Using our interactive data

How to use the data dashboards

The data dashboards allow you to interact with Safe Work Australia’s datasets.

You can use the dashboards’ interactive features to access data for a specific time period, industry, occupation, demographic group, or injury type.

Hint: Watch the Using our interactive data video - this will help you to get the most out of the data.

The dashboards interactive features include:

1. View Pages
2. Apply filters
3. Cross-filter charts
4. Drill down and expand charts.

Use a combination of features to access the detailed data you need.

Interactive features

View Pages

Click ‘Pages’ to select from a list of pages in the dashboard.

Apply filters

Click ‘Apply filters’ to view the filter options for that page.

• To filter data, click on a filter and select items from the drop-down list.
• You can select multiple items in a filter by holding down the Ctrl or command key.
• To clear a filter, deselect the items or hover over the filter to access the eraser.
• To clear all filters on a page, click ‘Reset all filters’.
• A list of your filter selections will show under the ‘Apply Filters’ button. If you change the date range in the filter, it will update in the top right of the dashboard. You can also see which filters have been applied by clicking on the funnel icon (in the top right corner of a chart).

Note: On some dashboards, the filters will apply across pages. The filters that are applied to a page are listed under the ‘apply filters’ button.

Cross-filter charts

Cross-filtering allows you to select a data point within a chart to filter other charts on the page by your chosen data point. (Note: Only some pages support cross-filtering.)

• Click on a data point within a chart, or an item in the legend, to filter the other charts on the page.
• You can select multiple data points in a chart by holding down the Ctrl or command key.
• The video demonstrates cross-filtering using:
  • items in a legend (‘Males’ and ‘Diseases and conditions’)
  • one or more data point within a chart (‘Fractures’ and multiple selections for ‘Year of lodgement’).

Hint: hold the Ctrl or command key down to make multiple selections when using the filter and cross-filter features.

Drill down and expand charts

The drill down and expand features allow you to explore data at a more detail level (for example, sub-categories for industry, occupation, bodily location and breakdown agency). Only some charts support the drill down and expand features.

(Note: Most charts with this feature, only drill down and expand one additional level, the exception is the Workers' compensation injury frequency rates (WCIFR) dashboard where you can drill down and expand two additional levels for industry and occupation.)

Drill down

• Hover over the chart to see if the drill down and expand feature is available, if it is, arrows will appear in the top right-hand corner of the chart.
• Click to turn on drill down. The button will change when drill down is on.
• Select the data point you’d like to drill down. The next level within the hierarchy will be shown for your selection.
• You can cross-filter data at the more detailed level in the hierarchy, however, you need to turn off drill down first (for example, in the video demonstration drill down is used for bodily location ‘Head’, then drill down is turned off to enable cross-filtering data for the ‘eye’ sub-group.)
• Click to drill up to higher level in the hierarchy.

Expand

The ‘Go to the next level of the hierarchy’ and ‘Expand all down one level in the hierarchy’ buttons both expand everything to the next level of the hierarchy. The only difference is how the axis titles are displayed:

• ‘Go to the next level of the hierarchy’ only displays the level currently selected (e.g. ‘334 Plumbers’)
• ‘Expand all down one level in the hierarchy’ displays all detail from the hierarchy (e.g. the same occupation displays as ‘3 Technician and trades workers 33 Construction Trades Workers 334 Plumbers’).

To use the expand feature:

• Hover over the chart to see if the drill down and expand feature is available, if it is, arrows will appear in the top right-hand corner of the chart.
• Click either to expand the hierarchy to the next level. (Note: the focus mode feature has also been used in the video demonstration due to the large amount of data in the chart once expanded.)

Other dashboard features

There are other ways you can interact with the data:

• Enlarge a chart - hover over the chart to reveal the ‘Focus mode’ icon in the top right-hand corner.
• View data in a table - right click in the chart area and select ‘Show as a table’. You can switch the table view between vertical and horizontal view .

Download data

The data displayed in the dashboards are available for download.

• Scroll below the dashboard to ‘Related information and data downloads’ and click on the link to ‘detailed data’.
• In most instances a page will open in a new tab - navigate to the ‘Data downloads’ section and select the resource you would like to view.

