Addressing Psychosocial Hazards Through Effective Risk and Incident Management

Organisations across the globe realise a happy, safe, productive workforce is the key to a successful business. This recent focus on employee wellbeing has resulted in many firms implementing processes to manage ‘psychosocial hazards’ that could impact employee safety, health, and general happiness in the workplace.

Psychosocial hazards should be addressed as part of a comprehensive approach to occupational health and safety. It is now included in many widely adopted health and safety regulations including those from Safe Work Australia and ISO 45003 which was introduced by ISO in addition to ISO 45001 to specifically address psychological health and safety at work.

What are psychosocial hazards?

Psychosocial hazards in the workplace refer to how work is organised, managed, and experienced by employees that could cause psychological problems, stress, disagreements, or poor performance.

The types of psychosocial hazards that companies should look to address include:

Stressful job demands: This includes addressing areas such as excessive workload, time pressures, unrealistic deadlines, and frequent interruptions in order to lower stress and pressure on staff. It also involves putting measures in place to support those with emotionally demanding work like dealing with distressed clients or trauma.

Poor support and unsupportive management: This includes putting measures in place to address a lack of managerial support or support from peers and ensuring staff have adequate access to training, resources, and information to do their role. Firms should also address micromanagement and rigid procedures or low levels of autonomy and decision-making power which could leave employees scrambling for approvals and unable to progress with their work causing stress.

Poor communication of change management: Organisational changes can impact employees of all levels. Unclear communication about changes or a lack of consultation or support during the change process can cause unnecessary stress and should be managed as part of an organisation’s psychosocial hazards program.

Conflict and poor workplace relationships: This involves putting measures in place to identify and address bullying, harassment, and discrimination as well as any interpersonal conflicts or cases where employees feel isolated.

Role ambiguity or conflict: This involves making sure that each employees role and responsibilities are clear and they understand the expectations. It also involves addressing the risk of employees receiving conflicting demands from different managers that could cause stress and leave staff feeling torn.

Lack of reward and recognition: Organisations need to put measures in place to ensure staff are acknowledged for their hard work and they must address unfair pay, preferential treatment, and bias renumeration practices as these things could impact staff retention in the long-term.

Remote or isolated work: Working alone without adequate support or social interaction should also be considered to ensure staff are happy in their jobs and are not feeling isolated and lonely in a poor work environment.

All these psychosocial hazards could impact an organisation’s ability to have a happy, healthy, productive workforce, and can negatively impact productivity and operational performance over time.

How to Capture Psychosocial Incidents

Staff and managers should have a safe and discreet way to capture and escalate psychosocial incidents when they occur to ensure they are addressed with the members of staff impacted.  A great way to facilitate this is by choosing a GRC platform that offers incident management and anonymous portals for whistleblowing and disclosures.

Staff can easily log a variety of psychosocial hazards and incidents via online forms, with all data feeding straight into the platform. Different forms can be set up for different incident types ensuring forms have the relevant fields, and staff can even upload, pictures, URLs, and documents as supporting evidence. Automated workflows escalate incidents to the relevant stakeholder so they can be investigated and addressed with the staff involved, and all resolution steps are fully documented in the platform.

Some solutions also offer anonymous reporting options where staff can disclose potential wrongdoings, misconduct, or poor working conditions discreetly. This creates a culture where staff are encouraged to speak up if they are unhappy and enables the organisation to take action before things escalate and they become a flight risk or leave.

How to Prevent Psychosocial Hazards Before They Escalate

Of course, rather than just working to resolve psychosocial incidents, firms should look to implement measures to prevent these kinds of hazards from occurring in the first place. GRC software’s risk management capabilities can help in this area too. Firms simply build a risk register and log all of their potential psychosocial hazards. Then for each psychosocial hazard or risk they establish key risk indicators and capture the likelihood and impact.

Risk levels are then monitored on an ongoing basis to capture potential issues early. This is usually done by conducting regular risk assessments. These can be scheduled and automated through the platform. Staff receive an email notification when a risk assessment form is due to be completed, and they enter the details into a form within the platform.  Form fields can adapt dynamically based on the type of hazard being assessed to ensure the relevant details are captured. Reminders are automatically sent for overdue risk assessments. Risk levels can also be monitored by checking ‘incident data’ and by API integrations with HR systems and spreadsheets that contain data about roles and working conditions.

Monitoring risk levels in real time enables firms to act quickly to address psychosocial risks before they escalate and impact operations. All mitigating actions and steps are documented in the platform keeping a complete audit trail of how psychosocial hazards are being addressed.

Implementing Controls to Reduce Psychosocial Hazards

Firms shouldn’t wait until risk levels rise or psychosocial incidents happen, they should proactively be implementing controls and initiatives to reduce the likelihood of psychosocial hazards occurring.

Controls can come in many forms, they might be a HR policy or procedure relating to working conditions, they might be a regular check or staff survey, they might be safety equipment, or it might be a HR project, initiative, or benefits scheme to improve working conditions. Whatever the controls are, they need to be fully documented in a control library and tested and checked regularly to ensure they are effective in mitigating the risk they are related to. GRC software can help to automate this area also.

Firms can build a dynamic control library in the platform and map controls to the associated risk. They can also fully automate the control testing process using the software. Control tests and checks are scheduled in the platform. Automated workflows email staff to notify them when checks and tests are due, and they complete the details in the platform. Reminders are automatically sent for any outstanding actions. Leadership can easily run reports on control effectiveness and implement additional controls for areas where risk and incident levels are too high. Controls can be used to help an organisation to operate within their risk appetite.

Why Managing Psychosocial Hazards Matters

The world is becoming more attuned to mental health and workplace wellbeing and in a recent survey conducted by our parent company Riskonnect, a third of companies listed talent shortages as one of their top risks. This makes addressing psychosocial hazards an emerging priority for businesses that must be addressed. Losing undervalued staff and having to re-train new people impacts operations and slows down productivity. It also costs an organisation money through training and recruitment initiatives. Firms want to avoid this and hold on to high-performing staff.

Risk teams need to collaborate with HR teams to identify these psychosocial risks and establish effective controls, and preventative measures to keep staff happy, motivated, and safe. Firms must take steps to alleviate any stress or emotional trauma from the workplace and support staff when they raise a complaint or grievance. A healthy, happy workforce is also a productive loyal workforce and mitigating psychosocial hazards is the key to a strong workforce.

If you want to take steps to address psychosocial hazards, risks, and incidents in your organisation, reach out to us for a demo of our GRC software platform today.