Digital Work Systems and WHS: the governance shift leaders can no longer ignore

As digital systems become more embedded in everyday operations, organisations face a growing challenge in understanding how technology influences work, decision-making and employee wellbeing. Effective governance will depend on bringing together operational, technological and safety perspectives, ensuring risks are identified early and managed throughout the life of a system.

The risk environment is shifting. Recent legislative changes in New South Wales explicitly recognise the role of digital work systems in workplace health and safety, requiring organisations to govern systems that influence work and may impact health and safety outcomes.

At the same time, the underlying drivers of risk are intensifying. Increasing data volumes, automated decision-making, and system-driven performance metrics have the potential to introduce new forms of psychosocial risks.

Against this backdrop, digital work systems can no longer be viewed from the lens of being just a technology issue. Instead, these systems are a core governance challenge, requiring organisations to understand how systems shape work in practice and whether existing oversight is sufficient to identify and manage emerging risks before they materialise.

For many leaders, this represents a critical shift: from focusing on system implementation and performance, to actively governing how digital systems influence safety, behaviour and outcomes across the organisation.

EY has developed an approach for organisations to understand how how they can take a structured, proactive approach to governing digital work systems, including how to improve visibility of risk, strengthen accountability, and embed effective controls across the digital system lifecycle.