Managing psychosocial risks at work: what your business should actually be doing

You know what psychosocial risks are Here’s what you should do

We know most businesses we work with are aware of psychosocial risks.

Overload, stress, poor management, lack of clarity, bullying and harassment. Nothing new there.

The problem is knowing what to do, and how to demonstrate that you have it under control.

Safe Work Australia says these hazards must be managed like any other WHS hazard. That’s what they expect now, and it’s the law.

So how do you do that in practice?

Psychosocial Hazards Interview

First, determine what the psychosocial hazards are

Most organisations do this wrong. They jump to offering wellbeing programs or training. That may help on the fringes, but it doesn’t eliminate the risk.

Now there is a legal obligation to identify the psychosocial hazards in your workplace and then assess the risk.

It’s not as straightforward as you might think to find all the hazards. SafeWork Australia lists 13 in their Code of Practice. Which ones apply to you? How will you find out?

Trust is a huge issue

Internal surveys and interviews, which are usually conducted by the HR or Safety teams to establish the psychosocial hazards and the level of psychosocial risks, are subject to two major challenges.

Firstly, many people will not report issues if they are concerned about confidentiality or fear retribution, even if they are told confidentiality is assured.

The second is the competency of the assessors. We have seen a number of in-house reports where the data is simply averaged out and significant issues are missed. In one case, the in-house assessor failed to notice that 6 of 8 staff in a particular department felt that they were being bullied by the supervisor!

To avoid these trust issues, we recommend using an external assessor who has experience in assessing psychosocial risks. They will ask staff for feedback, either anonymously or through one-on-one interviews and then interpret the data to ensure that nothing is missed.

Second Step – Assess the levels of psychosocial risk

Once you have identified which psychosocial hazards are present you need to assess the level of risk.

There are a number of questions you need to ask about the hazard:

• Is it widespread or limited to an individual or a department?
• Is it frequent or occasional?
• Is it likely to cause severe psychological harm?

Consult with stakeholders

When developing your assessment report, it is important to ensure that it is confidential, it outlines clearly what are the significant psychosocial risks and it makes recommendations about how to remove or reduce the risks.

The report needs to be shared with management and employees and everyone should have the opportunity to express their opinions about the risks and the solutions. This is typically achieved through a WHS committee or focus group.

Develop your game plan

You can now develop a game plan from the report and the team feedback showing how you will manage psychosocial hazards.

Third Step – Putting the Plan into Action!

This is where many organisations get stuck.

Be sure to follow through and allocate responsibilities.

Create actions and deadlines.

You need to integrate psychosocial risks into your safety and health system. This includes a psychosocial risks procedure, adding psychosocial risks to the WHS risk register and training.

Fourth Step – Monitor and Review

Its vital for management to check if everything is working as planned.

Here are key questions to ask:

• Does the psychosocial risks procedure meet the standard required in the Code of Practice?
• Have we properly implemented our procedure?
• Are our WHS committee or worker representatives satisfied that we are tracking well?
• Have our internal audits and reviews of psychosocial risks confirmed that everything is on track?
• Are we still getting any incidents or claims related to psychosocial risks?
• Have we trained enough people in mental health first aid?
• Is the EAP provider doing a good job?

Know what regulators are looking for

If the regulators turn up tomorrow they’re not going to ask if you care.

They’ll want to know what you’ve done.

They will ask if you have identified hazards, assessed them, controlled them, and reviewed them.

It doesn’t need to be perfect. But it does need to be straightforward and defensible.

What most businesses are doing

Most businesses aren’t ignoring psychosocial risks.

They just deal with them informally. A chat here, a workaround there.

That’ll do for a time, but what if you have to demonstrate how you manage risk?

And if the business expands those gaps tend to expand.

Getting started (without making it too hard)

There’s no need to overcomplicate things.

Start with a proper psychosocial risk assessment so you can see where the real issues are.

Then tackle the big issues.

• find your key risks
• establish practical controls
• record what you’ve done

Then integrate it with your system and keep the momentum going.

Final thought

Psychosocial risk management is not a box-ticking exercise.

It’s about making sure the way your business runs doesn’t create unnecessary pressure or harm.

Do that and the rest falls into place. Need help reviewing your current setup?

At BWC Safety, we help businesses find psychosocial risks and implement effective controls.

If you’re not sure where the gaps are, we can help you find them and fix them.