Psychosocial safety at work

5 minute read. We’ve cut through the jargon and put together a quick explainer with what business leaders need to know.

Since 2022, there’s been an increased spotlight on psychosocial safety with new Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) regulations and the introduction of a Code of Practice specifically for managing psychosocial hazards at work.

With this in mind, it’s important for business leaders to understand what they can do to support their team, reduce risks and stay compliant with WHS.

The rising impact

• Work-related injury claims for mental health conditions increased 19% since 2021-22.
• On average, these injuries keep people off work over five times longer than other injuries.

These situations can be costly for businesses, not just financially, but also in terms of team morale, productivity, and workplace culture.

Keeping compliance in check

Managing psychosocial hazards follows a specific process, it involves identifying parts of the job or workplace which might create stress and working with business leaders and the wider team to think about ways to protect them.

We support businesses through this process with tailored Psychosocial Risk Assessment projects (we share more on what that looks like here).  

How are psychosocial hazards different than physical hazards?

Physical hazards

• Physical hazards are often pretty straightforward. They’re things that can cause physical injury. Think slips, trips, falls, heavy machinery, or working at heights.
• They’re usually easy to spot, which makes them easier to manage. You can physically see the hazard, assess the risk, and put controls in place to prevent harm.
• For example, if someone slips on a wet floor, the hazard is obvious: the wet surface.

Psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards are a bit trickier. They’re the aspects of work that have the potential to cause psychological or sometimes physical harm. Compared to physical hazards, they’re not visible to the eye.  

Some common examples:

• Job Demands: The mental and emotional effort required by the job.
• Workload: Volume of work that needs to be completed (high workloads can cause stress, while low workloads can reduce employee engagement and sense of purpose).
• Conflict or poor workplace relationships: Disagreements or friction that occurs with colleagues or from clients/customers.

Unlike a slip on a wet surface, risks arising from psychosocial hazards can be difficult to pinpoint. For example, if someone’s dealing with a mental health condition and chronic fatigue, it’s not always clear whether work is the cause, especially when personal lives play a role too.

The good news? Psychosocial hazards aren’t always negative, when managed well, they can help people feel more supported and engaged. When we take measures to reduce risk, it can also have an impact on multiple hazards at once.

Understanding psychosocial risks

Psychosocial risk is the way a psychosocial hazard could cause harm.

The most common risk arising from psychosocial hazards is stress. If someone is stressed long-term or experiences an intense short-term period  it can cause harm (this could be psychological or physical).

Every workplace will have many psychosocial hazards, but only some may pose a significant risk. High risk usually means the hazard is both likely to occur and could cause serious harm.

Protective factors and control measures

We know that many businesses already have many initiatives in place to help their team feel valued, supported and psychosocially safe. The obvious administrative control measures might include things like having policies, position descriptions, regular team meetings, and many other common HR operational processes.

But managing psychosocial hazards isn’t just about making sure you’ve got your policies and paperwork sorted.

We’re also encouraged to think creatively and explore long-lasting ways to support psychological safety. That could be things like factoring in “soft skills” and resilience during recruitment or building development and progression frameworks that help employees strengthen the skills needed to support their wellbeing.

These are all factors we look at during a Psychological Risk Assessment: identifying hazards, assessing risks and protective measures, and offering proactive, tailored recommendations.

Key takeaways

• Make sure you are across employer obligations when it comes to psychological safety, like we said at the beginning, there’s been some change in recent years.
• Treat psychosocial hazards with the same level of care as physical ones.
• Be proactive, think about undertaking a psychosocial risk assessment and developing a psychosocial risk register (and if you're not sure where to start, reach out, our HR partners are here to help.)

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Get in touch

Want to know more about Psychosocial Risk Assessments or how we can support your business? Get in touch.

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Article References
Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2024 Report.
Managing psychosocial hazards at work code of practice 2022.