WHS Policy Template: What To Include

Setting up a WHS policy can feel like one of those tasks you know you should do, but keep pushing down the list because the rules feel technical.

The good news is that a useful workplace safety policy doesn't need to be complicated. It needs to explain, in plain English, how your business identifies risks, keeps people safe, responds to incidents and makes sure staff and contractors know what to do.

A template can be a helpful starting point, but your WHS policy should reflect the way your business actually operates, whether that's an office, a cafe, a retail store, a building site or a mobile workforce.

Do You Need A WHS Policy For Your Small Business?

Yes, in most cases you should have a WHS policy if you have staff, contractors, worksites, vehicles, equipment or anyone else affected by your work.

Australian WHS and OHS laws don't always say every business must have a single document called a WHS policy. But they do require you to manage health and safety risks, consult with workers, provide safe systems of work and keep certain records. A written policy is one of the simplest ways to show how you do that in practice.

Each state and territory has its own WHS or OHS laws and regulator. Most jurisdictions follow the model WHS framework, but the Act names and details differ. For example, NSW, Queensland and the ACT have a Work Health and Safety Act 2011, the Northern Territory has the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011, South Australia and Tasmania have 2012 WHS Acts, Western Australia has the Work Health and Safety Act 2020, Victoria has the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, and the Commonwealth has its own WHS Act for the Commonwealth jurisdiction. The practical duty is similar in many places: you need to do what is reasonably practicable to keep people safe.

A WHS policy is especially useful if you:

• Hire employees, casuals, apprentices or trainees
• Use contractors, labour hire workers or subcontractors
• Have customers, patients, clients or visitors at your premises
• Use vehicles, tools, machinery, chemicals or manual handling
• Send people to client sites, events or other temporary workplaces
• Have remote, hybrid or lone workers who need a clear remote work policy

Think of your policy as the front door to your safety system. It doesn't need to include every procedure in full, but it should point people to the rules, forms and processes that apply in your business.

What Should A WHS Policy Template Include?

A WHS policy template should include your safety responsibilities, hazard reporting process, incident response steps, consultation method, training requirements and any work specific rules your team needs to follow.

Here is a practical fill in outline you can adapt. It should still be tailored before you use it with your team, especially if your business has higher risk work or multiple locations.

1. Business Details: Insert your legal business name, ABN or ACN, trading name, locations and the person responsible for WHS.
2. Purpose: Explain that the policy sets out how your business manages work health and safety risks.
3. Who The Policy Applies To: Cover employees, contractors, labour hire workers, volunteers, visitors and others affected by your work.
4. Legal Duties: Refer to your duty to provide a safe workplace so far as reasonably practicable under the WHS Act, OHS Act or equivalent law in your state or territory.
5. Responsibilities: Set out what owners, managers, supervisors, workers and contractors must do.
6. Hazard Identification: Explain how hazards are spotted, reported, assessed and fixed.
7. Risk Controls: Describe how you remove or reduce risks, such as through safe work procedures, equipment, PPE, signage or training.
8. Consultation: State how you consult with workers about safety issues, changes and incidents.
9. Training And Induction: List the training people need before they start work and how often it's refreshed.
10. Incident Reporting: Explain what to report, who to contact, when to report it and what records are kept.
11. Emergency Procedures: Cover evacuations, first aid, fire, violence, medical emergencies and who has authority to act.
12. Remote, Mobile Or Offsite Work: Include rules for travel, client sites, lone work, vehicles and communication check ins.
13. Psychosocial Hazards: Cover risks such as bullying, harassment, fatigue, aggression, high job demands and work related stress.
14. Review And Updates: Say when the policy will be reviewed, who approves changes and how staff will be told.

Templates often miss the details that make the policy usable day to day. For example, a retail store may need a section on aggressive customers and spills, while a cleaning business may need rules for chemical handling, night work and client site access.

How Do You Make A WHS Policy Work For Offices, Retail, Trades And Mobile Teams?

You make a WHS policy work by starting with the actual tasks your team performs, then writing safety rules that match those tasks.

A generic workplace safety policy in Australia may look neat on paper, but it won't help much if it doesn't match the risks in your business. The best approach is to keep the main policy simple, then attach role specific or site specific procedures where needed.

