About Us

ABOUT THE GOOD WORK LAB

The Good Work Lab is a Specialist Consultancy group that was founded 2021 by two passionate work injury specialists, Dr Venerina Johnston, Researcher, Work Injury Prevention and Occupational Rehabilitation Specialist, and Donna Valiant, Work Injury Specialist, Ergonomist and Occupational Health Physiotherapist.

They want to use their experience and skills to build socially equitable injury prevention and management processes for all through research, collaboration, consultation and education.

Dr Venerina Johnston

Donna Valiant

OUR SERVICES

How do we achieve your goals?

We work with our clients using the 3D’s process: Discover – Design – Deliver

Discovery

Involves getting to know your challenges and aspirations for the future, whether it be an individual need to recover and return to work, an organisational performance goal, or a broader industry wide improvement you wish to make . Using empathy and humble enquiry, we build meaningful relationships with our clients and develop a true appreciation of the situation.

Designing

A solution leverages collaborative co-production of research and practice. Our methodologies are steeped in user-centred design principles that work bottom-up (i.e., workforce-relevant) and top-down (i.e., management-strategic) to meet in the middle. Co-designing our solutions with you ensures we deliver with a ‘no surprises’ policy.

Delivery

Is where the rubber hits the road and we support you to drive positive change. Ranging from information and advice, through to active coaching and training, or workforce strategy and communications engagement, our team has the skills to implement effective solutions. A core part of our delivery involves setting up a robust measurement and evaluation to capture compelling evidence of change.

Our Services to achieve your goals

We diagnose organisational issues and collaborate to design solutions to reach your organisational potential.

Good Work Design

As leaders in the field of health promotion, injury prevention and work injury management, The Good Work Lab offers a wide range of training programs and tools designed for industry, practitioners and insurers.

Collaborative Research

Collaborative research means to actively involve our client partners (whether they are individual workers, employers, or external agencies/associations) in the co-creation of new evidence-based practices, interventions, and resources. Collaborative research produces exceptional outcomes for all parties by integrating multiple perspectives and requirements, and connecting real-world problems to scientific concepts.

Occupational Rehabilitation Services

The Good Work Lab helps to improve the capabilities of individuals, organisations and significant others to better support those with a health or disability related work incapacity, and supports them remain at work or return to work in ways that honour your individual journey to recovery.

Testimonial for Donna Valiant

Donna and her team have been an integral component of our risk reduction, pre-employment, injury management, rehabilitation and return to work and risk management activities for over 4 years. During this time we enjoyed a collaborative working relationship with her and her team which has dramatically decreased our injury rates and increased our return to work time by: 1. Risk Reduction Programs; 2. Enhanced focus on job demands during the hiring phase; 3. Monitoring safety compliance by ensuring a risk management approach for all roles; 4. Proactively managing return to work programs.

Donna and her team do more than just work with us …. They have become a part of the way we do business. They consistently provide the right advice, even when we don’t realise we need it.

Michael Fyfe - Health, Safety and Compliance Manager

Transdev Queensland

Testimonial for Dr Venerina Johnston

I have worked with Dr Venerina Johnston since 2005. A great strength of hers has been her ability to connect evidence with policy and practice. She is pragmatic in taking research findings and applying them in a practical way to workplace needs. She has been a leader in occupational rehabilitation, integrating the physical and psychosocial dimensions of health as they relate to work. As a collaborator I have found that she can always be relied upon to deliver what she said she would.

Niki Ellis, Adjunct Professor, Monash University; Work for Health Advisor, Comcare Professor Niki Ellis

NE&A Pty Ltd

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