How does your organisation protect against psychosocial hazards? Legal obligations on employers to protect workers from psychological harm are strengthening. Preventative action that builds employee wellbeing is vital – I’d like to share one of the ways I do this in the workplaces I help.
Awareness of workplace psychological hazards is growing. The 2022 Victorian Worksafe Annual Report showed a 2-point jump in mental injury claims as a percentage of all new Workcover claims, from 13.1 per cent to 15.1 per cent. By 2030, one third of all injury claims are expected to be mental injury claims.
Federal and state governments are responding with legislation to reinforce employer obligations to keep their employees safe. In Victoria the proposed regulations, if passed, would likely mean that employers will need to be proactive in identifying and managing psychosocial risks.
This means that prevention is vital. Too often, I am called into workplaces that are struggling to manage the consequences of psychosocial hazards going unidentified until a crisis occurs. Work design hazards such as lack of role clarity, social support hazards such as bullying and harassment, and work conditions hazards such as poor change management can rumble underground and erode psychological safety without necessarily breaking into the open – until they become unmanageable.
So how do we take proactive measures?
There is no single intervention that will fully address psychosocial hazards. What’s needed for real change is a holistic approach that addresses hazards at the personal, team and organisational levels. But you have to start somewhere, and I often begin the journey with employee wellbeing.
There are many ways to define wellbeing, but I like to keep it simple: a person’s ability to feel good and function effectively. With better wellbeing, employees are more likely to take responsibility for themselves and what they can control, and feel confident to speak out when they see harm.
To start understanding and benchmarking employee wellbeing, I often use the PERMAH Wellbeing Survey as a framework. It measures individual, team, and workplace wellbeing across six essential elements:
Positive emotions: feeling joy, calmness, and happiness
Engagement: developing personal strengths to feel more confident and energised
Relationships: feeling loved, valued, and connected with other people
Meaning: having a sense of direction and connection to something bigger
Accomplishment: the belief and ability to do things that matter most to us
Health: eating well, moving regularly, staying hydrated, sleeping well
Survey results give us a baseline – anonymous data by workplace and by team, identifying risk areas where action should be taken. Individuals get their own personal report, either to develop their own wellbeing plan or as a starting point for me to work one-on-one with them. I would then repeat the survey six or 12 months later, with smaller pulse surveys at three-month intervals to check in on progress after interventions.
Of course, PERMAH is only one approach out of many. The important thing is to be proactive in fostering an environment where employees are not only motivated, but experience a deeper sense of purpose in their work, and where they feel psychologically safe to speak up when things aren’t going well.
I can help you minimise psychosocial hazards in your workplace, including development of a holistic wellbeing strategy. Contact me by email at debbie@dksonin.com.au, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/debbiesonin or by phone on 0413 145 925.
