

We hope you find this year's publication insightful and relevant.

Access a short summary of the review here or click here to download the full report.

If you wish to discuss anything raised in the Mid-Year Review further, please don't hesitate to contact one of our workplace relations partners listed to the right.

TEXT VERSION

Hi I'm John Tuck. I'm a partner here at Corrs and leader of our Workplace Health & Safety practice.

This year our Mid-Year Review focuses firmly on future organisations and builds on last years' thinking around the sharing economy and its impact on the Australian employment landscape.

At Corrs we consider the critical issue to be the ability of organisations to be adaptive to change and the drive to remain competitive and get the most out of their resources and talents.

We also see the force of digital disruption on our clients, as this impacts the fundamentals of work – how we work, when we work, and where we work. The challenges are very real. Forty percent of knowledge worker jobs are likely to be replaced by technological enhancements over the next ten to fifteen years. Automation continues to deliver new ways of doing old work. This poses a number of questions:

  • How will the traditional approaches to labour regulation shift to keep pace?
  • What changes will various sectors have to make as technology and automation disrupts traditional business models?
  • How are we organised to deliver on the increasing infrastructure needs in Australia in a cost effective way?

We also consider a number of key areas. First our specialists consider the public sector. The public sector is coming under increasing demand for its services whilst also experiencing considerable constraint on its budgets. We look at how the public sector is looking to deliver in a more innovative and agile way.

And we present our experiences in the growing social bond and social enterprise area is one in which government seeks to fund key social needs. We look at how organisations will respond to the impacts on health and safety, privacy, security and the developments in chain of responsibility and we ask the question of how culture and risk intersect.

This is a conversation, let us know what you think?

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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