Hybrid Work Environments: How to Prioritise Health and Safety Through Workers' Comp

Hybrid work is no longer experimental — it's become a structural feature of the modern workplace. For knowledge and desk-based workers in Australia, most now expect a blend of home and office work. According to PwC Australia, many workers prefer to work 3.2 days from home on average, even while only around 55% believe their organisation genuinely supports hybrid working. Meanwhile, PwC says 42% of hybrid workers report regular loneliness and isolation, and 31% say they experience heightened stress or burnout.¹

Yet with this flexibility comes a set of evolving health, safety and workers' compensation risks. For employers to manage costs, maintain compliance, and support employee wellbeing, a proactive and integrated approach is essential. As a partner in claims management and workplace wellbeing, Gallagher Bassett is uniquely placed to help clients navigate the hybrid paradigm — from prevention to claim resolution.

The Challenges of Hybrid Work

Blurred Boundaries of the Workplace

In a hybrid model, the physical boundary between the workplace and home is porous. When an incident happens during remote hours, determining whether the incident is work related can be ambiguous. Is slipping on a mat while walking to make coffee part of work or part of a daily routine? These grey areas complicate claim adjudication and liability assessments.

Rise in Psychological and Musculoskeletal Risks

• Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs): Home workstations often lack the ergonomic design found in corporate offices. Chairs from living rooms, improvised desks, or laptop-only setups increase the risk of neck, shoulder, and back strain.
• Mental health: The isolation, lack of spontaneous social interaction, and blurred work/life boundaries all contribute to stress, anxiety, and burnout. In New South Wales alone, psychological injury claims have grown roughly 30% over the past four years — outpacing the approximately 11% growth in physical injury claims.²
• Fatigue and overwork: Remote work can extend working hours, reducing downtime and recovery. Fatigue manifests in impaired concentration, decision fatigue, eye strain, and digital burnout.
• Environmental factors: For those working from home, ambient conditions — lighting, temperature, air quality, screen glare — may not meet occupational safety standards. Likewise, extreme heat — increasingly common in Australia — has been shown to reduce cognition and increase risk of incidents and claims in insurance datasets.³

Workers' Compensation Trends and Claims Complexity

The latest national workers' compensation data provides valuable insight into the scale and nature of risks facing Australian employers today. These trends highlight where injuries are occurring, how long employees are spending away from work, and the growing impact of psychological health on claims.

The Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2024 report from Safe Work Australia includes these highlights:⁴

• In Australia in 2022-23, there were approximately 139,000 serious workers' compensation claims that involved time off work.
• The leading mechanism for serious claims is body stressing (32.7%), followed by falls, slips, and trips; being hit by moving objects; and mental stress.
• The median time lost from work has increased over the past decade, with 21.3% of accepted claims in 2021-22 involving 13 weeks or more off work.

These trends underscore the importance of early intervention, robust claims management, and a holistic approach covering both physical and psychological injuries.

Furthermore, Safe Work Australia's Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2024 report shows 200 workers tragically died in traumatic work-related injuries in 2023 — a slight rise from 195 in 2022 — reflecting ongoing risk exposures.

The proportion of people who experienced a work-related injury or illness in the past 12 months — the national work-related injury rate — stands at 3.5%, which is significant but well below the global average of approximately 12.1%.

Because hybrid work adds location, timing, and duty-of-care complexity, the stakes for mismanagement or misunderstanding are higher than ever.

Return-to-Work in a Hybrid Context

Bringing an injured or ill employee back into a hybrid environment requires sensitivity, flexibility, and careful planning.

• Emotional and logistical concerns: Some team members may fear reinstating lengthy commutes, crowded offices, or sudden exposure to stress triggers. Employers must be attuned to employees' emotional and physical readiness.
• Phased and flexible reintegration: Recovery plans may need to start with home-based workdays, gradually increasing office presence as health and confidence improve.
• Tailored accommodations: Work modifications — such as lighter duties, altered schedules, and hybrid-only days — are easier to manage in a hybrid setting if proactively planned.
• Coordination with claims management: Early engagement between return-to-work coordinators, medical professionals, and claims handlers helps ensure alignment, reduce delays, and support safe outcomes.
• Clarity in obligations: Employers must remain compliant with state and territory work health and safety (WHS) laws and workers' compensation legislation (e.g., under Safe Work Australia guidelines) even when the work is remote.

