← Business Compliance Health Check
A connected starting point for New Zealand businesses: understand your duties, organise practical controls and follow through using NZQC's existing tools.
A PCBU must ensure health and safety so far as reasonably practicable. Officers have their own due diligence duties. Accountability cannot be transferred simply by purchasing a template.
Practical action: Identify who owns decisions, controls, resources and follow-up.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Identify hazards and manage work risks using reasonably practicable controls. What is required depends on the actual work, exposure and applicable regulations.
Practical action: Walk through work activities with workers, record significant risks and verify controls.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Engage with workers who are or are likely to be directly affected by work health and safety matters, so far as reasonably practicable. Maintain appropriate worker participation practices.
Practical action: Set a practical route for reporting, consultation and feedback.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Some work-related deaths, serious injuries or illnesses and dangerous incidents are notifiable. Preserve sites and notify the regulator where required; do not assume every minor incident is notifiable.
Practical action: Train staff on immediate response and escalation. Confirm notifiability using WorkSafe guidance.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Track owners, due dates and evidence that controls were implemented and are effective. A CAPA register is a useful management tool, not a universally prescribed legal document.
Practical action: Review overdue actions and test whether changes reduced the risk.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
PCBUs must provide information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect people from work risks, so far as reasonably practicable. Course completion alone does not demonstrate competence.
Practical action: Map tasks to required instruction, supervision and competency evidence.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Where multiple PCBUs share a duty, they must consult, cooperate and coordinate activities so far as reasonably practicable. A contract does not automatically remove a PCBU's duties.
Practical action: Agree shared hazards, interfaces, controls and escalation responsibilities.
NZ legislation or regulator guidance → · Existing NZQC resource →
Identify risks → engage workers → implement controls → respond to incidents → close corrective actions → review effectiveness. Start with the free business health check, then follow the linked tools above. Do not rely on a completed checklist as proof that workplace risks are controlled.
Read the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and relevant regulations directly for authoritative wording.
Source review: 10 November 2026. Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and WorkSafe NZ public guidance. Sector-specific regulations and any incorporated technical standards must be separately checked where applicable.