For the past few years, there has been an increased focus on the role of psychosocial risks and how they impact individuals and workplaces. We previously wrote a blog about why managing psychosocial hazards was crucial for workplaces. With Victorian psychosocial hazard regulations kicking in this December, we thought it was time to revisit this topic and discuss what good psychosocial risk control development and management can look like versus achieving compliance.
Many organisations have already embarked on the journey of psychosocial risk management, completed risk assessments, launched initiatives, and put controls in place. Kudos to all the businesses that have made it this far! We want you to ask yourself two very important questions, though.
- Do you understand psychosocial hazards from an organisational, team and individual levels?
- Are you designing your risk controls so they target the correct area of the business to tackle to the root cause?
Breaking down psychosocial risks beyond the organisation
You may be familiar with several key psychosocial hazards, such as high and low job demands, low job control, poor support and lack of role clarity. It might be tempting to roll out organisation-wide initiatives to tackle these risks, but here is the catch: they may not work. Why? Because organisation-wide controls lack specificity. You need to understand the source of the risk first. Is it stemming from organisational-wide policies and procedures, or is it related to how a specific team works?
It is important to assess psychosocial risks within work teams/divisions so you can identify their specific impacts while also looking for organisation-wide trends. By understanding which areas of the business are impacted by which risks and then investigating root causes in the right area, you have a better chance of choosing psychosocial risk controls that will create improvement.
- Organisation-wide controls can positively affect a large number of people, but due to the lack of specificity, the degree of improvement might only be small. These are still important controls as they can bring about broad change over time and set the organisation’s tone.
- Team-based controls can positively affect a more moderate number of people and bring greater improvement than organisational controls as they target relevant ways of working. These controls can bring noticeable improvements but may not suit everyone’s work style/needs.
- Individual controls positively affect a single person but can make huge improvements if designed well as they are tailored to their ways of working.
All three levels of controls are crucial for managing psychosocial risks. Organisations need to ensure that they have a solid framework in place to support line leaders and build their capabilities to deliver on the team-based and individual controls, though.
Contact Us
If you’re looking to design more specific psychosocial risk controls for greater improvements but don’t know where to start, reach out to one of our consultants. We’d love to support you on this journey!
