The ABCs of Preventing Psychosocial Hazards from Having a Negative Impact

One of the primary goals for creating a psychologically healthy and safe culture must be to mitigate psychosocial factors from becoming psychosocial hazards. When a psychosocial factor like work demand or leadership approach—which can be a positive—becomes a negative, this increases its risk of becoming an employee psychosocial hazard such as stress, fatigue, or burnout.

However, some workplace behaviours, such as bullying, violence, aggression, and harassment, will never be positive. PsychSafe aims to guide an understanding of what psychosocial factors are becoming drains, as well as early identification of psychosocial hazards that predict the risk of psychological injuries.

Two key points to keep in mind when assessing risk are the likelihood and severity of a psychosocial hazard. PsychSafe helps identify psychosocial factors and hazards and non-negotiable OHS risks such as bullying, harassment, and workplace violence.

Engaging employees in identifying and addressing psychosocial hazards is crucial. This includes involving them in decision-making, providing training on psychological health and safety, encouraging them to speak up about potential hazards, and communicating the value of participating in workplace assessments and pulse checks. A culture of shared accountability and continuous feedback can lead to a more psychologically safe and inclusive workplace.

A–Awareness and assessment:

The first step in preventing psychosocial hazards is to raise awareness and conduct quantitative workplace assessments that measure psychosocial factors and hazards. Organizations are encouraged to identify potential psychosocial hazards such as stress, fatigue, bullying, violence, aggression, harassment, and burnout. More legislation is sparking employers’ accountability and requirements regarding OHS duty of care and due diligence to protect workers. At PsychSafe, we encourage regular workplace assessments and pulse checks to understand and monitor risks and hazards to protect employees from psychological injury and promote opportunities for psychologically safe and inclusive cultures.

B–Building a supportive environment:

Creating a supportive and caring work environment is essential for attraction, retention, knowledge transfer, and productivity. This includes fostering open communication, mutual respect, and inclusivity. Implementing Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), providing psychological and social support, and recognizing individual contributions can significantly enhance the workplace culture, as will training leaders to be psychologically safe leaders and ensuring peer-to-peer interactions are respectful and civil.

C–Control measures and continuous improvement:

Implementing effective control measures is vital to mitigating psychosocial hazards. Based on the data collected from the workplace and risk assessments, the next step is to build a framework to deal with psychosocial hazards. The acronym CHARGE™ Approach, which stands for Communicate, Hazard Identification, Accountability, Respect, Guidelines, and Empowerment, provides a frame of reference for the steps from communicating why the employer cares to collecting data and setting expectations and accountability for what the employer and employees will do to curb hazards’ negative impact and risk. A guiding North Star is committing to continuous improvement through regular audits and updates to ensure that these measures remain effective over time.

Resiliency is a team sport and requires the employer and employees working together to address psychosocial hazards head-on. When writing the above controls, employers can use elimination, new administrative policies or offer training. However, creating resiliency requires habit development and following through with constant measurement and relearning.

By following these ABCs, organizations can create a safer, more supportive work environment that prevents psychological hazards and promotes overall well-being and productivity.

Employee Personal Psychosocial Hazards Risk Quick Screen

Based on evidence from various studies and organizations like ISO, there are many types of psychosocial hazards. This quick screen measures 10 and helps you self-evaluate your risk in your workplace. You may be experiencing psychosocial hazards not on this list. PsychSafe has a more in-depth assessment to guide employers on supporting employees.

The goal is to raise self-awareness about potential psychosocial hazards that may be negatively impacting your well-being at work. Identifying these hazards can help you better understand if your feelings of overwhelm or depression are in part due to your workplace experience. The workplace experience can negatively and positively impact your well-being, so it is beneficial to understand what you and your employer can do to reduce your risk of exposure to psychosocial risk factors and hazards.

Instructions:

For each statement below, please rate your level of agreement on a scale of “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.”

1. I often feel overwhelmed by my workload and deadlines.
2. I find it difficult to communicate effectively with my colleagues and supervisors.
3. I feel unsupported by my management and colleagues.
4. I have experienced bullying, harassment, or discrimination at work.
5. I am worried about the stability of my job.
6. Organizational changes are not well-managed, causing me stress.
7. My job roles and responsibilities are unclear to me.
8. I feel that there are limited opportunities for my career development.
9. I struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

10. The overall work environment feels toxic and negatively impacts my mental health.

1 – Strongly Disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3 – Somewhat Disagree, 4 – Neither Agree nor Disagree, 5 – Somewhat Agree, 6 – Agree, and 7 – Strongly Agree.

Your Psychosocial Hazards Self-assessment Report

The goal of this self-assessment report is to increase your awareness of your potential exposure to psychosocial hazards in your work environment. By understanding these risks, you can take proactive steps to address them and protect yourself from psychological injury, such as by asking for help if you are unsure what to do.

Your Score________

Scoring: