Psychological health and safety for health and safety committees

Why is psychological health and safety an HSC responsibility?

Psychological health and safety is actually the responsibility of everyone in a workplace , from senior leadership to front-line workers. Responsibilities relate to the level of authority that each role has. For example: 

• It is the responsibility of senior leadership to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and to have policies and processes that protect psychological health and safety. 
• It’s the front-line leader’s role to manage workers in a way that does no harm to their psychological health and safety.
• It’s the worker’s responsibility to do no harm to the psychological health and safety to those they work with. 
• The health and safety committee’s (HSC) role has traditionally been to help identify work-related hazards, consider the risks those hazards may pose, make recommendations to the employer to eliminate hazards or mitigate risk, and monitor outcomes to support follow-up and continual improvement. Today, the link between a worker’s focus and attention and their risk for injury is well documented (National Safety Council, 2023). Psychosocial hazards at work affect focus and attention, as well as presenting risks to physical and mental health. 

Every reasonable precaution: The legal duty to prevent psychological harm

Canadian occupational health and safety laws require employers to take all reasonable precautions to protect workers’ health and safety. This duty applies to hazards that may cause psychological harm, including harassment and other work-related risks, even when psychosocial hazards are not explicitly named in legislation.

What does this mean in practice?

HSC members can leverage the following resources:

• Answer 20 questions for health and safety committees to help open up dialogue and increase understanding of how to address psychosocial hazards at work.
• Review Start with your own committee’s safety, Helping HSC members do no harm and Ensure confidentiality as a foundation for this work.
• Carry out their responsibilities when it comes to psychosocial hazard mitigation in collaboration with management.
• Use the Health and safety guide for psychosocial hazards to develop a framework to help with identification and consideration of controls to recommend to the employer. The provided framework is based on the psychosocial hazards listed in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45003 - Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks (Latest edition).

Start with your own committee’s safety

Before your committee begins recommending policies and processes to identify and address psychosocial hazards within the organization, it’s important to reflect on whether the committee’s own way of working is psychologically safe and supports open and constructive discussion. 

A psychologically safe committee is one where all members feel respected, heard and able to raise concerns without fear of negative consequences. The committee should also reflect on its effectiveness in motivating positive change for workers. The following questions can help your committee consider how well it’s modelling and experiencing psychologically safe practices: 

• Do all committee members have onboarding instructions, including clear roles and responsibilities, and have they reviewed any applicable committee terms of reference and training requirements? 

To address concerns, possible actions may include:

• • An update or development of written role expectations for committee members
  • Clarifying the scope for the committee versus management or union responsibilities. If necessary, update the committee terms of reference
  • Access to ongoing health and safety education, including required training for HSC members on:
    • Relevant definitions related to psychosocial factors and psychosocial hazards with references to standards such as the Canadian Standards Association (CSA/ASC) z1003 - Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (Latest edition) or ISO 45003:2021  
    • Processes for identifying and discussing psychosocial hazards and making recommendations
    • How to protect private or confidential information 
    • Available supports for committee members to help protect their mental health during this work
    • Expectations for inclusive and psychologically healthy and safe interactions among members 
    • How to escalate issues if needed
• Are all committee members trained to identify and discuss hazards in a psychologically safe way? 

This means that committee members feel safe to raise concerns, ask questions and express different viewpoints. It means that all communication among committee members is inclusive, solution-focused and respectful at all times and that all members are held accountable for this. 
If there are concerns about the way a committee member is or has communicated, it should be addressed by:

• • • Reinforcing that questioning is part of learning and due diligence
    • Approaching opposing views with curiosity and listening to understand, instead of reacting with defensiveness
    • Using structured turn-taking in meetings to ensure all members have the opportunity to be heard 
    • Including within the committee’s terms of reference what acceptable behaviours and interactions are and how members will respectfully hold each other accountable for psychologically safe interactions. Resources like Team accountability and Team activity - Calling in team members can help.
• Can HSC members balance committee duties with full-time jobs? 

To reduce committee members’ or supervisors’ concerns about the time required to fully participate in the HSC, the HSC should:

• • • Set realistic time and workload expectations
    • Confirm that time required for HSC work is provided and during paid hours
    • Track time demands to inform workload adjustments
    • Use a meeting agenda to help members prepare for the meeting and keep the discussions focused 
    • Agree to priorities if all issues cannot be addressed at once
    • Create a clear process for escalating concerns
    • Rotate tasks or share responsibilities
• How does the committee prepare and protect members for the emotional or psychological demands that may occur when hearing about worker concerns or incidents? 

