The stress or other psychological health condition related claim is likely to have resulted from a ‘psychosocial’ hazard. Psychosocial hazards include:

– Stress
– Violence
– Bullying
– Harassment
– Discrimination
– Job Burnout
– Other workplace stressors

Let’s imagine 5 of your 20 workers are absent from work due to stress claims.

This would strongly suggest that there are psychosocial factors resulting in psychological health conditions.

To provide some clarity on the term ‘psychosocial’, it means relating social conditions to mental health.

Psychosocial factors include:

– Deadlines
– Work load
– Work methods

In the context in which work occurs, including relationships and interactions with:

– Managers and supervisors;
– Colleagues and co-workers; and
– Clients or customers and supervisors

(Guarding Minds @ Work, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety)

So, what does psychosocial safety climate (PSC) factor mean?

Psychosocial safety climate is defined in the Australian Workplace Barometer:

Report on psychosocial safety climate and worker health in Australia, May 2014 as “an organisation’s true priorities for the protection of worker psychological health that are largely reflected through enacted organisational policies, practices and procedures.”

How do you know what your PSC factor is?

While workplaces are generally pretty good at identifying and managing the physical safety climate, they’re not so great at identifying and managing psychological risks factors.

The University of South Australia study found that:

“Results for Australia show that many industries fall below the 2009-10 benchmark of 41 where workplaces support practices and processes that actively promote positive employee health and wellbeing.”

And “PSC levels for the majority of Australian industries fall in the moderate risk range suggesting that these industries would be experiencing unfavourable levels of psychosocial risk including job strain, potentially leading to poorer health and productivity outcomes.” (The Australian Workplace Barometer: Report on psychosocial safety climate and worker health in Australia, May 2015)

So, how do you achieve a high PSC?

Firstly, developing a psychological health policy alone is insufficient.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has identified 13 psychosocial factors.

Their Guarding Minds @ Work project highlights that the factors are interrelated and therefore influence one another.

Therefore, it’s not possible to focus on one aspect, such as “organisational culture” and expect high PSC score.

If you really want to achieve a high psychosocial safety climate, then the first step is to undertake an audit of your organisation – this can be done by analysing your organisations existing policies and practices against the Guarding Minds @ Work 13 psychosocial factors by using the GM@W Assessment Resources.

From here you can work on those psychosocial factors that your organisation is deficient in by setting some realistic objectives and targets.