Psychosocial hazards

What counts as a psychosocial hazard?

The common examples in the Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice include high or low job demands, low job control, poor support, lack of role clarity, poor organisational change management, inadequate reward and recognition, harmful behaviours such as bullying and harassment, and remote or isolated work. None of these is a diagnosis; each is a feature of how work is designed and run that raises the risk of harm.

What does the law require employers to do?

Since the WHS regulations were amended from 2022, employers in most Australian jurisdictions have an explicit duty to identify psychosocial hazards and eliminate or minimise the risks so far as is reasonably practicable, using controls at the level of work design first, not just resilience training. Regulators have moved from guidance to enforcement, and the model Code of Practice sets out the expected process: identify, assess, control, review, in consultation with workers.

How do organisations actually find these hazards?

The honest answer is that most discover them late, through complaints, claims or exits. The earlier signals sit in data most organisations already hold: absence patterns, turnover clusters under particular managers, overtime creep and falling engagement scores. Treating those signals as safety data rather than HR noise is the practical difference between managing the risk and reacting to the injury.