Employers are already aware that under WHS legislation, they are required to protect the physical wellbeing of their employees. However, did you know that employers are also required to protect their employees from mental, or psychosocial hazards too. And now recent changes in legislation have put a greater spotlight on managing and controlling these risks more than ever before.
So, what is a workplace psychological hazard?
A psychosocial hazard is anything that could cause psychological harm (e.g. harm someone’s mental health). Common psychosocial hazards at work include:
• long work hours
• high workloads
• exposure to traumatic events
• lack of role clarity
Additionally, workers may feel they have little control over their jobs or feel that they are not supported appropriately to perform their tasks. Poor relationships or conflict between management and workers, particularly when issues are not dealt with equitably, or work environments where bullying and harassment or violence are not addressed, are also considered psychosocial hazards.
Why is awareness of psychological hazards important?
There are WHS laws that require the management of psychosocial hazards. When they aren’t managed their impact can have a detrimental effect on your staff and on the profitability and the long-term future of your business. It is estimated that absenteeism, presenteeism, workplace accidents resulting in personal injury, damage to equipment, and loss of productivity, costs Australian businesses almost $11 billion a year.
How can a business manage the risks?
The key is to identify possible hazards and identify what can cause harm in the same way that we would identify and assess physical hazards.
Talk with your workers and inspect the workplace, look at the way workers are interacting. Review past incident records or carry out surveys to gather information.
With a list of hazards, we now must assess the risks. What is the level of harm and the likelihood of this hazard adversely impacting the workers? This can help you to prioritise which hazards need urgent action and develop a plan to implement controls.
With knowledge of the hazards and the level of risk, control measures now need implementation with the aim of eliminating the hazard or reducing the risks. Following the standard hierarchy of controls, are there ways to eliminate the hazard?
Can we eliminate excessive work demands by redesigning the tasks or employing more staff?
Things we can do include:
- Redesigning the systems of work to reduce the likelihood of harm such as providing additional time to complete tasks.
- Provide alternative equipment to take the physical and mental stress out of a task.
- Supporting your workers with information and training so they have the knowledge to perform as expected.
- Providing a system where workers can access resources they need to maintain their mental health, these can be in the form of employee assistance programs and health promotion programs.
Review the hazards and control measures to ensure they are effective. Employers must maintain, monitor, and review, and if required revise the control measures. Consultation with workers and others will assist in identifying areas where improvements can be made.
What should I do next to manage workplace psychological hazards?
- Look at your business and see if you can identify areas or situations where stress may be unreasonably high.
- Talk with your workers to get an understanding of their worries and concerns.
- Review past situations where negative outcomes were recorded and use this information to create a list of likely hazards.
- In consultation with the workers, find appropriate controls to eliminate or reduce the level of risk.
- Implement and monitor the improvements over time.
- You can also talk with specialists that can assist you and your business to develop strategies to manage psychological risks.
Contact ProcessWorx for assistance
There are a range of resources available to assist employers to manage mental health issues in the workplace. If you would like to discuss managing workplace mental health issues further, please get in touch with us on (08) 9316 9896.
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