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What WHS consulting services typically cover

Across a formal engagement with a WHS consultant, the scope of work usually spans:

  • Hazard identification and risk assessments.
  • Health and safety procedures and safe systems of work.
  • Consultation arrangements with workers and health and safety representatives.
  • Emergency management and evacuation planning.
  • Incident investigation and corrective action.
  • Reviewing and updating workplace conditions to address health and safety issues.
  • Safety training for workers and managers.
  • Assessing risks related to both physical and occupational health hazards.
  • Ongoing compliance monitoring to support continuous improvement.
An engineer accessing WHS software on the work site

The role of health and safety representatives and safety committees

WHS legislation gives workers the right to elect health and safety representatives (HSRs). These representatives can raise health and safety concerns on behalf of workers and request assistance from the business.

Once an HSR has completed the approved five-day training with a regulator-approved provider, they can also issue a provisional improvement notice.

Knowing how best to utilise HSRs isn’t always clear. A WHS consultant helps businesses understand how to work effectively with HSRs, set up safety committees where appropriate, and ensure the work health and safety consultation process genuinely reflects the safety interests of all affected workers, not just those who raise their hand loudest.

What a WHS consultant is responsible for

A WHS consultant works in two ways: practically, and as an advisor. They don’t just flag problems, they help you understand the safety risks in your specific work environment and take the steps needed to control them.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

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Identifying hazards and assessing risks

A WHS consultant carries out systematic hazard identification, examining your physical environment, work processes, and how your team operates day to day. From there, they conduct thorough risk assessments to determine the likelihood and severity of each hazard and recommend proportionate controls. Identifying hazards early is the most effective way to prevent workplace injuries before they occur.

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Developing safety procedures and health and safety decisions

Once risks are understood, a consultant translates that knowledge into clear health and safety procedures your team can follow – safe systems of work, method statements, or emergency protocols, all in terms that make sense.

Good health and safety decisions start with accurate information. A consultant gives you access to the specific information you need to make informed decisions that make sense for your business.

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Structuring consultation arrangements

Effective consultation is a legal requirement under Australia’s WHS legislation. A WHS consultant helps you effectively consult workers and put the right consultation arrangements in place, whether that involves health and safety representatives, a safety committee, or work groups. The goal is a two way process that gives affected workers a reasonable opportunity to provide feedback in a proactive and reciprocal way before safety decisions are made.

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Supporting worker participation

Worker participation is an essential part of any effective safety program. A consultant helps you build structures that support workers raising work health and safety concerns through formal channels – a health and safety committee, a safety representative, or an issue resolution process. When workers feel confident to raise WHS issues early, safety culture improves.

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Coordinating ongoing risk management

A WHS consultant doesn’t just identify risks, they help keep them in check over time, assessing risks as your business changes and reviewing workplace conditions after incidents or near misses. Where more than one business or more than one person shares responsibility, they help you to coordinate actions and define responsibilities clearly.

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Issuing practical guidance and navigating legal requirements

You’ll receive clear, practical guidance on your obligations under Australia’s Work Health and Safety legislation, including your primary duty of care and how it applies when other people are present in your workplace. A consultant helps clarify who is responsible for what, and how to respond appropriately if a provisional improvement notice is issued.

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Who takes on the safety duty in your workplace

Under Australia’s WHS legislation, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must ensure the health and safety of workers and others in the workplace, including contractors, visitors, and in some situations, members of the public.

Where more than one duty holder shares responsibility for the same matter, each must consult, cooperate, and coordinate. A consultant helps you ensure health and safety requirements are met across all parties, keep workplace health and safety standards consistent, and manage situations where different parties’ work might affect health and safety on the same site. Managing work health obligations across multiple parties is where expert guidance makes the difference.

Even when a WHS consultant takes on significant responsibility, the person conducting the business retains responsibility for health and safety outcomes. Consultation doesn’t transfer the duty – it supports you in discharging it.

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When to engage a WHS consultant

Work health and safety consultation is valuable at any stage of a business’s development, but it’s particularly important when:

  • You’re unsure whether your current safety systems meet your legal obligations.
  • You’ve experienced a workplace incident or near miss and need to identify root causes.
  • Your business is growing and your safety procedures haven’t kept pace.
  • You operate in environments where more than one business shares safety responsibilities.
  • Your workers have raised work health and safety concerns that need to be properly addressed.
  • You want to establish a health and safety committee or health and safety representative structure.
  • A regulator has indicated your workplace conditions need improvement.
  • You need training for workers in high-risk roles.
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How Citation Group approaches work health and safety consultation

Our WHS consulting service is built around your business, not a generic safety template.

When you work with Citation Group, you get a consultant who takes time to understand your work environment, your industry’s specific hazards, and where the real risks sit in your operations. From there, we help you build the systems, procedures, and consultation arrangements your business needs, and stay with you as things evolve.

Our consultants are backed by an in-house team of experienced workplace lawyers, which means the safety procedures and practical guidance you receive are always current, legally sound, and built to withstand scrutiny.

Whether you need an initial WHS consultation to understand your position, or ongoing support to manage your health and safety responsibilities over time, we’re ready to help.

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Got burning questions? We’ve got answers

WHS consultation is the legal process of engaging workers on health and safety matters before decisions are made that affect them. WHS consulting services is the broader professional advisory work a consultant provides, including risk assessments, safety procedures, and compliance support. Consultation with workers is one part of that wider service. WHS consulting covers the full scope of workplace health and safety management.

Yes, consulting workers on health and safety matters is a legal requirement under Australia’s Work Health and Safety legislation. You must consult in a timely manner, give affected workers a reasonable opportunity to provide feedback, and take that feedback into account before making safety decisions. This applies to all relevant workers, including employees, contractors, and other persons whose work health or safety is directly affected. A consultant helps you put the right WHS consultation arrangements in place to meet this obligation.

A health and safety representative (HSR) is a worker elected to represent the health and safety interests of their work group. HSRs can raise work health and safety concerns, request assistance, and participate in risk management activities. If an HSR has completed their approved five-day training, they also have the power to issue a provisional improvement notice. A consultant helps you work constructively with health and safety representatives and ensure the WHS consultation process genuinely captures workers’ safety interests.

A provisional improvement notice (PIN) is a formal notice issued by a trained health and safety representative when they reasonably believe a WHS contravention is occurring or likely to occur. Only an HSR who has completed their approved five-day training has the power to issue a PIN. A WHS consultant can help you respond appropriately and reduce the likelihood of a PIN being issued in the future.

When more than one business shares responsibility for a workplace, such as construction projects with principal contractors and subcontractors, or shared facilities, each duty holder has WHS consultation obligations. Where the same duty is shared, each person must make reasonable efforts to consult, cooperate, and coordinate with the other duty holders. A consultant helps you map those responsibilities, establish clear WHS consultation arrangements, and ensure no gaps exist between parties.