Why wellbeing initiatives are not a substitute for identifying hazards, controlling risk and preventing harm.
Throughout National Safe Work Month, we’re sharing some of the practical gaps we see in how organisations are approaching psychosocial risk management. This year’s theme, Safe work is for life, reminds us that work health and safety is about more than preventing harm in the moment. It’s about protecting people’s lives, health and future.
Last week, we looked at whether psychosocial risk management is genuinely embedded into your organisation, or whether HR, WHS and operational teams are still working in silos.
This week, we’re looking at what psychosocial risk management isn’t, and why supporting employees is not the same as managing the risks that could cause harm.
Activity is not always prevention
Your organisation may be investing in wellbeing programs, EAPs, resilience and self-care initiatives, they may even be running annual engagement or psychosocial employee surveys and training their managers on how to recognise psychosocial hazards. These are important components of a broader approach to employee wellbeing and psychological health and safety, but on their own, they are not the psychosocial risk management system.
The distinction is important. If excessive workload is creating a risk, providing employees with access to an EAP does not reduce that workload. Resilience training will not resolve unclear roles and responsibilities, and a wellbeing program will not address poor behaviour or the conditions allowing it to continue. Similarly, support following a distressing or traumatic incident does not replace having appropriate controls in place before that exposure occurs.
In addition, if you conduct a survey but do not consult workers about effective controls for the psychosocial hazards identified, you may miss a critical step in both implementing appropriate controls and meeting your consultation obligations.
Similarly, if leaders are trained to recognise and respond to psychosocial hazards, but the organisation has not implemented systems to manage high job demands or processes to address organisational injustice, those leaders may be left dealing with issues they have little ability to influence or resolve. This can place them in challenging situations without the authority, resources, or organisational support needed to effectively manage the risks.
The issue is not the initiatives themselves, but relying on them as a complete prevention solution. Organisations can be very active in supporting employees while the underlying conditions contributing to harm remain unchanged. Effective psychosocial risk management must also identify the hazards, address the source of risk and put appropriate controls in place and then set processes for monitoring and reviewing controls.
Start with the source of the risk
Psychosocial risk management is workplace risk management. It requires you to identify hazards arising from how work is designed, organised and managed, understand where people may be exposed to harm and put effective controls in place.
This means looking beyond how employees are coping and considering the source of the risk. Workload, role clarity, workplace behaviours, exposure to trauma and the way work is designed all need to be considered as part of your broader risk management approach.
Support services, training and wellbeing initiatives still have an important role. But they should sit alongside effective risk management, rather than be mistaken for prevention.
For National Safe Work Month, it is worth looking at what sits behind your organisation’s psychosocial risk activity. If your approach is primarily focused on supporting people once an issue has emerged, there may still be gaps in how effectively you are preventing harm.
Are you managing psychosocial risk, or managing the response?
Psychgroup’s complimentary Psychosocial Risk Maturity Assessment helps you look beyond individual initiatives and understand whether the systems, processes and controls needed to prevent harm are in place across your organisation.
Identify where the gaps are, understand your priority areas and receive a personalised 90-Day Plan, including a 60-minute specialist analysis session.