To prepare and protect committee members, the HSC should:

• • Provide training. Offer training on psychosocial hazards, boundaries, mental health first aid and trauma-informed practices so members are not caught off-guard by distressing content. 
  • Ensure access to support. Provide members with quick pathways to access their Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or a peer support program if they are negatively affected by information they are exposed to during training, inspections or investigations.
  • Use structured tools to guide information gathering and discussion. This can include agendas, checklists, prompts, or reporting templates. These structured tools can help ensure any member taking part in the conversation has enough guidance and information about the topic of discussion prior to it taking place. This can also help mitigate the risk of possible exposure to traumatic stories without preparation.
  • Clarify scope and limits by confirming what the HSC inspection or investigation will and will not explore. It’s not the workplace’s role to determine a clinical diagnosis. Avoiding personal or clinical probing can also reduces exposure to distressing or confidential details.
  • Work in pairs or teams when possible. Avoid having committee members conduct sensitive interviews alone. Allow time for them to de-brief, to reduce the emotional cost that can come from exposure to others’ pain, loss, or hardship. This is especially relevant when members feel unable to provide the help they believe is needed. 
  • Apply basic trauma-informed and culturally safe principles. This includes when asking questions about safety, choice, consent, and predictability to reduce the likelihood of distress during disclosure.  
    • For more information about a trauma-informed approach, see Trauma in organizations or the Government of Canada’s information on Trauma and violence-informed approaches to policy and practice.
  • Set time limits for members to avoid overload. Keep HSC sessions short, with breaks built in. 
  • Be a connector, not a clinician. If a worker discloses something traumatic, HSC members should be supportive, but also take time to pause, acknowledge the distress, and where appropriate, redirect the worker to appropriate supports like human resources, their Employee Assistance Program, or community services.
  • Schedule  regular debriefs. Arrange verbal debriefs after each inspection or investigation segment to discuss emotional impacts. Ensure HSC members recognize early signs of stress or exposure fatigue in themselves and others and know what next steps they should take for support.

Helping HSC members do no harm

• Avoid unnecessary detail-seeking. HSC members only need to identify and record hazards and patterns, not the specifics of traumatic events.
• Explain the purpose of the inspection in advance. Tell workers exactly why questions are being asked, and how their responses will be used, including if their personal information will remain confidential. Predictability reduces fear and stress.
• Give workers the choice to decline. Participation in psychosocial hazards discussions and interviews should be voluntary, and workers should be told they can pause or stop at any time.
• Offer workers the option to have a worker representative present. This can help support psychological safety and may be especially helpful where power imbalances or barriers to participation exist. 
• Use neutral, non-leading language. Questions should focus on work conditions, not personal stories, diagnoses, or private experiences. 
• Keep conversations brief and structured. This method can help reduce the risk of drifting into sensitive emotional territory. Be prepared with information to redirect a worker to appropriate supports like human resources, their Employee Assistance Program (EAP), or community services if they need it.
• Avoid interviewing workers alone. Conduct interviews in pairs to provide witnesses, support, and consistency.
• Be aware of signs of distress and pause if needed. If a worker becomes upset, the HSC member should stop, validate, and redirect them to supports rather than push through the process.
• Communicate follow-up actions clearly. Let workers know what will happen with the information so they do not worry about breach of confidentiality or privacy, or negative consequences or retaliation.

Ensure confidentiality

To prevent breaches of confidentiality or privacy:

• Collect only what is necessary. Record hazards, categories, and themes. Protect workers by not including personal information or direct quotes that could reveal their identity.
• Use aggregated reporting. Summaries should be high-level and use wording like, “Several workers noted workload concerns” rather than “Employees X and Y said…”.
• Avoid storing sensitive notes on personal electronic devices or paper records. Keep documentation in secure, employer-approved systems with restricted access.  
• Separate roles clearly. HSC members inspect for hazards, not performance issues or interpersonal conflicts. Anything outside scope should be redirected to human resources or another appropriate person or group.
• Have a confidentiality script. Begin every interaction with a clear statement about any limits to confidentiality, the purpose of the conversation, and how information will be protected.  Clarify any situations where disclosure may be required, including imminent danger to self or others or other legally permitted disclosure.  
• Ensure members do not share findings. Committee members should not share findings with co-workers, supervisors, or anyone else not involved in the formal process.
• Follow legal and workplace requirements. Respect provincial, territorial and federal legislation relating to the protection of personal and health information.  Members should also familiarize themselves with company policies relating to personal information. 
• Protect data during reporting. Ensure draft reports are stored securely, shared only with committee co-chairs, and reviewed with discretion. Redact any personal information where possible or required by legal or workplace requirements relating to privacy.

Share this webpage with anyone who is responsible for health and safety committees or who is a member of a health and safety committee.