It begins with work.
NewEra helps organisations understand those conditions, manage exposure and build prevention into the work.
Psychosocial risk is work health and safety.
Psychosocial hazards can sometimes be treated differently from other workplace hazards.
They shouldn't be.
If work creates the potential for harm, organisations need to understand:
What is creating the hazard?
Who is exposed?
How, when and how often does exposure occur?
What could happen as a result?
What controls are available?
Are those controls effective?
The subject may be psychosocial.
The discipline is still risk management.
Start with the work.
Psychosocial risk is often discussed through categories.
High job demands.
Low job control.
Poor support.
Role conflict.
Poor organisational justice.
Violence and aggression.
Traumatic exposure.
Remote or isolated work.
Poorly managed change.
These categories are useful.
But identifying a category isn't the same as understanding the risk.
Ask:
What is happening in this work?
Where does the hazard come from?
Who encounters it?
Under what conditions?
How does exposure change?
What makes it better or worse?
That moves the conversation from a list of hazards to the reality of work.
Follow the pathway to harm.
A practical psychosocial risk approach connects the work with exposure.
WORK
How is the work designed and organised?
Tasks.
Roles.
Workload.
Systems.
Relationships.
Environment.
Leadership.
Change.
HAZARD
What condition has the potential to cause harm?
Identify the aspect of work creating the hazard.
EXPOSURE
How do people encounter it?
Who?
How often?
For how long?
At what intensity?
Under what circumstances?
HARM
What could result?
Psychological or physical harm.
CONTROL
What can remove or reduce exposure?
Change the work or the conditions surrounding it.
VERIFY
Is the intervention actually working?
Has the condition changed?
Has exposure reduced?
Is risk better controlled?
Don't stop at identifying the hazard. Follow the exposure.
Hazard isn't the same as risk.
This distinction helps make better decisions.
PSYCHOSOCIAL HAZARD
An aspect of work with the potential to cause psychological or physical harm.
EXPOSURE
The way a worker or group encounters that hazard.
PSYCHOSOCIAL RISK
The risk arising from that exposure, considering the potential consequences and the nature of the exposure.
The same hazard can create very different levels of risk for different workgroups, tasks and operating conditions.
That's why a company-wide hazard score is rarely the whole answer.
Understand exposure.
Psychosocial exposure is rarely explained by whether a hazard is simply present or absent.
Consider:
FREQUENCY
How often does exposure occur?
DURATION
How long does it continue?
INTENSITY
How demanding or severe is the exposure?
COMBINATION
What other hazards occur at the same time?
CONTEXT
What conditions increase or reduce its impact?
RECOVERY
What opportunity exists to recover?
Understanding exposure helps organisations move beyond broad statements such as:
“Workload is a risk.”