Psychosocial safety: Addressing hazards and enhancing wellbeing
How is psychosocial safety changing in Australian workplaces, and what can employers do to protect employees' mental health through better work design?
In today's fast-paced and demanding work environment, the concept of psychosocial safety has gained significant attention. But what exactly is psychosocial safety? At its core, psychosocial safety refers to the practices, policies, and organisational culture that protect workers' psychological health and wellbeing. It encompasses factors such as workload, job control, role clarity, workplace relationships, and organisational justice. When these elements are poorly managed, they can lead to stress, burnout, and mental health issues among employees.
The importance of psychosocial safety in Australian workplaces cannot be overstated. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Work-Related Injuries Survey 2021-22, approximately 299,000 people experienced a work-related mental health condition, representing 8.6% of all work-related injuries or illnesses. The financial impact is staggering, with mental health conditions costing Australian businesses $39 billion per year in lost productivity and compensation claims, as reported by the Productivity Commission's Mental Health Inquiry Report.
Despite these alarming statistics, many organisations struggle to effectively address psychosocial hazards, according to Carlo Caponecchia, Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Associate Professor in the School of Aviation at UNSW Science. In an interview for The Business Of, a podcast from UNSW Business School, A/Prof. Caponecchia spoke with Dr Juliet Bourke, Professor of Practice in the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School, about the need for a deeper understanding of psychosocial safety and practical strategies for its implementation.
Identifying psychosocial hazards
Psychosocial safety refers to the aspects of work design, organisation, and management that can impact an employee's psychological health. It goes beyond the concept of psychological safety, which focuses on feeling safe to raise issues or concerns at work. A/Prof. Caponecchia explained that while psychological safety is about the things that are going on at work – “the way that work is structured, the way work is organised, the way work is done, the culture of the organisation and the physical environment – that can have a harmful effect on your health.”
Psychosocial hazards are sources of harm that exist within the work system and can negatively affect an employee's physical and psychological health. Common examples include work overload, lack of job control, role ambiguity, and role conflict. A/Prof. Caponecchia said these hazards also encompass job insecurity, remote and isolated work, in addition to bullying, harassment, violence and discrimination.
While some of these factors might seem inherent to certain jobs, the key is to identify when they become detrimental to employee health. "The boundary is meant to be in terms of understanding when it's going to have a negative effect on your health,” A/Prof. Caponecchia explained.
The importance of work design
Addressing psychosocial hazards often requires a focus on work design. While simply hiring more staff may seem like an obvious solution to high workloads, A/Prof. Caponecchia said this is not always feasible. Instead, he suggested a more nuanced approach: "With work design, what we try to do is think about all the small elements of jobs that have the potential for some change that's beneficial so that, in concert, they might be able to make that job less harmful."
Read more: How to manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace
This could involve adjusting task timing, cross-skilling teams, or offering professional development opportunities, and A/Prof. Caponecchia said the goal is to create sustainable teams with clear succession planning and career growth opportunities.
"So we may not be able to hire more people, but perhaps we can look at the timing of particular tasks, perhaps we can look at cross skilling of our teams to know how we might be able to better support and offer supervision to particular people, how we might offer opportunities for professional development such that we have teams that are sustainable, that have that succession planning and also have better opportunities for individuals in those roles to see themselves moving on in their career to new and more exciting and more challenging roles,” he said.
A case study from the construction industry
He illustrated this point with an example of a construction worker sent to a remote job site. The worker experienced isolation, poor accommodation, and a lack of support, leading to negative health outcomes and ultimately his resignation. This case demonstrates how poor work design can impact employee wellbeing and retention, highlighting the need for organisations to consider the broader implications of their decisions.
A/Prof. Caponecchia described the situation in detail: "One example I'm familiar with concerned a construction worker who is really quite a skilled construction worker in his 50s, worked for a long time across a range of jobs. Lived in Queensland and his organisation sent him to do some work in New South Wales. It was originally scheduled for a two-month role, but of course, as most people know, construction jobs blow out in terms of time,” he said.
Read more: Yoga for stress, therapy for bosses? Wellbeing programs miss the mark
The consequences of poor planning quickly became apparent. "He went down to this job, but he found that his accommodation that the organisation had provided for him was an hour's drive away and so he was driving an extra two hours a day more than he really needed to," A/Prof. Caponecchia explained. "He was staying in a really remote part of Sydney in a cabin – there was no one else around, the internet was patchy, there was no supermarket, there was no restaurants, there was no pubs, there was no entertainment. There was nothing to do."
New regulations and employer responsibilities
Recent updates to work health and safety regulations in most Australian states have emphasised the importance of managing psychosocial risks. These regulations do not create new responsibilities for employers but rather elevate existing duties to protect employees' psychological health.
"The regulations essentially say this is what psychosocial hazards are, you have to identify those hazards and the risks that could come from them, and you have to manage them in exactly the same way as you would manage any other risk,” said A/Prof. Caponecchia.
He emphasised that these changes mean employers "have a duty to control the things within your control, the things in your system of work – the way the work is organised, supervised, managed, where it's done, how it's done." However, he clarified that "this is not about managing people with mental ill health. It's not about managing mental ill health. It's about managing the things in your business that could create those outcomes in future."
Implementing effective strategies
To address psychosocial safety effectively, organisations should move beyond superficial solutions. Professor Barney Tan, Head of School of Information Systems and Management at UNSW Business School, advised against relying on "superficial and tokenistic measures like yoga sessions and wellness programs" as they often fail to actually address the root cause of the problem, because they don't tackle the underlying cause related to how work is structured and managed.
Instead, Prof. Tan suggested focusing on systemic changes such as streamlining workflows to eliminate unnecessary complexity. This could involve automating routine tasks, delegating responsibilities more effectively, and ensuring teams are adequately supported.
Organisations can implement other measures to promote psychosocial safety, such as regular risk assessments and thorough reviews of role definitions and requirements, and he also explained that ensuring employees have clear and well-defined sets of responsibilities can reduce role ambiguity and conflict.
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The way forward in psychosocial safety
As organisations navigate the complexities of psychosocial safety, it's crucial to adopt a participatory approach. Prof. Tan emphasised the importance of inviting "employees to participate in the development of policies and procedures, especially those that affect their work." This approach helps ensure that changes are practical, feasible, and "sense checked almost with the people who will be affected by these policies."
By focusing on work design, addressing systemic issues, and involving employees in the process, A/Prof. Caponecchia said organisations can create safer, more productive work environments that benefit both the business and its workforce. As businesses adapt to new regulations and increasing awareness of psychosocial safety, he affirmed that those that prioritise employee wellbeing through thoughtful work design and systemic changes are likely to see improvements in both productivity and employee satisfaction.
The UNSW Lifelong Learning Hub has launched the short course Managing Psychosocial Risks at Work: a self-paced online course, designed to help organisations meet their legal obligations in identifying and controlling psychosocial hazards at work.