How do you roll out manual handling training to a whole organisation?
Pick one baseline course that every employee completes, keep a verifiable record for each person, set a refresher interval, and identify the roles that need more than the baseline. That is the structure most organisations end up with, whether they have thirty staff or three thousand. The baseline gives everyone the same language for posture, storage, trolleys and reporting; the records show the training element of the WHS duty has been met; the refresher keeps it current as desks, premises and roles change; and the exceptions list stops facilities, mailroom and events staff being trained as if they only ever lift a stapler.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Applies to the Manual Handling Training for Office and General Workplace Staff course.
Why a baseline for everyone
The employer's duty to provide information, training and instruction applies to every worker, and hazardous manual task risk exists in every office role: sustained posture at the desk, the occasional archive box, the delivery at reception, the monitor for the new starter. A course aimed at the whole organisation covers that shared risk once, consistently, and gives managers and staff the same vocabulary when a workstation problem or a storeroom hazard is raised.
A baseline course should match the actual risk of general office work, which is awareness-level. It should explain why sitting still counts as a manual task, what the risk factors in the Code of Practice are, how the hierarchy of controls applies to trolleys and storage design, how to set up a workstation including at home, how to plan the occasional lift, and how to report early. Manual Handling Training for Office and General Workplace Staff is built to that brief across its eight modules, from Module 1, Introduction to Manual Handling in Offices and General Workplaces, to Module 8, Reporting, Early Symptoms and Ongoing Safety.
It is non-accredited online workplace training that issues a Certificate of Completion. It is separate from the nationally recognised HLTWHS005 Conduct manual tasks safely unit and does not provide a Statement of Attainment. For a general office population that is usually the appropriate level; if a role's risk assessment calls for a nationally recognised unit rather than awareness training, this course is not it.
Records that can be produced and verified
A rollout is only as good as its records. When a regulator, insurer or auditor asks how training is managed, the useful answer is a list of who completed what and when, with evidence that can be checked independently. Each person who completes this course receives their own Certificate of Completion with a unique certificate number that can be verified online or by scanning the QR code, and their name and date of birth printed on it. That gives you one verifiable record per employee rather than a sign-in sheet.
Keep the certificates, or their numbers, wherever your organisation holds training records, alongside the completion date. That single field drives the refresher schedule and answers the audit question without anyone having to reconstruct a spreadsheet from email.
- One certificate per person, with a unique number verifiable online or by QR code
- Completion date recorded against the employee for refresher tracking
- Certificates stored with induction and other WHS training records
Refreshers, new starters and the roles that need more
The law does not set a refresher interval. Many organisations refresh awareness training every one to two years, and whenever a significant change occurs: an office move, a shift to hot-desking or hybrid work, a new records system, a new fit-out. Build the course into induction so new starters complete it in their first weeks, before the first archive purge or event set-up they are asked to help with.
Then identify the exceptions. Facilities and maintenance staff, mailroom and records officers, IT technicians who move equipment daily, events and hospitality teams and anyone who drives a trolley for a living carry more manual task risk than the baseline addresses. Their risk assessment may call for task-specific instruction, equipment training, supervised practice or a higher level of course. A baseline course for everyone plus a documented list of roles that receive more is what a proportionate training system looks like; the same course for everyone regardless of risk is not.
How to run it with us, and where our part stops
Today, each person enrols and completes the course individually, at their own pace, on any device, and pays A$49 for their certificate only after passing the 20-question assessment. Bulk purchasing, invoicing and central reporting are not offered yet. If you are planning a rollout for a team or an organisation, contact us before you start and we will help you set it up so completions are easy to track and certificates land where your records are kept.
The course provides the shared knowledge and the verifiable record. It cannot adjust chairs, buy trolleys, design the storeroom or write the two-person rule into the records procedure, and it does not replace your induction, workstation assessments or task-specific instruction, which always take precedence. Those are the employer's controls, and they sit above training in the hierarchy. A rollout that pairs the course with even a short review of equipment and storage will do far more than either on its own.
Common questions
Sources
- Safe Work Australia — Model Code of Practice: Hazardous manual tasks — The national code the state and territory regulators adopt or mirror.
- Safe Work Australia — Lifting, pushing and pulling (manual tasks)
General information about Australian work health and safety duties, not legal advice. Your employer’s procedures and the regulator in your state take precedence.
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Work through the office & general workplace course and the assessment at your own pace. You only pay A$49 if you pass and want the certificate.
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