Psychosocial safety: Two years on, what have we learnt?

It has been almost two years since ensuring psychosocial safety was made a positive obligation for employers.  

The April 2023 amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 gave employers stronger legal obligations when it comes to managing psychosocial hazards at work. A year and a half later, in November 2024, a new Commonwealth Code of Practice (introduced from November 2024) further refined what employers needed to do to prevent harm from psychosocial hazards. 

So what have we actually learned over the past two years and what should your businesses be doing about psychosocial safety? We explore.

From guidance to enforcement

The 2024 Code of Practice set binding standards that all Commonwealth jurisdiction employers must follow when it comes to preventing both psychological and physical harm.

These standards centre around the hierarchy of controls, a step-by-step approach to eliminating or minimising risks, ranking controls from highest to lowest protection. Under this framework, organisations must proactively address risks rather than simply respond to incidents.

What are the key psychosocial hazards?

The Code identifies several psychosocial hazards which employers need to identify and guard against. Many of these aren’t new, including:

• Bullying and harassment (including sexual harassment)
• High job demands
• Poor organisational change management
• Violence, aggression and workplace conflict, and
• Fatigue and exposure to traumatic events or material.

However, the Code also introduces three new hazards: 

• Fatigue
• Intrusive surveillance
• Job insecurity

The new additions recognise that, with the rise of the gig economy and technological changes, job insecurity is becoming more common in certain industries and people are working longer hours. They also recognise that workplace monitoring technology has the potential to be invasive – a factor that could also potentially impact workers’ mental health. 

Leadership, culture and consultation: what actually works?

While the obligations imposed by the Code go further than ever, if the past couple years have taught us anything it’s that regulation alone won’t improve workplace mental health. 

If you’re really looking to create a workplace that minimises the risk of psychosocial harm, here’s how within you should do it.  

1. Focus on the underlying causes of stress and psychological harm

Many employers treat mental health initiatives as afterthoughts or or box-ticking exercises without really focusing on the underlying factors that contribute to employee wellbeing. And, while Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), mental health awareness campaigns and wellness initiatives all have their place, they need to be part of a proactive approach to psychosocial risk management.

The workplaces leading the way when it comes to reducing and eliminating long-term psychosocial safety are:

• Embedding psychosocial risk assessments into their overall WHS framework so that they’re treated with the same seriousness as physical hazards.
• Training leaders, managers and employees to identify early warning signs of workplace stress, burnout and toxic behaviour.
• Overhauling their change management processes to manage what is widely acknowledged as one of the biggest drivers of workplace stress.
• Designing roles with mental health in mind to make sure employee workloads are sustainable, expectations are clear and employees feel in control of their work.

This approach is built on the understanding that if an employer only intervenes after a problem arises, it’s often already too late. 

A preventative approach is the only way forward.

2. Hybrid work is a double-edged sword

The shift to hybrid and remote work has been hailed as a win for employees’ mental health. It reduces commuting, removes excessive workplace distractions and buys more time for activities outside of work. But the hybrid model has also introduced all new risks when it comes to psychosocial safety. Here are some of them.

• Social isolation and lack of peer support. Without regular in-person interaction, employees often feel disconnected from their teams. This can ultimately lead to decreased engagement and increase the risk of loneliness and burnout.
• Blurred boundaries between work and home life. The expectation to be “always on” can result in overwork, fatigue and an inability to switch off. These are the perfect conditions for breeding long-term stress and mental exhaustion.
• Digital overload and intrusive surveillance. When all of our communication is done digitally, it can lead to overwhelming screen time, another mental health trigger. Meanwhile, employees who choose to monitor their employees’ digital behaviour excessively can create a culture of mistrust – adding to stress and reducing morale.

To get over these hurdles, businesses need to take an active role in shaping and defining their own healthy hybrid work culture. 

For instance, set clear expectations around work hours and availability so employees don’t feel pressured to work beyond reasonable limits. Facilitate social connection through structured check-ins, virtual networking and even in-person collaboration, such as set days in the office. And, finally, make sure managers are equipped to support remote employees, so they can provide the same level of oversight and care as they would in a physical office setting.

3. Consultation and transparency are key

As the workplace changes it’s becoming clearer than ever that psychosocial hazards aren’t just theoretical risks. They’re everyday workplace realities affecting employees’ mental health, job performance and overall wellbeing. 

More than anything, eliminating psychosocial risks means being open and transparent with your employees and putting it at the forefront of everything you do. To get started you should:

• Actively engage employees in psychosocial risk assessments through tools like surveys and discussions. 
• Make sure you include psychological safety in reporting. This includes ensuring employees feel secure raising concerns without fear of retaliation or stigma.
• Recognise that psychosocial risks vary across roles, and adjust your policies accordingly. Frontline workers, hybrid teams and leadership staff all experience different challenges. 
• Engage in genuine worker consultation. If you’re just paying lip service, risk management efforts will be surface-level at best and ineffective at worst.

What’s next? The road to long-term change

So, two years on from the start of the psychosocial safety amendments and we’ve seen some progress in how workplaces approach psychosocial safety. However, there’s still plenty of work to do. 

Here are our key takeaways from the past couple of years. 

• The Code now sets a clear standard. There’s no more ambiguity about what you need to do: you must follow the Code.
• Risk management must evolve with the workplace. As technology, job security, and working arrangements shift, our strategies for preventing psychosocial harm need to change also.
• Psychosocial safety is now a leadership responsibility. It’s not something employers can just fob off to HR. CEOs, managers and others have a role to play too.

More than anything, however, we’ve seen that those organisations who choose to treat psychosocial safety as part of their organisation’s fabric rather than just a legal requirement are giving themselves an advantage when it comes to workplace productivity, employee retention and overall workplace health.

Want more?

If you’d like to know about how to build a psychosocial safety into your business, get in touch.