Managing psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards are factors in the design or management of work that can cause stress, poor mental health and physical harm.  Psychosocial hazards can arise from job demands, the workplace environment and the way people behave and interact with each other.

New WHS regulations in South Australia, are part of a significant national effort to better address the risks caused by psychosocial hazards at work and this focus has been built into the SA public sector Safety, Wellbeing and Injury Management strategy (2023-2032).

Our activities to manage psychosocial risk and create mentally healthy workplaces [Mentally Healthy Workplaces | Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment] include

• increasing understanding of and a shared language for psychosocial hazards in public sector workplaces [link to resources]

• Introducing the SMART work design concept [currently linked to Sharon Parker event but could be linked to SMART work page when available] that can be used to manage psychosocial hazards

• including psychosocial hazards in the People Matter Employee Survey [link to PMES page - Employee Engagement | Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment] to provide agencies with a comprehensive assessment of their prevalent hazards.

• developing skills in psychological injury claim management.

• Common psychosocial hazards - OCPSE-Common Psychosocial Hazards

• Mentally Healthy Workplaces Framework - OCPSE-MentallyHealthyFramework