Psychosocial hazard mitigation

In International Standards Organization (ISO) 45003:2021¹ – Occupational Health and Safety Management – Psychological Health and Safety at Work – Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks, clause 6.1.2.1 covers psychosocial hazard identification. In this standard it states that “the organization should understand the underlying sources of harm before control measures are considered to improve the effectiveness of activities to manage psychosocial risk.” 

What follows is an independent interpretation by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health of how you might use hazard identification to inform your approach to psychological health and safety. The results in your Guarding Minds at Work employee survey will point to employee concerns related to these psychosocial hazards but will not identify the specific individuals or circumstances involved.

There are many ways to understand the underlying sources of harm, but the most critical is a discussion with employees about the issues identified. Employees can also be a great source of solutions relevant to their unique working conditions. Many resources are available to help guide and support a facilitated employee discussion such as the On the agenda workshop series. Some long-term strategies can include improving leadership skills as well as the emotional intelligence and resilience of both individuals and teams. 

The Guarding Minds employee survey statements are mostly written in the positive to contribute to solution-based thinking and avoid creating dissatisfaction among the employees who respond. The psychosocial hazards, which are necessarily written in the negative, do not appear in the employee survey. They are provided exclusively for the employer to consider potential risks of not addressing psychological health and safety.

Bullying/harassment

Examples of how bullying/harassment may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• unwanted, offensive, intimidating behaviours (sexual or non-sexual in nature) which relate to one or more specific characteristics of the targeted individual, e.g.:
  
  • race
  • gender identity
  • religion or belief
  • sexual orientation
  • disability
  • age
• repeated (more than once) unreasonable behaviours which can present a risk to health, safety and well-being at work; behaviours can be overt or covert, e.g.:
  
  • social or physical isolation
  • assigning meaningless or unfavourable tasks
  • name-calling, insults and intimidation
  • undermining behaviour
  • undue public criticism
  • withholding information or resources critical for one’s job
  • malicious rumours or gossiping
  • assigning impossible deadlines

Note: Bullying and harassment can occur in person and electronically (e.g., online meetings, social media).

Suggested actions: 

From an organizational perspective, it’s critical to take action to Prevent bullying and harassment. From a leader perspective, an approach to conflict resolution that leaves both parties with their dignity intact and a new way of interacting going forward, is more useful for mending working relationships.  From a team perspective, the Psychologically safe interactions workshop is a way to open minds and change behaviours that may unintentionally be experienced as intimidating or threatening. 

When discrimination, harassment and bullying are identified, they are legal concerns that need to be addressed at an organizational level.

Career development

Examples of how career development may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• career stagnation and uncertainty, under-promotion or over-promotion, lack of opportunity for learning and skill development

Suggested actions: 

In organizations where there are few or no opportunities for advancement, it’s still possible to support the growth and development of employees. This can help keep them engaged and motivated. Use Putting growth and development on the agenda to facilitate a team discussion about the types of opportunities your employees would appreciate. This can include personal development, communication techniques, the opportunity to host social or community events, team building activities or the opportunity to shadow other staff or leaders.

Civility and respect

Examples of how civility and respect may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of trust, honesty, respect, civility and fairness
• lack of respect and consideration in interactions among workers, as well as with customers, clients and the public

Suggested actions: 

What your employees agree is both civil and respectful varies not only by sector and role, but by the background and life experiences of the individuals. To ensure that your employees feel their work interactions are civil and respectful, consider facilitating a discussion using the free materials provided in Putting civility and respect on the agenda. It can be the meeting of minds and managing expectations that changes interactions from offensive to acceptable. 

If your team members are unaware of the negative impact their words and behaviours have on each other, you may wish to use the Psychologically safe interactions workshop materials to respectfully bring them to a new understanding.

For more actions, see Evidence-based actions for civility and respect. 

