In the February edition of Insight, we explored the issues that PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) are now required to address as part of their work health and safety obligations under the Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice (CoP) 2022.
In this edition, we’ll look at how PCBUs can go about checking and improving their systems, procedures and culture in order to have confidence that the issues are being managed as far as reasonably practicable.
As we described last month, most workplaces are used to managing physical hazards as part of their work health and safety management systems and procedures, however the new CoP requires the management of psychosocial hazards too.
A psychosocial hazard is “a hazard that arises from, or relates to, the design or management of work, a work environment, plant at a workplace, or workplace interactions and behaviours and may cause psychological harm, whether or not the hazard may also cause physical harm”.
So what steps can PCBUs take to get their work health and safety practices up to scratch?
Worksafe Queensland advises that “PCBUs must adopt a risk management process, including eliminating psychosocial risks, so far as is reasonably practicable, or if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate psychosocial risks, by minimising them.”
The risk management process requires PCBUs to:
- Identify psychosocial hazards
- Assess the risk
- Control the risks
- Review the controls
In order to safeguard workers from psychosocial hazards, and to be able to demonstrate that all reasonably practicable steps have been taken to do so, this risk management process should be undertaken methodically and documented. We explore each step in the risk management process below.
- Identify psychosocial hazards:
- Consult with workers. This could be by conducting workshops or group consultation meetings, providing anonymous surveys or other feedback mechanisms,
- Critically assess workplace culture, with the various kinds of psychosocial hazards in mind (refer back to our February article).
- Review historical records. For example:
- EAP usage;
- Disputes and industrial relations issues;
- Trends in sick leave;
- Workers’ compensation for psychological injuries;
- Worker knowledge of, and compliance with, workplace bullying and harassment or discrimination policies;
- Trends in complaints or workplace grievances;
- Increased overtime;
- Indications of stress amongst workers.
- Undertake workplace inspections, to look for indications of psychosocial hazards and/or poor workplace culture.
- Assess the risks:
- Once the risks have been identified, the process of assessing them is the same as for any WHS risk:
- Identify the harm that could be caused by the risk;
- Determine the possible consequences to workers, in light of known control measures; and
- Determine the likelihood of it happening (this may incorporate frequency, intensity and duration of exposure to the risk).
- Don’t forget that Consequence comes before Likelihood in the risk assessment process (see our earlier article on this topic here).
- Control the risks:
- Keeping in mind any existing controls and their effectiveness, identify if any new controls need to be implemented to eliminate or manage the risk.
- Assign responsibilities for implementing the new controls.
- Assign timeframes, prioritising action according to the level of risk
- Review the controls:
- Managing risks is never a set-and-forget exercise, so be sure to set a timeframe for revisiting the whole process, including:
- Assessing the effectiveness of the new controls;
- Re-assessing the risk level in light of the new controls and their level of implementation and effectiveness; and
- Checking for new or emerging risks.
Please contact QRMC for assistance in conducting risk assessments, redeveloping your WHS management system, or for more information.
