WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s learning collaboratives

WorkSafe’s learning collaboratives bring people together to learn from workplace incidents, near misses and high-risk work activities. Workers, leaders and safety professionals from different levels of an organization collaborate to share perspectives and identify opportunities for improvement.

A core principle of the collaboratives is looking beyond immediate causes to understand the broader systems and conditions that influence work. By exploring these underlying factors, participants can identify practical improvements that strengthen workplace safety and performance.

WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s learning collaboratives

  • Return-to-work learning collaborative created to bring workers, employers, industry leaders and return-to-work specialists together to identify and implement evidence-based solutions that reduce work disability and improve return-to-work outcomes. The collaborative provides a forum for organizations to share challenges, test practical strategies and learn from one another’s experiences in creating safe, sustainable stay-at-work and return-to-work programs. The purpose of the collaborative is to address common barriers that contribute to unnecessary work disability—such as delays in communication, limited modified work options, unclear processes and poorly defined return-to-work plans—and to develop practical tools and solutions that employers can apply in their own workplaces.
    Successful approaches are then shared broadly to strengthen workplace culture, support worker recovery and reduce lost time across industries. Effective approaches implemented to date include:
    • Modified work offer forms to make it easier to communicate with health-care providers and receive support for safe return-to-work programs.
    • Creating job banks to make it easier to offer meaningful modified work for common injury types.
    • Supervisor training to increase confidence for supervisors to initiate return-to-work discussions or plans.
  • Health care learning collaborative focused on reducing musculoskeletal injuries by shifting to disposable soaker pads.
  • First responders’ learning collaborative focused on psychological health monitoring mobile app implementation. It includes participants from first responders and leadership.
  • Construction learning collaborative focused on a ladder assessment tool to prevent falls from ladders.
  • Transportation learning collaborative to be re-established with a variety of industry partners and experts to identify solutions to reduce the risk of motor vehicle collisions.
  • Construction and mining learning collaborative focused on identifying proactive and leading indicators, and creating a severity dashboard.
  • Community living learning collaborative focused on reducing incidents of violence in the workplace..
  • Roadwork learning collaborative focused on work zone safety. In May, at the start of construction season, a multi-partner “slow to 60” campaign was launched.
  • Firefighter community of practice has established a working group to develop a turnout gear training video, with initial planning beginning in September.
    • The washing machine cleaning efficacy study continues to advance, with support from partnering fire departments.
    • The medical screening committee met with a provincial expert to discuss firefighter cancer screening and the development of national screening guidelines.
    • The committee continues to meet quarterly.

Suggest a new industry learning collaborative

WorkSafe Saskatchewan is open to supporting new industry learning collaboratives. If you or your industry leaders have an idea for a new learning collaborative and are looking to participate and bring others together, please reach out to worksafeinquiry@wcbsask.com.

Benefits of industry learning collaboratives

WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s learning collaboratives offer many realized benefits as a collective approach to address complex safety issues that exist in industries across the province. A fundamental aspect of the learning collaboratives is the focus on problem-solving and probing to reveal the underlying factors that may have contributed to a workplace injury or incident.

Learning collaboratives empower organizations to make safety enhancements that improve safety and operational performance.

Learning collaboratives are structured to build trust and enhance safety cultures by:

  • Promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Supporting team-based learning and growth.
  • Encouraging shared learning and new perspectives.
  • Establishing peer-measured quality improvement methods.
  • Focusing on systemic and complex safety issues.
  • Applying action-oriented safety concepts.

How learning collaboratives work

WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s learning collaboratives serve as co-operative groups dedicated to examining workplace incidents, near-misses and challenging or hazardous work, with an emphasis on learning and enhancement. Learning collaboratives bring together the diverse perspectives of industry and safety leaders, and employees across many organizational levels.

The WorkSafe Saskatchewan learning collaboratives include front-line workers, supervisors and safety leaders to generate discussion and problem-solving on workplace health, safety and well-being. This collective approach not only deepens the understanding of the issues, but also cultivates a culture where members are recognized and empowered to engage in safety conversations. Learning collaboratives:

  • Are formed to tackle complex safety issues that affect industry.
  • Meet regularly as part of a knowledge exchange and to share insights, best practices and lessons learned from incidents.
  • Take a structured view to problem-solving that is evidence-based and uses data and quality improvement tools to analyze issues, brainstorm solutions and develop action plans.
  • Generate proposed solutions to test and put into practice, and then monitor and adjust them as needed.
  • Support new knowledge and practices into broader daily operations to help build a lasting culture of safety and sustained change.

Interested in joining a WorkSafe Saskatchewan learning collaborative?

For information about WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s learning collaboratives and how you can participate, contact WorkSafe Saskatchewan through the WCB’s prevention department:

WorkSafe Saskatchewan
200 – 1881 Scarth St.
Regina SK S4P 4L1

Phone: 306.787.7248
Toll free: 1.800.667.7590
Email: worksafeinquiry@wcbsask.com