What are psychosocial hazards?
Psychosocial hazards are aspects of work that can cause psychological or physical harm. They include high or low job demands, low job control, poor support, unclear roles, poorly managed organisational change, inadequate recognition, poor workplace relationships, remote or isolated work, poor physical environments, traumatic events, violence and aggression, bullying, harassment including sexual harassment, and conflict.
In Australia, persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) have a duty under the Work Health and Safety Act to eliminate or minimise risks to psychological health so far as is reasonably practicable. The WHS Regulations and the Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work set out how.
Training for every level
Ready-to-deliver PRRR™ training packages
Buy a package once, deliver it to your own people and use the resources again and again. Each package covers one of the levels above, and the Psychosocial Risk Implementation Toolkit adds editable assessment, response, recovery and review tools. The Complete Training & Implementation Bundle includes all four packages and the toolkit.
Delivered by us, at your workplace or online
We run psychosocial training for leaders, HSRs and workers as public courses and in-house for your organisation, in person or online.
See course dates Ask about in-house training
Free online courses
Short self-paced courses with a certificate when you finish.
All psychosocial online courses
The Psychosocial Risk Series
A practical book series for organisations, leaders, HR professionals, risk practitioners and investigators who need to manage psychosocial risk as a work and operational risk, not simply as a wellbeing issue. Across the series you learn how to identify psychosocial exposure, assess risk, design stronger controls, support safe recovery and review what happens when controls fail.
Each book stands on its own, with practical guidance, examples, tools and questions you can apply directly at work. Available in Kindle and paperback.
Control the Work, Not the Worker
Lead the Work, Protect the People
Protect Those Who Respond
Find the System Failure
The Future of Work is a Psychosocial Risk
HR is Not the Control
What a psychosocial risk management framework needs
A good framework is systematic, and part of your broader WHS management system rather than a separate wellbeing program.
- Identify psychosocial hazards through consultation, surveys, focus groups, incident and complaint data and workplace inspections.
- Assess the risk, considering how often and how long workers are exposed, how severe the harm could be and how hazards combine.
- Control the risk at the source, by changing how work is designed, resourced and managed, following the hierarchy of controls. Awareness training and support services matter, but they are not the main control.
- Monitor and review whether controls are in place and working, and act when they fail.
- Record the assessments, controls and reviews, and consult workers and HSRs throughout.
Which mental health training do your workers need?
- Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaches people to recognise the signs of mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, psychosis and substance use, and to offer initial support until professional help is available.
- Psychological First Aid (PFA) is immediate, short-term support after a traumatic event or crisis: promoting safety and calm, giving information and connecting people with help.
- Peer Support trains workers to give empathetic, non-professional support to colleagues, with active listening and clear pathways to further help.
Frequently asked questions
What is a psychosocial hazard?
A psychosocial hazard is anything in the design or management of work, the work environment or workplace interactions that can cause psychological or physical harm. Common examples are high job demands, low job control, poor support, unclear roles, poorly managed change, remote or isolated work, traumatic events, violence and aggression, bullying, and harassment including sexual harassment.
Do employers have to manage psychosocial risks?
Yes. Under WHS laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking must eliminate psychosocial risks, or if that is not reasonably practicable, minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable. The WHS Regulations and the Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work set out how. Victoria has its own OHS laws and regulations on psychological health.
Is an employee assistance program (EAP) a control for psychosocial risk?
Not on its own. Support services such as an EAP help people after they have been exposed, but they do not change the work that caused the exposure. The main controls change how work is designed, resourced and managed, following the hierarchy of controls.
What is the PRRR Control Model?
The PRRR™ Control Model organises psychosocial risk controls by when they act: Prevent stops exposure at the source, Respond detects and acts early, Recover limits harm and restores people, and Review checks the controls are working. It is used across our PRRR™ training packages and the PRRR Investigation Method™.
How do you investigate a psychosocial complaint?
Triage it first, put safety and support in place, then investigate both what happened and why the work allowed it. Our PRRR Investigation Method™ sets out eight steps, from triage to verifying the controls at three and six months, and we also carry out independent psychosocial investigations.
What training do leaders need on psychosocial risk?
Leaders need to know how work design creates exposure, how to respond when someone raises a concern, and how to check that controls are working. See the training options above for workers, supervisors, practitioners and executives.
Psychosocial investigations
When a complaint of bullying, harassment or aggression, or a psychological injury, needs investigating, we run independent, procedurally fair investigations that look at the work factors as well as the allegations. About our psychosocial investigations, or train your own people in the PRRR Investigation Method™.
Need urgent support with your psychosocial risk management program? Call 1800 231 173 or email info@oranaskillscentre.com.