Harm

Examples of how harm may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• incidents involving an explicit or implicit challenge to health, safety or well-being at work; violence can be internal, external or client initiated, e.g.:
  
  • abuse
  • threats
  • assault (physical, verbal or sexual)
  • gender-based violence

Note: In the ISO 45003, Harm is called violence at work. To capture the psychological harm that can come from emotional or verbal violence, we modified the name of this psychosocial hazard.

Suggested actions: 

For organizations, a proactive approach to violence prevention is recommended. There is also a violence response for leaders resource that provides questions to help guide decision making about whether a potential risk exists and information about how to respond when there is. In addition, there are strategies to use when addressing employee domestic violence.

Violence and threats in the workplace are legal concerns that need to be addressed at an organizational level.

Interpersonal relationships 

Examples of how interpersonal relationships may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• poor communication, including poor information sharing
• poor relationships between managers, supervisors, co-workers, and clients or others that workers interact with
• interpersonal conflict
• harassment, bullying, victimization (including using electronic tools such as email and social media), third-party violence
• lack of social support
• unequal power relationships between dominant and non-dominant groups of workers
• social or physical isolation

Suggested actions: 

How teams interact can be critical to psychological health and safety. Some of the resources that can help improve these interactions include: 

Psychologically safe teams, Psychologically safe interactions and many of the Team building activities. It is important that leaders take part in both these activities and the changes in behaviour that the process recommends. 

The Emotional intelligence workshop helps participants understand their own emotional triggers, explore the functions of emotions, reflect on when behaviours are a symptom of emotions and respond more effectively to the emotions of others.

In terms of leader/employee relationships, it can be very helpful to examine the criteria for Building trust for leaders and make adjustments that will better develop trust with your team.

Conflict response for leaders can help you facilitate a more effective way to improve difficult working relationships between two people. 

Emotional intelligence for leaders provides resources to help leaders listen and connect with employees. 

Job control or autonomy

Examples of how job control or autonomy may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• limited opportunity to participate in decision-making
• lack of control over workload
• low levels of influence and independence (e.g., not being able to influence the speed, order or schedule of work tasks and workload)

Suggested actions: 

The amount of demand an employee faces at work needs to be balanced with a level of control and autonomy over how they get their work done. When there are higher demands on the employee, you should consider the levels of flexibility, influence and control to balance out the stress. To find out how to do this while maintaining productivity, use the workshop materials of Putting involvement and influence on the agenda to facilitate a team discussion. You can also use a more supportive and collaborative performance management process to support control over how employees gain success in accomplishing their job tasks. 

To determine the appropriate level of flexibility, control and autonomy with the employee, you can ask the employee these 3 questions:

• What do you need to manage your work demands?
• What will you commit to that will help you successfully manage your work demands and well-being?
• How and when will we follow up on this?

Job demands

Examples of how job demands may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• underuse of skills
• continual work exposure to interaction with people (e.g., the public, customers, students, patients)
• having too much to do within a certain time or with a set number of workers
• conflicting demands and deadlines
• unrealistic expectations of a worker’s competence or responsibilities
• lack of task variety or performing highly repetitive tasks
• fragmented or meaningless work
• requirements for excessive periods of alertness and concentration
• working with aggressive or distressed people
• exposure to events or situations that can cause trauma

Suggested actions: 

Job demands can be a risk to employee psychological safety in a variety of ways. It may be that it is an issue of workload management, psychological or social support or it could be a lack of psychological protection. 

Sector-specific strategies for psychological health and safety describes some examples of the unique psychosocial risks and approaches for first responders, educators, call centres and more. Strategies are also provided for human services, tech, shifts, and dangerous or remote working.

For more actions, see Evidence-based actions for competencies and demands. 

Job security and precarious work

Examples of how job security and precarious work may be a psychosocial hazard include: 

• uncertainty regarding work availability, including work without set hours
• possibility of redundancy or temporary loss of work with reduced pay
• low-paid or insecure employment, including non-standard employment
• working in situations that are not properly covered or protected by labour law or social protection

Suggested actions: 

Where possible, ensure that employees are paid a living wage and have predictable and adequate hours of work. Where this is not possible, help employees have flexibility to work more than one job, get training or job shadowing to be able to seek full-time work, help them develop a resume or provide career counseling. 

