Strengthening Board-Level Safety Governance with Compass 360

Edith Cowan University (ECU), in partnership with the NSW Centre for Work Health and Safety, engaged Curio to co-design and implement a new capability assessment tool aimed at improving how boards govern workplace safety and wellbeing. Using Curio’s Compass 360 platform, the Directing Safety tool was developed to assess governance maturity across strategic, compliance, and values-driven dimensions. The result is a sector-first digital platform that equips directors and executives with real-time insights, benchmarked results, and action-oriented recommendations to enhance organisational safety culture at the governance level.

Client Background

Edith Cowan University (ECU)

ECU is one of Australia’s leading universities, renowned for applied research and commitment to societal impact. Its collaboration with the NSW Centre for Work Health and Safety reflects a shared goal of strengthening corporate governance in the area of employee safety and wellbeing.

NSW Centre for Work Health and Safety

As a division of SafeWork NSW, the Centre focuses on advancing evidence-based approaches to improving workplace safety across New South Wales. It plays a key role in translating research into practice for employers, workers, and policymakers.

Together, these partners commissioned a modern capability solution to help boards lead with accountability and purpose.

Challenges and Objectives

The Challenge

Boards have legal obligations around health and safety but often lack the tools to assess how effectively they are meeting those responsibilities in practice. Traditional assessments tend to focus on compliance alone, overlooking values and strategic alignment. The client identified a gap:

• No digital tools designed for board-level self-assessment of safety governance
• No structured method to evaluate maturity or benchmark capability
• Limited visibility of how governance actions influence cultural and safety outcomes

Project Objectives

• Develop a structured, academically grounded governance capability framework
• Deliver a self-assessment tool with a user-friendly interface
• Provide directors and executives with actionable insights and personalised planning
• Enable benchmarking across governance teams and institutions
• Support cultural shifts towards values- and strategy-led safety governance

Solution Provided

Platform: Curio Compass 360

Curio deployed its Compass 360 platform — a data-driven, scalable self-assessment tool — tailored to the specific needs of board-level users. The project included the following key stages:

Discovery and Research

• Review of corporate annual reports to identify trends in governance
• Econometric modelling to assess the correlation between governance and safety outcomes
• Interviews with senior business leaders to gather qualitative insights
• Collaborative scoping workshops with ECU and Centre stakeholders

• Development of a 12-question capability framework
• Structured into three core governance dimensions:
  1. Values-Driven
  2. Compliance-Driven
  3. Strategy-Driven
• Each dimension rated across four maturity levels:

• • Requiring Further Attention
  • Developing
  • Established
  • Integrative

• Iterative prototyping with stakeholder input
• Interface design optimised for senior executive users
• Compass 360 functionality used to deliver:
  • Personalised results
  • Real-time maturity benchmarking
  • Downloadable action plans
  • Secure Single Sign-On (SSO) access

• User Acceptance Testing with a focus group of board members and safety leaders
• Refinements based on usability feedback
• Final alignment with institutional reporting requirements

Results and Impact

The Directing Safety tool launched as a first-of-its-kind digital platform to assess and plan governance of workplace safety and wellbeing.

Key Impacts

• Strategic Insight: Directors gained visibility into their governance approach across values, compliance, and strategic alignment.
• Actionable Feedback: Users received tailored improvement plans to elevate maturity.
• Governance Benchmarking: Institutions could measure progress over time and against peer norms.
• Cultural Uplift: The tool enabled a shift from reactive compliance to proactive governance culture.
• Scalability: Built on a modular, cloud-based infrastructure, the platform is easily adaptable to other governance contexts or sectors.

5 An optional caption for the image that will be added to the gallery. Enter any descriptive text for this image that you would like visitors to be able to read.

Ready to strengthen your board’s leadership in safety governance?
Let’s talk about how Compass 360 can support your organisation.
👉 Get in touch