Recognising Excellence
in Safer Workplaces

On Thursday 10 September, 2026 at Twin Towns, Tweed Heads, we celebrated the organisations, leaders and teams driving real change in health, wellbeing and psychosocial safety at work.

Excellence deserves more than a certificate

The Awards don't end at the event. Being a Finalist and a Winner is a big deal. We document the nominations, share their success and amplify the journey. Because when organisations get psychosocial safety right, everyone needs to see how they did it.

Find out more about the Australian organisations reducing psychosocial risks, driving measurable business outcomes and proving that psychological safety isn't soft - it's strategic.

2026 Awards

In 2026 we recognised 24 finalists across 3 categories of Innovation, Teamwork and Leadership. 3 individuals and organisations took home the title of Winner, showing how they reduced harm, increased performance and built workplaces where people actually want to work.

This is what good looks like.

Celebrating the 2026 Winners

We’re proud to announce the Winners of the Psychosocial Safety and Leadership Awards. Across leadership, teamwork and innovation, these outstanding individuals and teams have set a new benchmark for creating safer, healthier and more inclusive workplaces.

Their achievements highlight the courage, collaboration and creativity driving real change in psychosocial safety today.

Innovation in Psychosocial Risk Management

Burriin Risk Systems

Burriin Risk Systems developed the Culturally Informed Psychosocial Risk System to address gaps in existing psychosocial risk frameworks for First Nations workers. The system includes a plain language resource defining cultural load, identity strain and community weight as psychosocial hazards, alongside a library mapping more than 150 controls across 15 hazards, with a dedicated First Nations lens integrated throughout.

The resource has been formally reviewed by WorkSafe Victoria’s Psychological Health Leadership Team, while Kinaway Chamber of Commerce is distributing the framework to more than 600 member businesses and 3,000 corporate partners across Victoria. LifeSkills Victoria has also commenced Phase 1 implementation.

The judges highlighted the integration of First Nations-specific hazards and culturally informed controls into risk management frameworks.

Outstanding Leadership in Psychosocial Safety

Grant Fuller

Alchimie

Grant led psychosocial safety initiatives across complex infrastructure and construction environments, including leadership workshops, project culture strategies and facilitated risk conversations. His approach identifies hazards such as role ambiguity, work pressure, communication breakdowns and leadership misalignment, translating these into practical organisational controls.

Grant prioritises addressing psychosocial hazards at their source through changes to work design, governance, communication and leadership practices. Worker and leader consultation is used to shape practical controls, agreed actions and project culture strategies.

The judges highlighted Grant’s strong understanding of

psychosocial safety as a work design and organisational systems issue, with meaningful consultation and practical controls that influence how work is planned, governed and delivered.

Outstanding Teamwork and Collaboration

Tweed Shire Council

Tweed Shire Council developed Part of your everyday, a staff-led initiative addressing public aggression and unreasonable conduct towards Council staff. A cross-functional working group of 10 staff from HR, WHS and Communications, supported by a frontline focus group of 13 staff, co-designed the campaign using staff experience

to help reshape community attitudes.

The campaign used a three-layer ‘Heart, Head, Crowd’ framework combining storytelling, educational content and community engagement. Community sentiment shifted to 94.7% positive, while the proportion of people who believe the community respects Council staff increased from 53% to 74%.

The judges recognised the practical cross-functional collaboration, use of staff voice and lived experience, and positive behaviour-change approach to addressing public aggression and unreasonable conduct towards Council staff.

Recognising the 2026 Finalists

Every finalist demonstrated exceptional commitment to psychosocial safety. You can find out more about their nominations below, which showcase practical strategies, measurable outcomes and innovations that organisations across Australia can learn from and adapt.

Outstanding Leadership

Daryl Marshall Asplundh Tree Expert (Australia) Pty Ltd
David Laarhoven, Lead Trainer & Assessor, Get Fire Training
Emma Meldrum, Injury Management Advisor, Pacific National
Jemma Murphy, Health and Wellbeing Manager, Ampcontrol
Leo Vesy, Head, Health Safety and Environment, UGL Limited
Meg Smealie, Human Resources Manager, Health Voyage

find out more

Team Collaboration

Ausgrid Psychosocial Working Group
Clarence Valley Council
Queensland Police Service
Revenue NSW
Wellness in Infrastructure Working Group

find out more

Innovation

Bridging the Gap Asplundh Tree Expert (Australia) Pty Ltd
CalmSchool™ Safe Principals
Grief First Aid
Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network NSW
Lifting Lives The Lift Project
Ways of Working Review Monash University
Leaders as First Line of Defence program NBNco
The Sensemaking Approach People Powered
Psychgroup collaboration with WorkSafe Victoria
Psychproof

find out more

Why We Do Awards Differently

Most Awards events follow the same tired formula: sit-down dinner, long speeches, drawn-out suspense. We flipped the script.

We held our Awards as an afternoon cocktail celebration - standing up, during work hours, designed for connection.

Why? Because psychosocial safety is about connection. We wanted to create a space where people could mingle freely, meet new faces and learn from each other - not just celebrate with their own teams.

What made it work:

Finalist sashes

Finalist sashes so everyone knew who to congratulate and connect with

No drawn our suspense

Each category had its moment, winners were announced, photos snapped, then onto the next

Prizes - yes prizes!

Finalists received $4,000 worth of resources, Winners received almost $12,000 in practical tools and training

**The feedback was clear: "We loved how you shared what the finalists did. It created conversation and connection and made us feel part of it."**

We don't just celebrate excellence on the day. We document it and turn it into case studies that organisations across Australia can actually learn from. Because excellence deserves more than applause. It deserves to be studied, replicated and built upon.

Awards Timeline

Entries Open

Monday 30 June

Entries Close

Friday 25 July

Finalists Announced

Monday 11 August

Event Details

Where

Murrook Culture Centre

When

12 September
2:30pm–5:30pm

Dress Code

Semi-formal

Ticket Pricing

$77

For Institute Community & workshop attendees

$115

General admission

You can also add a workshop ticket when registering

Want to Be Part of the 2027 Awards?

Nominations will open in Q1 of 2027 and we will announce a new category

Become a member, follow us on LinkedIn or Subscribe to our email newsletter to be the first to find out more.

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Meet the Judges

Our Judges are a diverse panel of industry leaders and psychosocial safety experts.

Judging is done independently and scoring is based on merit using the evidence provided by entrants. There are 3 Judges on the panel for each Award Category and Winners are confirmed by aggregating the scores.