Why Benchmarking Should Be Part of Your Everyday Safety & Compliance Culture
By Daniel Brimelow, Managing Director, Safety Mates Australia
This article draws on insights from On Tap Hospitality’s financial benchmarking work with hospitality venues, combined with Safety Mates’ experience benchmarking safety, food safety and compliance systems across the industry.
I recently read several practical articles on benchmarking from On Tap Hospitality and what stood out was how useful the advice is, not just for accountants, but for anyone responsible for running a venue well.
The key takeaway was simple: benchmarking isn’t only about financial performance. When applied properly, it should flow through every part of the business especially the areas that keep people safe and operations running smoothly.
Hospitality moves quickly. Costs rise, expectations shift and regulations tighten. Systems that worked last year can quietly fall behind.
That’s where benchmarking becomes valuable. It creates a structured way to step back and ask an important question:
“Is this actually working as well as we think it is?”
Benchmarking Beyond the Dollars
In the Balancing Flavour and Finance article, On Tap Hospitality outline practical steps such as reviewing supplier contracts, monitoring discount behaviour, understanding menu margins and performing regular stocktakes. These actions help venues maintain strong kitchen performance and protect profitability.
Similarly, in Benchmarking: The Performance Improvement Tool, On Tap show how analysing wage utilisation, food gross profit and beverage controls can uncover blind spots that quietly chip away at performance.
The message is clear: benchmarking highlights what’s working, what’s slipping and where attention is needed.
That same principle applies well beyond rostering, stock and financials.
At Safety Mates, we use benchmarking every day to assess how effectively businesses are meeting their:
- Work Health & Safety (WHS) requirements
- Food Safety obligations
- Emergency Management responsibilities
- AML/CTF compliance needs
Benchmarking these areas doesn’t just improve compliance. It shows how well systems are being embedded and followed in everyday operations.
Why Benchmarking Safety and Compliance Works
1. It replaces assumptions with clear, measurable insight
On Tap Hospitality's case studies show how quickly financial benchmarking can reveal wages sitting outside industry norms. The exact same thing happens when safety and compliance are benchmarked - gaps emerge that often go unnoticed.
This may include:
- Incident response times being slower than expected
- Training completion dropping during busy periods
- Incomplete temperature or receiving records
- Emergency readiness declining with staff turnover
- AML/CTF reporting falling short due to resourcing or knowledge gaps
Benchmarking cuts through assumption and replaces it with clarity.
2. It keeps businesses proactive, not reactive
In On Tap Hospitality's work, regular benchmarking helped one client reduce payroll costs by 13% and increase food profitability by 9%, significant improvements achieved by acting early.
That same proactive mindset should apply to:
- Safety training
- Routine inspections
- Temperature monitoring
- Emergency response readiness
- Onboarding and competency checks
- AML/CTF reporting and review
Benchmarking helps address issues before they lead to incidents, complaints or regulatory action.
3. It turns compliance into everyday behaviour
Compliance can easily become something people do because they “have to”.
Benchmarking changes this by making expectations visible, measurable and consistent.
It shows whether:
- Food safety records are completed every shift
- Hazards are closed out promptly
- Emergency procedures are clearly understood
- Staff know how to report AML/CTF concerns correctly and confidently
In short, benchmarking reveals whether compliance is simply documented or actively lived.
4. It supports continual improvement
On Tap Hospitality highlight that even profitable venues can lose ground through stock loss, weak controls or inefficient processes. Safety, food compliance and AML/CTF systems face the same risk.
A strong system on paper doesn’t guarantee strong outcomes.
Benchmarking encourages small, ongoing improvements that build real momentum:
- Better training leads to fewer errors
- Stronger food safety routines reduce complaints and incidents
- Improved emergency readiness supports calmer, safer responses
- Robust AML/CTF processes reduce risk and strengthen governance
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress.
How Safety Mates Applies Benchmarking in Practice
Across WHS, Food Safety, Emergency Management and AML/CTF, Safety Mates benchmarks:
- Whether the right documents, policies and tools exist
- Whether they are consistently applied
- Alignment between departments
- Staff engagement and understanding
- Levels of operational and regulatory risk
- Training completion and real-world competency
- Trends in incidents, reporting and close-out times
This provides leadership teams with an honest picture of where the business stands and a practical roadmap for improvement.
Benchmarking Builds Safer, Stronger Businesses
When venues embrace benchmarking not just for profitability, but also for safety and compliance, the benefits are substantial:
- Clearer expectations
- Stronger accountability
- Reduced risk of incidents or regulatory breaches
- More confident decision-making
- Better staff engagement
- Stronger long-term performance
As On Tap Hospitality’s benchmarking work shows, structure and visibility drive better outcomes. When that same discipline is applied to safety and compliance, businesses create environments where:
- Risks are actively managed
- Staff feel supported
- Compliance becomes part of everyday behaviour
- Decisions are backed by insight
- Everyone goes home safe
Benchmarking isn’t just a spreadsheet.
It’s a habit and one that keeps your business sharp, safe and moving forward. The more consistently it’s applied, the stronger your venue becomes.
Related reading from On Tap Hospitality:
About the author
Daniel Brimelow is Managing Director of Safety Mates Australia, supporting hospitality businesses with WHS, food safety, emergency management and AML/CTF compliance.