Helping employees to manage change offers strategies to help address job insecurity as well as psychologically safe job terminations. 

Leadership

Examples of how leadership may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of clear vision and objectives
• management style unsuited to the nature of the work and its demand
• failing to listen or only casually listening to complaints and suggestions
• withholding information
• providing inadequate communication and support
• lack of accountability
• lack of fairness
• inconsistent and poor decision-making practices
• abuse or misuse of power

Suggested actions: 

There are many resources that can help including the Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment, Building trust for leaders, Psychologically Safe Teams, Emotional Intelligence Self-assessment or the workshop materials of Putting clear leadership and expectations on the agenda.

Organizational change management

Examples of how organizational change management may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of practical support provided to assist workers during transition periods
• prolonged or recurring restructuring
• lack of consultation and communication about workplace changes, or consultation and communication which is of poor quality, untimely or not meaningful

Suggested actions: 

Helping employees to manage change has many ideas and strategies to lead employees through times of change, even when the changes are outside of your control.

Leaders and employees can benefit from Coping with change, which helps you to explore how you can navigate change in ways that help you accept and adapt to changes that are outside your control.

Organizational/workgroup culture

Examples of how organizational and workgroup culture may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• poor communication
• low levels of support for problem-solving and personal development
• lack of definition of, or agreement on, organizational objectives
• inconsistent and untimely application of policies and procedures, unfair decision-making

Suggested actions: 

Questions to ask leaders about the type of organizational culture they have now and what they would like it to be are provided here. For leaders who want to engage their employees in deciding what type of organizational culture they want and what they are willing to do to contribute to it, use the materials in Putting organizational culture on the agenda to facilitate this conversation.

For more actions, see Evidence-based actions for organizational culture. 

Recognition and reward

Examples of how recognition and reward may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• imbalance between workers’ effort and formal and informal recognition and reward
• lack of appropriate acknowledgement and appreciation of workers’ efforts in a fair and timely manner

Suggested actions: 

Learning from your employees which type of recognition actually motivates them  can help guide your efforts. Putting recognition and reward on the agenda provides you with materials, including forms to gather recognition preferences, to help you facilitate this conversation. Evidence-based actions for recognition and reward provides you with several ideas you can share with your team.

Remote and isolated work

Examples of how remote and isolated work may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• working in locations that are far from home, family, friends and usual support networks (e.g., isolated working or “fly-in-fly-out” work arrangements, 
• working alone in non-remote locations without social/human interaction at work (e.g., working at home, working underwater or underground for extended periods)
• working in private homes (e.g., providing care or domestic roles in other people’s homes)

Suggested actions: 

One of the risks of isolated or remote work is employees feeling alone while working. Hybrid teams has several suggestions for addressing this. Mentoring is one of those suggestions and a free toolkit is available if this is a solution you want to explore more.

For employees who are working alone, consider their unique need to support their psychological safety on the job. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has some ideas of how to do this. 

If none of your team works remotely and feeling lonely at work is still a concern, you may want to provide more opportunities for social interaction at work. Team building activities or the On the agenda workshop series help you facilitate discussions among your team members about creating the kind of workplace they want to be in.

Sector-specific strategies for psychological health and safety includes strategies for remote workers.

Roles and expectations

Examples of how roles and expectations may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• role ambiguity
• role conflict
• duty of care for other people
• scenarios where workers do not have clear guidelines on the tasks they are expected to do (and not do)
• expectations within a role that undermine one another (e.g., being expected to provide good customer service, but also to not spend a long time with customers)
• uncertainty about, or frequent changes to, tasks and work standards
• performing work of little value or purpose

Suggested actions: 

Putting clear leadership and expectations on the agenda provides materials to help you facilitate a conversation with employees about what they need to do their job well. Performance management and Supporting employee success can help you work with individuals on their specific role and expectations. There are many additional ideas in Evidence-based actions for clear leadership and expectations.