Office Or Professional Services Workplace

Office risks can be easy to underestimate because they don't always involve obvious hazards. Your policy might cover:

• Ergonomic workstation setup for office and home work
• Slips, trips and electrical safety
• Emergency evacuation and first aid
• Mental health and psychosocial hazards
• Remote work check ins, remote work policy rules and data security where safety and systems overlap

Retail, Hospitality Or Customer Facing Business

Customer facing workplaces need clear rules for busy environments. Your policy might cover:

• Manual handling for stock, kegs, crates or deliveries
• Slippery floors, hot surfaces and sharp tools
• Handling aggressive or intoxicated customers
• Food safety procedures where relevant
• Opening and closing procedures, especially for lone workers

Trades, Construction Or Site Based Work

Higher risk work usually needs more than one policy. You may also need safe work method statements, site inductions, licences, permits and contractor management processes. Your policy might cover:

• Plant, tools, ladders, scaffolding and electrical risks
• PPE requirements and who supplies it
• Working at heights, confined spaces or near traffic
• Subcontractor onboarding and site sign in rules
• Stop work authority if something is unsafe

Mobile Or Client Site Work

If your team travels between locations, your policy should cover what happens when you don't control the site. Include:

• Vehicle checks and safe driving expectations
• Working alone or after hours
• Checking client site hazards before work starts
• Phone check ins or escalation steps if someone can't be reached
• What to do if a client asks for unsafe work

Say you run a cleaning business in Brisbane with 12 casual cleaners and 3 regular subcontractors. Your policy could require a 10 minute site induction before each new location, a chemical register for all cleaning products, gloves and eye protection for specific tasks, and a phone check in when someone works alone after 7 pm. Those details are far more useful than a generic promise to provide a safe workplace.

How Does A WHS Policy Help With WHS Or OHS Compliance?

A WHS policy helps with WHS or OHS compliance by turning your legal duties into clear steps your managers, staff and contractors can actually follow.

The key duty under many Australian safety laws is to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. That means you need to weigh up matters such as the likelihood of a risk, the degree of harm that could result, what you know or should know about the risk, available ways to control it, and the cost of those controls.

Your policy won't protect your business if it sits in a folder and no one follows it. What matters is whether your policy is backed up by real action, such as:

• Risk assessments before new work starts
• Inductions for new workers and contractors
• Training records for tools, equipment and procedures
• Consultation notes when safety issues are discussed
• Incident reports and corrective actions
• Regular reviews after changes, near misses or complaints

WHS and OHS laws also require consultation with workers about health and safety matters that affect them. This doesn't always mean formal committees. For a small business, it might be a regular team meeting, a toolbox talk, a shared hazard register or a documented check in when you introduce new equipment.

Psychosocial risks also need attention. Many jurisdictions now deal with psychosocial hazards expressly through WHS regulations, codes of practice or regulator guidance. Your policy should explain how your business responds to issues like bullying, harassment, fatigue, high workloads, poor support, exposure to traumatic material or customer aggression.

For companies, officers such as directors can also have a due diligence duty. In practical terms, that means you need to stay informed about safety matters, make sure the business has suitable resources and processes, and check that those processes are being used.

What Should Your Incident Reporting Process Say?

Your incident reporting process should say what must be reported, who it goes to, how quickly it must be reported and what happens next.

This section is worth being very specific about. If something goes wrong, your team shouldn't have to guess whether it counts as an incident or who needs to know.

Your policy should require workers and contractors to report:

• Injuries, illnesses and medical incidents
• Near misses, even if no one was hurt
• Unsafe equipment, premises or systems of work
• Hazards such as spills, exposed wires, blocked exits or faulty PPE
• Aggression, threats, harassment or violence at work
• Vehicle incidents that happen during work

For serious incidents, WHS or OHS laws may require you to notify your state or territory safety regulator immediately. These are usually called notifiable incidents and can include a death, serious injury or illness, or a dangerous incident. You may also need to preserve the incident site until an inspector arrives or tells you otherwise, unless you need to help an injured person, make the site safe or take essential action.

