Regular readers are aware that we routinely report on the annual survey of workers who have experienced a work-related injury. 

In years gone by this was the Return to Work Monitor. Over the last two years there have been a series of changes, including a change of name to the Return to Work Survey:

• Responsibility for survey passed from Heads of Workers Compensation Authorities to SafeWork Australia. 
• The company contracted to complete the survey has changed. The 2013 and 2014 surveys have been prepared by the Social Research Centre.
• In earlier years responses to all questions were included in the Return to Work Monitor report. The 2013 and 2014 results from Safe Work Australia are primarily about the headline measures, the return to work results. 
• Safe Work Australia has also commissioned a broader variety of questions. 
• Safe Work Australia will provide a series of reports based on the employee interviews. 

One of these, The Return to Work Survey, the Role of the Employer and Workplace, Australia and New Zealand: 2013, was published in July 2014

Over a series of four articles we bring you the result of the Safe Work analysis of the survey data on workplace factors. We haven't done any further calculations, but present the results in a format that makes for easier web reading and interaction (we hope).

In providing these articles we acknowledge the great work done by Safe Work Australia in looking at this issue, and we hope to spread the word.

Why is this information important? 

The workplace makes a huge difference to return to work outcomes. Yes, doctors can be difficult to deal with (we hear you), but their influence on stay at work and return to work outcomes is substantially less than whether the supervisor is helpful, or the workplace is focused on supporting employees.

In this first of the four article series the results on workplace factors are correlated with return to work results (as reported by employees in the survey).  

Understand and use the Figures below:

Click on the drop down menu in each figure below to see the results.  

The blue horizontal bars represent the return to work rates for each corresponding answer.  

The 1st and 3rd figures report on workers who are working at the time the RTW Survey is conducted.  

The 2nd and 4th figures show return to work results of workers who have been back at work for three months at the time the RTW Survey is conducted.  

We'll use the 1st figure as an example of how to look at the results. 

When asked about whether others value their work (Value of their work by others), 72% of those who strongly agreed their work was valued were back at work, 76% of those who agreed were back at work, 64% of those who disagreed were back at work, and only 54% of those who strongly disagreed were back at work.  

In the dropdown list in the first figure, the next question refers to support from other employees and management. 76% of those who strongly agreed they had support were back at work, 78% who agreed were back at work, and 65% of those who disagreed and 50% of those who strongly agreed were back at work.  

The list goes on, click away and see the consistently reported influence of the workplace.