How to use the WCIFR dashboard

WCIFR dashboard Overview

The WCIFR dashboard allows you to compare your organisation’s injury rates to benchmarks based on our Workers' compensation data. Guidance on calculating, interpreting, and using WCIFRs is available on the Understanding workers' compensation injury frequency rates page.

The dashboard has 3 pages:

• Compare WCIFR by Industry: compare your organisation’s injury rates to industry benchmarks.
• Compare WCIFR by Occupation: compare your organisation’s injury rates to occupation benchmarks.
• Explore WCIFR: explore WCIFR and selected workers’ compensation data by industry, occupation, severity, and injury type.

Compare to industry or occupation benchmarks

The steps are the same to compare your organisation’s injury rates against industry and occupation benchmarks:

• Select the ‘Compare WCIFR by Industry’ page (or ‘Compare WCIFR by Occupation’ page)
• Select a claims type
• Select a time period
• Select an industry division, subdivision, or group to compare against (or occupation major group, sub-major group, minor group or unit group)
• Enter your organisation’s claims and hours worked
• Compare your organisation’s rates to the benchmarks shown.

(Note: more details about these steps are available below the video demonstration.)

Select a claims type

Choose a claims type from the dropdown menu. The options are:

• Total claims
• Lost time claims – this is the default for Workers’ Compensation injury frequency rate reporting
• Serious claims – this is the default type in most of Safe Work Australia’s reports
• Permanent impairment claims
• Significant time lost claims

(Note: click on one of the claims types then hover over the information icon to view the purpose and definition for that claims type.) 

Select a time period 

Choose a time period from the dropdown menu, or enter a custom time period.

• The default time period is ‘Last 5 years’.
• The ‘Last 3 years’ is also available.
• To enter a custom time period, select the ‘Custom’ option and enter years into the text boxes above the dropdown menu.

(Note: Small and medium enterprises should generally select ‘Last 5 years’ or longer. This is to minimise data volatility.) 
Select an industry or occupation to compare against

Industry

On the ‘Compare WCIFR by Industry’ page use the chevron in the industry filter to expand the hierarchy. You can select from the following industry levels to compare against: 

• Division (for example, ‘E Construction’)
• Subdivision (for example, ‘30 Building construction’)
• Group (for example, ‘301 Residential building construction’).

The industry hierarchy are defined by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). If you are unsure which industry to select, you can search ANZSIC.  

Occupation

On the ‘Compare WCIFR by Occupation’ page use the chevron in the occupation filter to expand the hierarchy. You can select from the following occupation levels to compare against: 

• Major group (for example, ‘3 Technicians and Trades Workers’)
• Sub-major group (for example, ‘33 Construction Trades Workers’)
• Minor group (for example, ‘331 Bricklayers, and carpenters and joiners)
• Unit group (for example, ‘3311 Bricklayers and stonemasons’).

The occupation hierarchy are defined by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). If you are unsure which occupation to select, you can search ANZSCO.  

(Note: You cannot make multiple selections in these filters, only one industry or occupation can be selected at a time.)

Enter your organisation’s number of claims 

Enter the number of accepted workers’ compensation claims for your organisation. 

• Make sure you enter the number of claims for the claims type you’ve selected (for example, if you select ‘Permanent impairment claims’, only enter the number of accepted permanent impairment claims for your organisation).
• Make sure you enter the number of accepted claims for the time period you’ve selected.

(Note: hover over the information icon to see further notes about number of claims.)

Enter your organisation’s total hours worked

Enter the total hours worked (million), in your organisation, by workers eligible for workers’ compensation. 

• Make sure you enter the hours worked for the time period you’ve selected.
• The minimum number of hours you can enter is 0.25 million (250,000 hours worked). If your organisation’s total hours worked is less 0.25 million, select a longer time period to compare against.

(Note: hover over the information icon to see further notes on total hours worked.)

See how your organisation compares against benchmarks

The dashboard will calculate ‘Your organisation’s WCIFR’. You can compare this with the WCIFR benchmarks displayed on the right. 

• On the ‘Compare WCIFR by Industry’ page comparison figures will be shown for ‘All industries’ and the industry division as a default.
• On the ‘Compare WCIFR by Occupation’ page comparison figures will be shown for ‘All occupations’ and the occupation major group as a default.
• Additional comparisons will be shown depending on what level of the hierarchy you selected in the industry or occupation filter. For example, if you selected an occupation at the most detailed level, comparisons will be shown for ‘All occupations’ and all four levels of the occupation hierarchy. 

