Psychosocial hazards and work-related stress: what to do

A psychosocial hazard is an aspect of work that can harm a person's mental or physical health, such as unrealistic workloads, unclear roles, poor support, or bullying. Psychosocial hazards are one of the most common causes of work-related stress. Under WHS law you must manage them the same way you manage a physical hazard: identify them, assess the risk, control it and review the controls. The model Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards at work, first published in 2022, explains how to do that.

Psychosocial risk is easy to dismiss because you can't see it on a site inspection. But the effects are real: stress, anxiety, sleep problems, time off, turnover and, in serious cases, psychological injury. Treat it with the same seriousness as a fall or a chemical spill.

What are psychosocial hazards?

The model code defines psychosocial hazards as hazards that arise from the design or management of work, the working environment, plant, or workplace interactions and behaviours. In practice they fall into a few groups:

• Job design and demands: role overload or underload, unrealistic deadlines, long hours, and work that needs constant attention.
• Control and role clarity: little say over how work is done, unclear responsibilities or conflicting instructions.
• Support and management: poor support from supervisors, poor change management, and no feedback or recognition.
• Traumatic events: exposure to a serious incident, a death or a violent event, including the aftermath.
• Workplace behaviours: bullying, sexual harassment, and violence or aggression from co-workers, managers or customers.

Psychological harm and psychosocial hazards aren't the same thing. A psychological harm is the effect on the person. A psychosocial hazard is the feature of work that causes it. You manage the hazard, not the person's resilience.

What are your duties?

The WHS Act requires the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that workers aren't exposed to health and safety risks from the work. Health includes mental health as well as physical health. The primary duty of care sits with the PCBU, and the duty to consult workers on health and safety matters applies too.

Each state and territory approves its own codes of practice, so the status of the model code varies. Some jurisdictions have adopted it with local changes, and Victoria has its own OHS framework. Check which version applies where you work.

The model code asks you to:

• identify psychosocial hazards, including through worker input
• assess the risk, looking at how likely and how serious harm would be
• control the risk, starting with the hazard at source
• review the controls, especially after an incident or a change at work

Where you can't eliminate a psychosocial hazard, you must minimise the risk, and make sure workers know the risk exists and how it's controlled.

How to identify psychosocial hazards

No single tool finds everything, so combine a few:

• Anonymous surveys. Ask about workload, control, support, relationships and fairness. Anonymity makes honest answers more likely.
• Interviews and focus groups. These give you the story behind a survey score, and let you ask follow-up questions.
• Observation. Watch how people talk to each other, how handovers run, and whether people are working through breaks or after hours.
• Records. Look at incident reports, sick leave, turnover, exit interviews and complaints for patterns.
• Worker and representative input. Health and safety representatives and workers see the risks that managers can miss. Ask them directly.

Record what you find, and who you spoke to. That record becomes the start of your risk register.

How to control psychosocial hazards

Control measures should target the cause, not just the symptoms. Here are some controls that work on real worksites:

Training helps, but it doesn't fix a job design problem on its own. Pair training with changes to the work.

Build the controls into your system. For a plan that brings these together, see the Psychosocial Hazards Management Plan and the Psychosocial Hazards Policy. Where fatigue is part of the problem, the Workplace Fatigue Management Plan covers the rostering side.

Support and response

Your controls also need to cover what happens after something goes wrong. That means:

• a reporting process that people trust, with a route around the person involved
• a timely response to each report, and feedback to the person who raised it
• access to confidential support, such as an employee assistance program or a counselling service
• a debrief after a serious incident, and a check-in a few weeks later

Keep workers informed of the outcome, while protecting privacy. People stop reporting when they think nothing happens.

Review your controls

Psychosocial risk changes as the work changes. Review your controls after a restructure, a new client, a long period of high workload, a serious incident, or a rise in absences or complaints. Set a regular review date too, and check the survey results against the controls you put in place.

For the wider process, the guide to mental health at work covers supporting people day to day. If violence is a concern, read workplace violence: creating a safe work environment. To make it easy for people to raise a concern, see how to report a hazard in the workplace.

Common questions

Is work-related stress a WHS issue? Yes, when the cause is a psychosocial hazard at work. Your duty covers mental as well as physical health, so you need to manage the hazard, not just respond to a claim.

Are psychosocial hazards covered by the same laws as physical hazards? Yes, under the WHS Act, although some jurisdictions have their own codes and rules on how to manage psychosocial risk. Check your state or territory.

Does the employer have to remove every psychosocial risk? You must eliminate the risk where that's reasonably practicable, and minimise it where it isn't. Some psychosocial risk remains in most jobs, such as dealing with distressing events, so tell workers what the risk is and how you're controlling it.

What's the first thing to do? Start with an anonymous survey and a short set of interviews. Use what you find to build a risk register, then pick the one or two hazards that matter most and control them first.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law with your WHS regulator.