12 Oct Psychosocial hazards at work – what employers must do
Most businesses have a process for physical hazards, like a wet floor or a faulty ladder. Fewer have one for the hazards you can’t see – chronic overwork, poor management, bullying, or a worker carrying too much on their own.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), “health” means physical and mental health. That means psychosocial hazards carry the same legal weight as a trip hazard or unguarded machine. This isn’t a wellness initiative you can leave for later. It’s a duty you already have.
What counts as a psychosocial hazard
WorkSafe groups psychosocial hazards into three areas. You don’t need to memorise the categories, just recognise the examples:
- How work is set up – long hours, unrealistic workloads, unclear roles, little control over how or when tasks are done
- People and culture – poor leadership, bullying or harassment, lack of support, job insecurity, feeling undervalued
- The work environment – working alone or remotely, exposure to traumatic incidents, constant pressure to hit deadlines or targets
These hazards often build up quietly. A worker covering three roles because you’re short-staffed, or a site supervisor dealing with an aggressive client every week, is being exposed to a psychosocial risk, even if nothing “happens” on any given day.
Your legal duty
Under section 36 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, you must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of your workers.
This is the same duty that applies to physical hazards, and it works the same way:
- Identify the hazard;
- Assess the risk (how likely, how severe, how long workers are exposed);
- Control it, starting with eliminating the risk where you can, then minimising what’s left; and
- Review regularly, especially after a change to the business.
You must also consult your workers when deciding how to manage these risks. In a small team, that can be as simple as an honest conversation, not a formal survey.
How to spot psychosocial hazards in your business
You won’t find these on a walk-through the way you’d spot a trailing cable.
Instead, look at:
- Staff turnover and unplanned leave;
- Near-miss reports or complaints;
- Overtime and rostering patterns; and/or
- What comes up in regular check-ins or toolbox talks.
If you’re already running toolbox talks, they’re a natural place to ask how the team is coping, not just whether the PPE is being worn.
Managing the risk, practically
For most small businesses, this doesn’t need to be complicated:
- Talk to your team about workload, deadlines, and any conflict or pressure they’re under;
- Fix what you can control, such as unrealistic deadlines, unclear job descriptions, or a lack of backup when someone’s away;
- Have a plan for bullying or harassment, even a simple one, so workers know how to raise a concern and what happens next; and
- Record it, the same way you would any other hazard, so it’s part of your ongoing risk management rather than a one-off conversation.
If something does go wrong, such as a worker being hospitalised for a serious mental health event connected to work, treat it like any other notifiable event and get advice on whether WorkSafe needs to be told. WorkSafe has said it’s more likely to step in where there’s a pattern of poorly managed risk across a business, rather than a single incident, but that doesn’t remove your obligation to manage the risk in the first place.
Where to start
If you haven’t looked at psychosocial hazards before, don’t try to fix everything at once.
Start with:
- A short, honest conversation with your team about what’s making work harder than it needs to be;
- Adding psychosocial hazards to your existing hazard register, alongside your physical risks; and
- Picking one or two changes you can actually make this month, rather than a long list you won’t get to.
This is exactly the kind of hazard that’s easy to overlook in a paper-based system, because there’s no photo to take or form to fill in on the spot. In Hasmate, you can log psychosocial hazards the same way you log any other risk, track what you’ve done about them, and keep a record if WorkSafe or an insurer ever asks what you’ve done to manage them.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss.