Understanding types of workplace psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards are now an important element of workplace health, safety and wellbeing that HR professionals must navigate. 

Successfully managing psychosocial risks and mitigating their impact on employees has become imperative, particularly across Australia, as state-based Safe Work regulators have introduced a Model Code of Practice. 

Comcare, Australia’s national work health and safety and workers’ compensation authority, outlines psychosocial hazards as a mix of physical and emotional risks. 

From time to time, Comcare will add additional psychosocial hazards, but the list currently includes 18 different types of psychosocial hazards, namely: 

Risk 1: Job demands

Risk 2: Fatigue

Risk 3: Low job control

Risk 4: Job insecurity

Risk 5: Poor support

Risk 6: Lack of role clarity

Risk 7: Poor organisational change management

Risk 8: Inadequate reward and recognition

Risk 9: Poor organisational justice

Risk 10: Traumatic events or materials

Risk 11: Remote or isolated work

Risk 12: Intrusive surveillance

Risk 13: Poor physical environment

Risk 14: Violence and aggression

Risk 15: Bullying

Risk 16: Harassment, including sexual harassment

Risk 17: Family and domestic violence at work

Risk 18: Conflict or poor workplace relationships/interactions

This blog defines each risk and offers examples to support HR professionals in identifying and understanding the hazards so HR teams can implement risk assessments and manage the risks in a timely manner. 

So let’s jump in.

Risk 1: Job demands

According to Comcare, job demands “are one of the most common sources of workplace stress and psychological harm.” For job demands to be a physical or mental health risk, the demand on the worker can either be too high or too low.

High job demands that constitute a psychosocial risk could include:

• Time - such as unrealistic time pressures or long work hours
• Workload - unrealistic or unachievable volumes of work
• Role clarity - continually changing job expectations
• Decision-making: Continued complex or challenging decisions

Low job demands that constitute a psychosocial risk could include:

• Cognitive: Highly repetitive or monotonous tasks
• Workload: Long periods of insufficient work
• Physical and environmental: Sitting for long periods or remote/isolating work

Workers who experience high job demands may feel overwhelmed or unable to cope. Those experiencing low job demands may feel bored, disengaged or underutilised. 

How can I address work demands to make my workplace safer for my people?

Firstly, it is important to assess the risks in your workplace and understand if work demands pose a risk of harm to your people. An Xref Engage Psychosocial Safety Survey can help. By consulting workers on how they perceive work demands, your organisation can take steps to identify and assess the risks to their work health and safety. 

Sustained high or low levels of job demands are more likely to increase the risk of psychological and physical harm. 

You can mediate the health and safety issues of high job demands by providing employees with high levels of support from managers and coworkers. 

Managers can also assist by guiding employees on their top priorities. 

Risk 2: Fatigue

Fatigue is categorised as more than just feeling tired or drowsy. While tiredness is risky in certain types of work, fatigue can become a psychosocial hazard. Fatigue “is a state of physical, mental or emotional exhaustion that reduces a person’s ability to perform work safely and effectively.”

Some examples of work that can lead to fatigue include:

• Unpredictable time arrangements, long work hours and roster cycles that do not allow for adequate time for sleep and recovery
• High cognitive demands like sustained concentration and extended work hours
• Working overtime
• Environmental stressors like light, noise, climate, vibration
• Design, quality and management of working facilities that compromise rest

Fatigue is a key contributing factor to accidents, injuries and even fatalities. Fatigued workers may have slow responses, be inattentive or have a reduced ability to control inappropriate reactions. 

The best way to manage or reduce fatigue in your workplace is to ensure adequate recovery time from work. Breaks away from all facets of work, including workplace communications assist to recharge and revitalise your people. 

Risk 3: Low job control

Comcare defines low job control as “when workers have little or no say over how or when their job is done.”

Signs of low job control include:

• unnecessary or unreasonable levels of supervision 
• excessive responsibility, but little decision-making power
• inflexible procedures that don’t allow people to use their skills and judgement.

Low job control becomes a hazard when workers have very low levels of control, over long periods of time or if it happens often.

How can I address low job control to make my workplace safer for my people?

First, understand if your employees experience low job control. If this is the case, one way to address this risk to their health is to increase their autonomy level. 

Risk 4: Job insecurity

Job insecurity is defined as ‘employment where workers lack the assurance that their job remains stable from day, to week, month or year.’ Job insecurity can also extend to roles where there are little to no entitlements or benefits such as paid leave. 

Workers experiencing job insecurity are more likely to experience low job control, high job demands and poor workplace support which are other psychosocial hazards.

Depending on the nature of your organisation and the roles on offer, it can be challenging to reduce or remove job insecurity as a psychosocial hazard. Ensuring workers are clear on what their role entails, including tenure, can help. Similarly, supporting workers to access workplace rights and have bargaining power can offer some security. 

Risk 5: Poor support

Poor support in working environments manifests as a lack of practical assistance and/or emotional support from managers and colleagues. For example, employees may feel that they lack support in the workplace when they do not have enough training, tools, and resources to perform their roles safely.

How to address poor support in your workplace

Implement risk control measures if you identify that poor support is a psychosocial hazard. For example, schedule regular training sessions or ensure technology is at a high enough standard to perform work efficiently. 

Risk 6: Lack of role clarity

A lack of role clarity can have a significant impact on an employee’s psychological health. 

Role confusion tends to occur when employees are starting a new role or changes within their role or team take place:

Comcare offers some examples of when a lack of role clarity can occur including:

• roles and reporting lines are unclear
• overlapping responsibilities between workers
• there are conflicting, uncertain, or frequently changing expectations and work standards
• missing or incomplete task information needed 
• unclear work priorities

Addressing role clarity can start with clearly documented job descriptions. Document any changes to achieve role clarity. 

Risk 7: Poor organisational change management

Change can be positive for workers and organisations. However, if managed poorly, organisational change can negatively impact employee morale and engagement. Comcare considers poor organisational change management to be one of the top psychosocial risks. 

Examples of poor organisational change management may include insufficient consultation, support, communication or consideration of new hazards or performance impacts. 

To reduce or avoid the psychosocial hazards associated with poor organisational change, workplaces should consider how the following can impact the health and safety of their people:

• Taking on new roles
• Merged organisational cultures
• Changed workplace expectations
• Increased workload
• Redundancies (either voluntary or involuntary)

Leadership teams that communicate transparently about change and, where necessary, consult with employees can help protect workers from psychosocial harm. 

Risk 8: Inadequate reward and recognition

It is important for employees to feel that their contributions at work are being recognised and their efforts are valued. Receiving recognition increases confidence, pride, and engagement. Employees who feel recognised tend to perform well. 

On the flip side, when there is an imbalance between the efforts of your people and the recognition awarded, this can become a hazard, especially if the lack of recognition happens repetitively. 

Inadequate recognition in the workplace might look like:

• Receiving unfair negative feedback
• Receiving insufficient feedback or recognition
• Unfair, biased or inequitable distribution of recognition or rewards
• Limited opportunities for development
• Not recognising an employee’s skills

There are many ways to recognise and reward your people for their contributions in your workplace. The following ideas can help offset the psychosocial risks that can arise from inadequate reward and recognition. 

• Listen to your employees’ needs, ideas and any concerns - being responsive and taking action where appropriate is a meaningful form of recognition
• Provide regular feedback - praise them when a task is well done and be specific on areas done well and those that need improvement. 
• Offer development opportunities that provide opportunities for career development

Risk 9: Poor organisational justice

Organisational justice is about your employees’ perceptions of fairness in the workplace. There are different types of fairness that organisational justice relates to:

• Procedural fairness - fair process to reach decisions
• Informational fairness - relevant people being kept informed
• Relational fairness - people being treated with respect and dignity
• Distributive justice - perceived fairness and justice in rewards and outcomes or resource allocation

Poor organisational justice can occur when there are systematic failures in the way decisions are made, resources are allocated and workers are treated. 

Comcare offers some examples of poor organisational justice including:

• Failing to treat worker information with sensitivity or maintain privacy
• Policies or procedures that are unfair, biased or applied consistently
• Penalising workers for things outside their control
• Failing to recognise or accommodate the reasonable needs of workers
• Failing to address underperformance, inappropriate or harmful behaviour or misconduct

If your people report experiencing poor organisational justice, you can address this psychosocial hazard by assessing what type of organisational justice is being reported as ‘unfair’ or ‘poor’ to accurately take steps to resolve it. 

Risk 10: Traumatic events or materials

Witnessing, investigating or being directly exposed to traumatic events or material is a workplace psychosocial hazard. Trauma affects everyone differently, but a person is more likely to experience trauma when an event is:

• Unexpected or they felt unprepared
• Perceived as uncontrollable or unpreventable
• The result of intentional cruelty

It is possible to experience trauma long after an event or exposure. It may not be possible to look ahead and mitigate the impacts of a traumatic event before they occur, because traumatic events by their nature tend to be unexpected, uncontrollable or unpreventable. 

However, organisations can have policies or processes in place to deal with the aftermath.

If traumatic materials are identified as a psychosocial hazard in your workplace, organisations can mitigate the impact of these by understanding what trauma they may inflict upon a person and offering guidelines on how to work with traumatic materials.

Risk 11: Remote or isolated work

When a person works alone or in a remote location, there are increased risks to physical and psychological health.

Remote or isolated work can include:

• Working in locations that require long commutes
• Working in places where it is difficult to access help in an emergency
• Having limited access to resources - for example, infrequent deliveries or long delays
• Long-distance freight transport driving
• Fieldwork
• Reduced access to support networks or missing out on family commitments
• Unreliable or limited communications and technology

Remote or isolated risks can come with the following risks:

• Lack of help in an emergency
• Lack of important information, training or supervision

Comcare offers the following tips to reduce the impacts of isolation at work:

• Provide training for remote work
• Ensure adequate facilities
• Have a check-in process
• Have an emergency response plan if workers fail to check-in

Risk 12: Intrusive surveillance

Intrusive surveillance is defined as ‘unreasonable surveillance methods or tools used to monitor and collect information about employees at work.’ This is beyond what is considered reasonable for the purpose of performance monitoring. 

Examples include:

• Tracking when or how much an employee is working through methods such as keyboard activity tracking
• Monitoring emails, files and internet use
• Covert surveillance by webcams on workplace computers
• Tracking calls and movement with CCTV
• Technology that allows remote access without worker knowledge or consent
• GPS monitoring of employees in company vehicles

If the reason for monitoring is not made clear to your people and is not governed by an effective policy, surveillance can be perceived as excessive. Excessive surveillance can lead to issues like presenteeism, attrition or counterproductive workplace behaviour.

Employees under excessive surveillance have also reported decreased productivity and reduced job satisfaction. Employees perceive that increased surveillance can negatively impact their autonomy, creativity and perceptions of privacy, fairness and trust.

Intrusive surveillance can create a workplace culture where workers feel undervalued, over-monitored, and lacking in autonomy.

Intrusive surveillance has the potential to exacerbate other psychosocial hazards such as isolated work and low job control. 

However, surveillance can be valuable from a safety management perspective. For example, regular check-ins from remote workers can ensure their safety. If a worker does not check in when required, an organisation may consider that something has happened to that worker and that they need emergency help.

Ensuring productivity is not about surveilling or micro-managing tasks; it's about providing employees with processes and resources so they can complete their work. 

Risk 13: Poor physical environment

A poor physical environment can include exposure to unpleasant, poor quality or hazardous work environments over a long period of time. 

Working at heights, wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for a long time, extreme temperatures, and poorly maintained amenities or equipment are all examples of a poor physical workplace environment. 

While poor physical environments may exist in isolation, it is not uncommon for them to be paired with other psychosocial hazards which can increase stress and subsequent harm.

Exposure to poor environmental conditions in the workplace must be managed. 

In Australia, many industries such as construction, mining, healthcare and hospitality have different regulations that they must adhere to when creating a safe physical work environment. Organisations must be familiar with these regulations and uphold them to reduce psychosocial risks to their people. 

Risk 14: Violence and aggression

Violence and aggression is a psychosocial hazard that includes any incident where a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in the workplace or while working. Violence and aggression can be a hazard either when directed at a specific person or the result of witnessing it against someone else. 

External violence can be a psychosocial hazard when a crime is committed by someone outside of the workplace, e.g. a robbery.

Service-related violence generally occurs in hospitality, retail, health and aged care, education and more. It arises when providing services to customers or patients and is often unintentional, but nonetheless causes stress, which long term, can be a risk to an employee’s health and safety. 

Internal violence and aggression can arise from co-workers, supervisors and managers. It can occur in isolation, but can also occur as a result of other psychosocial hazards, like low job control or poor organisational justice, not being effectively managed. 

Family and domestic violence can also impact the work environment. It is a separate psychosocial hazard, addressed later in this blog. 

