Published Date: 23rd April 2025
With recent legislative changes and high-profile safety cases making headlines in New Zealand, many organisations are seeking our guidance in re-evaluating how their Health & Safety teams operate.
That has inspired Kirsty Clarke and Sandy Eaton, Beyond Recruitment’s Health & Safety recruitment specialists, to host a kōrero on the evolution of workplace safety in New Zealand and why it's time to think beyond compliance.
In this webinar, our expert panel unpacked the difference between Safety 1 and Safety 2 as workplace safety models, and how organisations can transition to the more mature and dynamic Safety 2 model.
Joining us were:
AJ Young – Director of Safety for New Zealand Defence Force
Braden Lister – Principal Advisor – Government Health & Safety Lead NZ
Moni Hogg – Senior H&S Specialist and pioneer of Safety II in New Zealand, with 20+ years of cross-sector experience
They offered practical insights into how to build more effective Health & Safety strategies, structures, and teams. This discussion is a must-listen for anyone in leadership, HR, or on the frontlines of Health & Safety strategy. Here is our selection of highlights from the conversation, which you can access for free at the link below.
What’s the Difference Between Safety I and Safety II?
AJ highlights that both Safety 1 and Safety 2 are theoretical frameworks, but the real difference lies in how they approach risk, people, and performance.
Safety 1 is reactive. It kicks in when something goes wrong, focusing on errors, root causes, and fixing problems. Safety is often defined by the absence of accidents. In this model, people are frequently seen as the problem to control or correct. Safety work is often done to the workforce, not with them.
Safety 2, on the other hand, is proactive. It focuses on what makes things go right in day-to-day work– not just what causes failure. Safety here is defined by the presence of resilient systems and good performance. It sees people not as the problem, but as a resource to harness. Team members are the ones adapting to complexity, working with imperfect conditions and making real-time decisions to keep things running smoothly.
Today’s work environments are more complex and unpredictable, AJ says. After all, we need to trust the people doing the work, as they’re often best placed to decide how to respond when things don’t go to plan.
In Safety 1, incidents are analysed to find out what went wrong. In Safety 2, we ask what normally happens when things go right, and how we can support that more consistently.
How are Organisations Meeting the Challenge?
With the rise of safety case law, updated governance guidelines, and WorkSafe NZ’s Better Work Strategy, Moni says there is a shift underway.
While adoption of Safety 2 has grown significantly over the past decade, the standout performers – those seeing real gains in reduced costs and injuries – are the ones building genuine trust through transparency about system vulnerabilities, she says.
She highlighted examples from sectors like horticulture and energy, where even smaller players are leading the charge. Her message is clear: share what’s working (and what’s not), keep learning from each other, and continue the conversation to drive collective progress.
Strategies that Enable Success
Reflecting on the current state of Safety II capability in New Zealand, Moni observes strong institutional backing but also challenges. Organisations may need to shift focus to where safety expertise truly sits within their teams, which is often with the workers themselves.
In her experience, leaders begin to truly "get it" when they see Safety II in action within their own context. Rather than discarding existing systems, it’s more sensible to refine existing ones thoughtfully, with clear strategies to build the necessary skills and competencies.
Braden reminds us that safety isn’t something you “do to a business”. It’s embedded in how work is done, and it involves everyone. For Safety II to truly take hold, all stakeholders must be engaged: senior leaders need support to meet their due diligence obligations, frontline managers need clarity amid policy noise, and workers need to feel heard and supported.
Focusing on just one stakeholder group in isolation won’t work, he adds. Some organisations may be tempted to implement Safety II “by stealth,” applying its principles without explicitly naming them. While this can sometimes work in the short term, it’s much more sustainable to lineup Safety 2 theory with your organisational context.
Building a Strong Pipeline of Health & Safety Talent in New Zealand
Practical talent development
While many leaders recognise that Safety II is useful, applying it in practice requires a bit of deliberate effort. Coaching leadership, governance and frontline teams is what helps organisations make the evolution, Moni says.
She’s currently working with organisations using a three-stage framework: building theoretical understanding, providing supervision and mentoring, and running peer reviews and competency assessments.
Understanding how technical and leadership skills interact
Braden adds that, even if an organisation has just one person invested with the time and resources to focus on safety and advocate for it, then they’ve already gone a long way in moving the dial. However, organisations cannot overcome a real deficit of technical safety skills and knowledge, he says. “That technical expertise needs to be at a point where it is able to get into the ears of people who are able to do things.”
Kirsty notes that, from a HSE recruitment perspective, hiring managers will benefit from consulting technical safety experts when shaping team structures and roles. Too often, legacy team setups are carried forward that no longer fit the organisation’s needs, let alone reflect a modern Safety II culture.
Effective safety leadership is less about formal authority and more about influence, says AJ. While many New Zealand organisations still lean on hierarchical structures, he says, real impact comes from leaders who can build trust and collaborate – regardless of their title.
Takeaways
The differences between Safety 1 and Safety 2 are significant, but in practice, the two are interconnected. To make the shift to a mature Safety II culture, however, organisations need strong communication principles and a safety skills mindset. That involves collecting insights from their everyday work, focusing on good performance and ethics, and investing in their people, through professional development and acquiring skills. This helps move the focus away from simply responding to incidents and towards build long-term capability and resilience.
Special Thanks
Our Beyond team particularly wanted to thank Moni, who was instrumental in helping to plan this webinar. We appreciate her time and expertise in shaping an insightful event.
Access all the Insights here
We see this webinar the start of an important, ongoing conversation. Our goal is to help organisations approach safety in a more intentional, human-centred, and future-focused way.
For more actionable tips on how to improve workplace safety with a sensible strategy, get free access to the webinar & audio recordings below:
.png)
Get HSE Recruitment Support
If you would like support with hiring Health & Safety professionals for your team, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our HSE recruitment specialists are experienced in assisting organisations place talent in Health & Safety (H&S, EHS, HSEQ, Wellness, Quality) roles across New Zealand. Contact us today to hire senior and contract HSE professionals who will make a positive difference for your organisation.
