ICAM Investigations

Specialised workplace incident investigations

When there’s an incident or accident at your workplace, an investigation is a critical part of finding out what went wrong, fixing any issues and mitigating your legal exposure.

It’s also crucial to act quickly to preserve evidence and prioritise the safety of your workforce.

However, you may find it impossible to accommodate the demands of a workplace investigation. For example, as a human resources manager, you have many competing pressures. Or, as an operations manager, the fleet of trucks waiting for dispatch is your priority.

The answer is to engage third-party investigators like us. We’re independent workplace incident investigators, ICAM (Incident, Cause and Analysis Method) accredited.

The ICAM system is the gold standard of workplace incident investigations. It focuses on examining all factors that led to an incident rather than finding fault with a single factor.

The ICAM system recognises that even with human error, many other issues may contribute to an incident. So it’s critical to consider every issue. ICAM investigations look into:

What happened
Why it happened
How to prevent it from happening again

In short, an ICAM investigation is holistic.

ICAM investigations can be utilised in the following situations

Chain of Responsibility

Equipment Malfunctions

Fatigue Incidents

Near Miss Incidents

Rail Safety Incidents

Workplace Accidents

Why use an external investigator for my ICAM investigation?

Employer duty of care requires investigation of workplace safety issues for legal compliance, identification of issues, reduction of risk, and prevention of future problems. But as a manager, you have competing duties that take up your time.

Conducting investigative work requires specialist skills, especially when assessing your organisation’s potential civil and criminal legal exposure.

Using external ICAM investigators, such as ISG, is an excellent solution to this problem. As part of our ICAM investigation services, we strive to:

Understand that there may have been more than one cause
Identify the issues that contributed to the incident
Analyse what happened
Recommend remedial action
Reduce future risk

Our goal is to discover the root cause of the incident. We look at human error, operational issues, training issues, communication issues, and the way the organisation functions.

We conduct ICAM investigation services in the following industries

Aviation

Construction

Infrastructure

Logistics

Manufacturing

Marine

Mining

Railways

Road Transport

Why should I choose ISG as my ICAM investigator?

Engaging an independent investigator as soon as possible is critical to the effectiveness of the investigation and reducing the legal and workplace repercussions.

As qualified ICAM lead investigators, we have specialist experience in:

NHVR compliant road investigations
ONRSR compliant rail investigations
Chain of responsibility issues
Vehicle fatigue laws
Workplace safety incidents

We’re trained to identify ways to reduce the risk of litigation and criminal charges. We also understand the importance of establishing the incident’s who, what, when, how, and where. It’s our way of covering all bases: the holistic view plus the fine details.

In addition to our ICAM qualifications, we’re proud of our:

Independent, fair, and unbiased approach
Prioritisation of confidentiality and procedural fairness
Ability to act quickly for our clients throughout NSW and the ACT

We also understand the importance of exceptional communication. We will give you regular progress updates. At the end of the investigation, you will receive a report, a comprehensive debriefing, and our recommendations and corrective action plan (if relevant).

We also assign two investigators to each case for efficiency and continuity.

What should I know about the ICAM investigation process?

When you engage us, we’ll create a briefing document that will give us the parameters for the investigation and show us where to focus our efforts.

Then we will seek a detailed account of the investigation from you, including:

A description of the incident
The type of injury
The actions taken immediately after the incident

After that, we will collect evidence, for example, workplace procedures and policies, legislation and regulations, and any other relevant documents.

The other important form of evidentiary collection is interviewing witnesses. Interviews may take place in person, by phone or video conferencing.

Then we will consider the evidence to work out the contributing factors and make findings of fact that may impact several aspects of the organisation’s activities.

Finally, we make recommendations to address the issues, often in the form of a corrective action plan such as retraining, management meetings, or new safety protocols. We will provide this information to you in a detailed report.

At all times, we:

Maintain close communication with you
Provide procedural fairness to all participants
Consider what support your organisation requires, as well as its future needs

Leading incident response with our ICAM investigation services

Our ICAM investigations will help you develop holistic solutions for the wellbeing of your workforce and the longevity of your organisation.

Contact us to learn more

(02) 9188 7788

We’re licensed investigators, offering fair and unbiased external investigations. We can help you to resolve issues within your organisation efficiently and discreetly.