As Australia approaches 2026, workplace health and safety priorities are undergoing their most significant shift in decades. The focus has moved decisively beyond compliance checklists and incident response. The new priority is clear: protecting people, employees and leaders alike, through proactive, whole-person wellbeing strategies that materially reduce risk and strengthen organisational performance.
This shift is being driven by hard evidence and hard law. Since the introduction and enforcement of psychosocial hazard regulations across all Australian jurisdictions, regulators have made it clear that psychological health is no longer optional or secondary. Safe Work Australia data shows psychological injury claims cost employers more than double the average physical injury claim, with significantly longer recovery times and higher likelihood of workforce exit. At the same time, national workforce surveys continue to report rising burnout, disengagement and attrition, particularly among leaders and high-performing professionals.
Yet for years, organisations have been stuck between intent and execution. Wellbeing programs were fragmented, reactive, difficult to scale and rarely delivered measurable outcomes. That excuse no longer holds.
For the first time, scalable, outcomes-focused solutions now exist. These solutions proactively identify risk, provide real-time support, integrate with WHS and people strategies, and demonstrate return on investment. This is the inflection point. The organisations that move now will not only meet legislative expectations, they will materially outperform their peers in retention, productivity, trust and resilience.
Those that do not will pay the price.
Businesses failing to address this priority face a compounding risk profile. This includes escalating burnout, increased workers’ compensation exposure, higher attrition, leadership fatigue and reputational damage that is increasingly visible to regulators, insurers, investors and the public. Critically, organisations racing to implement AI and automation strategies without robust people protection frameworks are discovering that efficiency gains quickly unravel when psychological risk is ignored. AI without wellbeing is not innovation. It is instability at scale.
The response cannot sit with one function alone.
CEOs, boards, Chief People Officers, CFOs and safety leaders must now combine forces to ensure wellbeing strategies are robust, legislatively aligned and commercially sound. This means moving away from one-off initiatives and toward systems that are proactive, customisable across diverse workforces, scalable nationally, and capable of delivering measurable business outcomes. These outcomes include reduced claims, improved retention, stronger engagement and demonstrable return on investment.
This is where market leaders are separating themselves.
At CU Health, we see this shift daily across industries. Organisations are recognising that wellbeing is no longer a nice to have or a compliance afterthought, but a core risk, performance and leadership strategy. As Australia’s WHS expectations continue to evolve, the question is no longer whether organisations must act, but how quickly they choose to lead.
Those who act decisively now will define the future of safe, sustainable work. Those who do not will be left managing the consequences.