In addition, information on ‘How does your organisation compare?’ will also be displayed. This field displays the difference between your organisation’s WCIFR and the benchmarks. Both the number and percent difference are shown. The arrow direction and text colour indicate whether your organisation’s injury rate is higher or lower than the benchmark:

• Red up arrow shows your organisation’s injury rate is higher.
• Green down arrow shows your organisation’s injury rate is lower.  

Explore WCIFR

The ‘Explore WCIFR’ page can be used to explore WCIFR in more detail. In addition, you can view selected workers’ compensation data at a granular level for industry and occupation. This page has several sub-pages:

• Explore by Industry
• Explore by Occupation
• Explore by Severity
• Explore by Injury type

Explore by Industry and Occupation 

The ‘Explore by Industry’ and ‘Explore by Occupation’ sub-pages include 2 charts: 

• WCIFR time series and average WCIFR for the period displayed (left).
• WCIFR by industry or occupation (right).

These charts can be filtered by ‘Claims type’ and ‘Time period’.

You can use the cross-filter feature by selecting an industry (or occupation) from the bar chart on the right to see trends for that industry (or occupation). 

You can use the drill down and expand feature to view the WCIFR at a more detailed level for industries or occupations. 

On these pages, data expands out to the industry minor group level (3-digit) and occupation minor group level (4-digit). Because the data expands multiple levels of the hierarchy, you can use the drill down and expand features together. 

• For example, in the video demonstration, the ‘drill down’ feature is turned on and ‘1 Managers’ is selected (this displays all managers at the sub-major group level), the ‘drill down’ feature is turned off, and ‘Go to the next level of the hierarchy’ is selected (this displays all managers at the minor group level). 

Explore by Severity and Injury type

The ‘Explore by Severity’ sub-page displays:

• WCIFR rate and claims count (top right)
• Claims count by time lost (left)
• Claims count by compensation payment amount (bottom right).

The ‘Explore by Injury’ sub-page displays: 

• WCIFR rate and claims count (top right)
• Claims count by the Nature of injury or disease (left)
• Claims count by the Mechanism of incident (bottom right).

These sub-pages can be filtered by Claims type, Time period and industry or occupation. 

• Use the chevron in the industry filter to select an industry division, subdivision, or group
• Use the chevron in the occupation filter to select an occupation major group, sub-major group, minor group or unit group
• You can select multiple items in the industry or occupation filter by holding down the Ctrl or command key
• Use the ‘Reset page’ button to condense the industry and occupation filter to the top level.

(Note: See the Type of Occurrence Classifications System (TOOCS) page for further information on the Nature and Mechanism coding structures.)

Quick guide

Feature	Description
More Detail	Hover cursor over parts of the visual to see more detail (such as individual data points and information)
Cross-filter	Select a data point within a chart to filter other charts on the page by your chosen data point.
Pages	Shows a drop-down list of the pages in a dashboard.
Apply filters	Shows a drop-down list of specific data options (for example, claims type, State/Territory and time period).
Reset all filters	De-select all filters on a page.
Close button	Click on the close button to close the filter and pages features.
Multiple selection	Ctrl or command + click allows you to select multiple categories in filter or multiple data points when using the cross-filter.
Eraser	Click the eraser icon in the Filters pane to remove selections for a filter.
Funnel	Select the funnel icon (top right of each visual) to see which filters are used in the graph or chart.
Focus mode	Select the focus mode icon (top right of each visual) for a full-page view of the selected graph or chart.
Show as a table	Right click on a visual to display as a table. The visual will display with the data in a table.
Switch table to vertical layout	In table mode only – you can select switch between horizontal and vertical layout.
Drill down and expand	Hover over a visual to see if the drill down and expand features are available.
Drill down	Use the drill down button to turn the drill down feature on and off.  The icon changes when drill down is on. When on, select a data point to view data for the next level within the hierarchy. Turn off drill down to enable other features like cross-filtering.
Drill up	Click on the drill up icon to return to the higher level in the hierarchy.
Expand hierarchy	The ‘Go to the next level of the hierarchy’ and ‘Expand all down one level in the hierarchy’ buttons both expand everything to the next level of the hierarchy. The only difference is how the axis titles are displayed – see the expand section.