These complexities underscore why partnerships with experienced claims and risk management firms are critical — especially firms that can integrate wellbeing, prevention, and return-to-work strategies under one governance umbrella.

Strategies for Employers: A Hybrid-First Safety Framework

To thrive in the hybrid era, organisations need a preventive, holistic approach to health, safety, and claims.

1. Governance and Policy Frameworks

• Define clear policies: Articulate when, how, and where hybrid work is permitted, including expectations for safety and reporting.
• Duty of care extends remotely: Your responsibility doesn't pause at the front door — you must actively manage safety risks even in remote settings.
• Hybrid risk escalation route: Have a named safety contact or escalation procedure that employees can invoke with concerns or incidents.

2. Ergonomic and Home Office Support

• Home risk assessments: Use self-audit tools or virtual assessment services to identify ergonomic risks in remote workstations.
• Ergonomic allowances or equipment provision: Offer or subsidise standing desks, monitor risers, external keyboards/mice, lighting, etc.
• Micro-breaks and movement prompts: Encourage short, frequent breaks and movement to counteract sedentary strain.

3. Mental Health, Wellbeing and Psychological Safety

• Hybrid-tailored Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and mental health support: Ensure support services are accessible remotely (e.g., telehealth and virtual counselling).
• Training in psychological safety: Equip managers to detect signs of distress, isolation, or burnout, and to intervene early.
• Virtual wellbeing programmes: Offer mindfulness, resilience workshops, ergonomics webinars, and fitness sessions tailored for remote and hybrid contexts.
• Peer networks and social connection initiatives: Offer virtual coffee chats, buddy systems, cross-team forums, and occasional in-person offsites.

4. Communication and Manager Enablement

• Regular check-ins: Scheduled touchpoints (e.g., weekly one-on-ones) should cover wellbeing, workload, and environment.
• Manager training: Only around 31% of team leaders reportedly received formal training in leading hybrid teams, according to the PwC research;¹ updating this skillset is critical now.
• Transparent reporting: Dashboards showing claim trends, absent days, and wellbeing indicators help managers and leadership stay informed.

5. Incident Capture, Reporting and Data Analytics

• Prompt reporting mechanisms: Encourage early reporting of near misses or discomfort (even if not full claims), to prevent escalation.
• Geo-tagged or location-aware logs: Maintain records of where and when employees are working (e.g., home, co-working hub) to aid claim adjudication.
• Data integration and analytics: Use predictive modelling and dashboards to detect emerging patterns (e.g., rising MSD swarms, mental health hotspots) before they become claims.

6. Proactive Return-to-Work Design

• Hybrid return pathways: Let employees ease into office presence as tolerated, rather than full-day returns.
• Interdisciplinary teams: Claims case managers, occupational therapists, HR, and line managers should co-design return pathways.
• Ongoing monitoring and adaptation: Use frequent reviews (weekly/fortnightly) to adjust duties, location mix, or supports to ensure sustainable reintegration.

7. Partnership With a Claims and Risk Management Expert

Effective workers' compensation outcomes in hybrid environments require expert coordination of prevention, claims, medical oversight, rehabilitation, and data analytics. Benefits of partnering with an experienced provider like Gallagher Bassett include:

• A national footprint with local expertise in every state and territory
• Customised end-to-end claims solutions — from first notice of injury through to claim resolution
• Predictive analytics, insights and benchmarks to proactively manage trends and claims costs
• Return-to-work and rehabilitation expertise aligned to hybrid work models
• Strong compliance and governance support, backed by decades of claims experience and industry partnerships.

Navigating health, safety, and workers' compensation in hybrid environments is complex — but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Gallagher Bassett brings unmatched claims management, risk advisory, rehabilitation, and data analytics capability to help organisations adapt with confidence.

To learn more about our hybrid-capable claims solutions and how we help clients deliver safe, supportive workplaces — whether in-office, remote, or in between — contact us today.

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Sources

¹ "Balancing Act: The New Equation in Hybrid Working," PwC, 26 Apr 2022. PDF file.

² Rose, Tamsin and Sharlotte Thou. "Claims for Psychological Injury at Work Surge in NSW at Triple the Rate of Physical Harm," The Guardian, 21 May 2024.

³ Ireland, Andrew, David Johnston, and Rachel Knott. "Heat and Worker Health," arXiv, revised 1 Jun 2023.

⁴ "2024 Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia," Safe Work Australia, 2 Sep 2024.