Are you hearing the phrase “psychosocial risk” a lot lately?
It’s appearing in health and safety discussions, wellbeing conversations, and all over LinkedIn, not just here in New Zealand but overseas as well. It’s a hot topic.
But depending on who you listen to, it can seem to mean almost anything from workplace stress and burnout to poor leadership, workload, culture and relationships.
So, what does psychosocial risk actually mean?
It’s about the way work affects people
In simple terms, psychosocial risks are risks that arise from the way work is designed, organised or managed, the relationships and interactions at work, and the working environment. They can potentially affect both mental and physical health.
That might include things like:
- Unmanageable workloads or constant time pressure
- Long hours or demanding work schedules
- Little control over how work is done
- Unclear roles or expectations
- Poor communication or lack of support
- Bullying, harassment or conflict
- Emotionally difficult or traumatic work
- Organisational change or job insecurity
And it’s important to remember that psychosocial risk isn’t simply about whether someone feels stressed at work.
It’s about identifying the work-related factors that could cause harm and understanding the level of risk they create.
Stress isn’t always a bad thing
This is where things can get a little confusing.
Work can be challenging without being harmful. A demanding project, a busy period or learning something new can create pressure – but challenge can also help us develop skills, feel engaged and experience a sense of achievement.
WorkSafe distinguishes this from work-related stress, which occurs when the demands or conditions of work create risks to people’s health.
The question isn’t “Is work stressful?”
A better question might be:
“Are there aspects of the way this work is designed or managed that could be causing harm?”
It’s not just about the individual
This is perhaps the most important part of the conversation.
When someone is struggling with workload, pressure or stress, it’s tempting to focus on what they can do differently – become more resilient, manage their time better, take a break, practise mindfulness or improve their work-life balance.
Those things can certainly support wellbeing.
But they don’t remove a psychosocial risk if the source of the problem is the work itself.
If a team is consistently understaffed, workloads are unrealistic, roles are unclear or people have little control over how their work is done, asking individuals to simply “manage their stress” isn’t addressing the underlying risk.
WorkSafe’s guidance is clear that wellbeing initiatives can support workers, but they don’t replace the responsibility to identify and manage work-related psychosocial risks.
Everyone’s experience can be different!
Two people can work in the same environment and experience the same demands very differently.
That’s why consultation matters. WorkSafe recommends talking with workers and considering their experiences when identifying and assessing psychosocial hazards. Frequency, duration and intensity of exposure all matter too.
So rather than assuming we know what’s causing pressure, ask the people doing the work.
What makes the job harder than it needs to be?
Where are the pressure points?
What gets in the way of doing good work?
What support is missing?
What could be changed?
Those conversations can reveal things that policies and procedures alone won’t.
More than a buzzword
Psychosocial risk might be a relatively new phrase for many workplaces, but the underlying issues aren’t new.
Workload. Pressure. Conflict. Lack of control. Poor communication. Unclear expectations. Lack of support.
What’s changing is our understanding that these aren’t simply “people problems” or something workers need to toughen up and manage themselves. They can be work health and safety risks that need to be identified and managed at the source.
And perhaps that’s the most useful way to think about psychosocial risk:
It’s not about finding what’s wrong with people.
It’s about looking at what might be wrong with the way work is happening.
If you’d like to explore Psychosocial Risks in more detail, take a look at our earlier article, Why Psychosocial Risks Matter in Every Workplace.