Supervision

Examples of how supervision may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of constructive performance feedback and evaluation processes
• lack of encouragement/acknowledgement
• lack of communication
• lack of shared organizational vision and clear objectives
• lack of support and/or resources to facilitate improvements in performance
• lack of fairness
• misuse of digital surveillance

Suggested actions: 

There are many resources that can help including the Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment, Building trust for leaders, Psychologically Safe Teams, Performance management, Emotional Intelligence Self-assessment, Strengthening leadership skills or the workshop materials of Putting clear leadership and expectations on the agenda.

Support

Examples of how support may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of support from supervisors and co-workers
• lack of access to support service
• lack of information/training to support work performance

Suggested actions: 

Putting psychological and social support on the agenda provides materials for you to facilitate a conversation with employees to understand what type of support would be helpful at work. 

A tool to support employee success offers a process that engages employee and employer to develop solutions that support productivity and well-being. Supporting Employee Success is for any employee, including those needing accommodation.

Evidence-based actions for psychological and social support provide additional ideas that you may want to explore with your employees.

Work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks

Examples of how work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• inadequate equipment availability, suitability, reliability, maintenance or repair
• poor workplace conditions such as lack of space, poor lighting and excessive noise
• lack of the necessary tools, equipment or other resources to complete work tasks safely
• working in extreme conditions or situations, such as very high or low temperatures, or at height or depth
• working in unstable environments such as conflict zones

Suggested actions: 

Not having a safe work environment or adequate equipment may be an Occupational Health and Safety violation and needs to be addressed. 

If you’re unaware of why employees’ responses indicated that this was a risk, you need to explore by asking them. You may facilitate a team discussion about physical safety using Putting protection of physical safety on the agenda. This discussion helps employees identify the issues, but this is not sufficient – you must also address the concerns that are Occupational Health and Safety violations. 

Work/life balance

Examples of how work/life balance may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• work tasks, roles, schedules or expectations that cause workers to continue working on their own time
• conflicting demands of work and home
• work that impacts the workers’ ability to recover

Suggested actions: 

There are many tips for work-life balance available to share with your employees, as well as healthy break activities to stay balanced while at work. Facilitate a team discussion with your employees with Putting balance on the agenda to come up with ideas and strategies unique to your workplace.

Evidence-based actions for balance provide additional ideas that you may want to explore with your employees.

Working hours and schedule

Examples of how working hours and schedule may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• lack of variety of work
• shift work
• inflexible work schedules
• unpredictable hours
• long or unsociable hours
• fragmented work or work that is not meaningful
• continual requirements to complete work at short notice

Suggested actions: 

There are many ways to improve the experience of your employees who are required as a group to fill scheduling requirements. To discover solutions, engage your employees in discussions about your unique work situation. For example, present them with the requirements of the work expected and the coverage that is required. 

Two helpful resources from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety include information about the health effects of shiftwork and how to provide flexible work arrangements that support organizational success.
 
To look at some other ideas for actions that can reduce stress related to working hours and schedule, review the ideas and suggestions in Sector-specific strategies and evidence-based actions for balance or workload management. 

One of the benefits of addressing the issue of work hours and schedule is the prevention of employee turnover and burnout. See Burnout response for leaders which offers information on how to take proactive steps.

Workload and work pace

Examples of how workload and work pace may be a psychosocial hazard include:

• work overload or underload
• high levels of time pressure
• continually subject to deadlines
• machine pacing
• high level of repetitive work

Suggested actions: 

The most effective place to address workload and work pace stress is to facilitate a conversation with the affected employees. Putting workload management on the agenda provides you with a framework to help you have this conversation. 

One of the benefits of addressing the issue of workload and work pace is the prevention of employee turnover and burnout. See Burnout response for leaders, which offers information on how to take proactive steps.

Explore more information or begin using the survey tools.

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1. International Organization for Standardization. (2021). Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks (ISO Standard No. 45003). Retrieved from https://www.iso.org/standard/64283.html