Records of notifiable incidents generally need to be kept for at least 5 years under the model WHS laws. Even where an incident isn't notifiable, good records help you identify patterns and show what you did to reduce future risk.

A simple process could look like this:

1. Make The Area Safe: Stop work if needed and give first aid or emergency help.
2. Notify The Right Person: Contact the manager, owner or WHS contact named in the policy.
3. Record The Details: Note the date, time, location, people involved, what happened and any photos or witness names.
4. Decide If Regulator Notification Is Needed: Check the notifiable incident rules for your state or territory.
5. Fix The Risk: Record immediate controls and longer term corrective actions.
6. Review The Policy: Update training, procedures or equipment if the incident shows a gap.

For example, if a cafe worker slips on a wet kitchen floor and needs hospital treatment, you would make the area safe, arrange medical help, record the incident, consider whether it's notifiable to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, keep the record, and update your cleaning and signage procedure if that was the cause.

How Often Should You Review Your WHS Policy?

You should review your WHS policy whenever your work changes, after a serious incident or near miss, and at least regularly enough that it stays accurate and useful.

There isn't one review timetable that suits every business. A low risk office may choose an annual review, while a trade business or multiple site operation may need quarterly reviews or project based updates.

Your policy should trigger a review when:

• You move premises or open a new site
• You buy new equipment, vehicles or software that changes how people work
• You introduce new products, services or work methods
• You hire for a new role or use contractors in a new way
• A worker reports a hazard that isn't covered by the current policy
• There's an injury, near miss, customer aggression incident or regulator contact
• Your state or territory WHS regulator updates guidance that affects your work

Keep a version history so you can see what changed and when. This can be as simple as a date, version number and short note at the end of the policy.

When you update the policy, don't just email it out and hope people read it. For key changes, build in a practical handover:

• Run a short team briefing or toolbox talk
• Ask staff and contractors to acknowledge the update
• Update induction materials for new starters
• Replace old forms or posters so people don't follow outdated steps
• Check managers understand how to apply the change

If you work across multiple states or territories, get tailored advice before rolling out one national policy. A national framework can work well, but some procedures may need local wording because regulator names, notification processes and specific rules can differ.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

The most common WHS policy mistake is using a template that looks professional but doesn't match how your business actually works.

Here are the issues we often see small businesses run into:

• Leaving Contractors Out: WHS duties usually extend beyond employees. Your policy should cover contractors, subcontractors, labour hire workers and visitors where relevant.
• Writing A Policy No One Can Follow: If the policy is too vague or full of legal language, your team won't know what to do when there's a hazard or incident.
• Forgetting Psychosocial Risks: Safety isn't only physical. Your workplace policy should address workplace behaviours, fatigue, stress, aggression and support pathways.
• Not Matching The Policy To The Site: A mobile workforce, warehouse, salon and software office all need different practical controls.
• No Records: If you don't keep induction, training, consultation and incident records, you may struggle to show what steps you took.
• Set And Forget: A policy written two years ago may be out of date if your team, locations, equipment or services have changed.

A helpful test is to ask a new worker to read the policy and explain what they'd do if they saw a hazard, got injured, felt unsafe with a customer or was asked to perform work they weren't trained for. If they can't answer clearly, the policy needs more work.

Your WHS policy doesn't have to be perfect from day one. Start with the real risks in your business, write down the process clearly, train your team, and improve it as your business grows.

Key Takeaways

• A WHS policy template is a useful starting point, but it should be tailored to your workplace, industry, locations and workforce.
• Your policy should cover responsibilities, hazard reporting, risk controls, consultation, training, incident reporting and emergency procedures.
• WHS and OHS compliance is about real systems, not just paperwork. Your records, training and follow through matter.
• Contractors, mobile workers, visitors and psychosocial hazards should be included where they affect your business.
• Review your policy after changes, incidents or near misses, and keep a clear version history.
• Templates often miss practical details, so tailored advice can help you avoid confusion and build safer processes from day one.

If you'd like help with tailoring your WHS policy, contractor safety documents, incident reporting process or workplace policies, you can reach us at 1800 730 617 or team@sprintlaw.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.