Dennis Else

Professor of OHS

Location: VIOSH (Ballarat and Sydney)

Phone: (03) 5327 9150

Fax: (03) 5327 9151

Email: d.else@ballarat.edu.au

Qualifications

PhD (Aston), BSc (Hons) Applied Physics

Role Description

Director, VIOSH
Coordinator Masters by Coursework, Masters by Research and PhD programs

Research Interests

Growing the maturity of an organisation’s OHS culture and performance
Synergies between OHS performance, productivity and creativity
Cost-effective control of risk by safe design and safe procurement
OHS Solution banks and their role in sharing hard-won practical experience of effective controls

Biography

Professor Dennis Else, was Chair of the Australian National Occupational Health and Safety Commission through the six years 1996 to 2002. During that time he built support for a ten year National OHS Strategy which was endorsed by all State and Territory Ministers, the ACTU and the ACCI in 2002. Having previously led the development of the first Australian Standard for OHS Management Systems he focused the Commission’s work on closing the gap between paper systems and real practice in workplaces - this included improving the quality of auditing processes and the improvement of performance measures. Over the last decade he has focused on the Australian mining industry in an attempt to achieve OHS cultural and performance change. He hopes to focus on the construction industry over the next decade.

He continues his long association with the University of Ballarat as Professor of Occupational Health and Safety. He was formerly Dean of Engineering and Science and Pro Vice-Chancellor responsible for organisational development and change at the University of Ballarat.

He is a strong advocate of the synergies between productivity, quality and prevention and the opportunity health and safety provides as a vehicle for building innovative and inspiring workplaces. His research and consultancy focuses on what organizations can do in practice to grow the maturity of their health and safety culture and performance.