To determine if violence and aggression affect your workplace, Comcare offers the following suggestions:

• talk with health and safety committees, workers, customers and clients
• inspect your workplace
• review workers’ compensation claims
• refer to industry standards and guidelines
• examine local crime statistics
• review your workplace incident reports.

If your workplace experiences violence and aggression, it can often cause physical and/or psychological injury. It can result in economic and social costs, so it must be managed. 

Risk 15: Bullying

Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards one or multiple workers. 

Bullying in the workplace is often the result of poor culture supported by an environment that allows this to occur. 

Identifying and addressing bullying quickly promotes respectful behaviour. 

Workplace bullying can range from unjustified criticism and belittling comments to practical jokes, offensive language and intimidating behaviour. Consider also that bullying can occur online as well as in person. 

Comcare and Safe Work Australia have multiple resources to:

1. Assist employers to fulfil their responsibilities to reduce bullying in the workplace, and
2. Support employees to understand their workplace rights and what to do if they experience bullying. 

Other tips to reduce workplace bullying include:

• Develop a policy or guide for employees to commit to,
• Employ a Harassment Officer for employees to speak to, and
• Run training on how to manage difficult conversations and provide feedback

Risk 16: Harassment, including sexual harassment

“Harassment occurs when a person is treated poorly based on age, disability, race, nationality, religion, political affiliation, sex, relationship status, family or carer responsibilities, sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.”

Comcare offers support if an employee feels they have experienced harassment and discrimination in their workplace. 

Sexual harassment

There are stronger laws to prevent workplace sexual harassment. Since 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission is allowed to investigate and enforce compliance with the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. 

The Australian Fair Work Commission defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to a person. It occurs in circumstances where a reasonable person would anticipate the possibility of the person who is harassed being offended, humiliated or intimidated. Conduct of a sexual nature includes making a statement of a sexual nature to, or in front of, a person. The statement can be spoken or in writing.” 

The Australian Human Rights Commission has produced many resources including the Respect@Work website to support all organisations in addressing sexual harassment. 

Preventing harassment at work

Comcare offers some tips to prevent workplace harassment including:

• Being aware of heightened risk factors such as power imbalances, isolated or remote work and poor workplace culture
• Fostering a positive workplace culture of openness, trust and respect supported by policies and education and training
• Strong leadership through executives and senior managers exemplifying the types of behaviours and cultures that the workplace wants to promote
• Educating employees on how to prevent and respond to incidents of sexual harassment

Responding to harassment in the workplace

Employers can: 

• Act quickly to communicate and document the incident and reporting process, and share available options for support and representation
• Protect the privacy and confidentiality of everyone involved to protect all parties from victimisation.

Employees who witness or experience sexual harassment can choose to report the incident and seek support. Even if they choose not to report, employees should still have access to support.

Employees experiencing sexual harassment, or witnesses to sexual harassment, can also:

• Call out the behaviour and ask the perpetrator to stop.
• Talk to the person experiencing harassment to identify what support they need.
• Keep a record of what happens, including when it occurred and where, who was involved and anything else that may be important to ensure it's documented.
• Apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop sexual harassment at work
• Make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission or relevant state or territory anti-discrimination body.  
• Ask a solicitor advocate or union representative to make a complaint to the Commission on their behalf.

Risk 17: Family and domestic violence at work

Family and domestic violence (FDV) is ‘violent, threatening, or other abusive behaviour that seeks to coerce, control, or cause harm or fear.’

FDV can become a workplace psychosocial hazard if the perpetrator of FDV makes threats, intimidates or carries out violence on a partner or family member at the workplace, including if working from home. It can be in-person, over the phone or online.

Workplaces must create a culture of trust and privacy so employees feel safe to report FDV. Safe Work Australia have produced an information sheet to support workplaces to identify, respond and manage any possible FDV in the workplace. 

Effectively managing FDV in the workplace includes:

• identifying hazards; including consulting with employees when gathering information
• assessing risks; based on the likelihood and consequence of FDV at the workplace
• controlling the risks taking into consideration workplace policies, training, confidentiality, and more

Risk 18: Conflict or poor workplace relationships/interactions

Workplace relationships and interactions can be an important source of support. Relationships with supervisors, managers, peers and subordinates can positively or negatively affect how a worker feels. 

Conflict refers to a breakdown of individual and/or team relationships. Conflict can arise from tasks, relationships, violence and incivility. 

Conflict becomes a psychosocial risk if it:

• remains unresolved, 
• becomes particularly intense or 
• becomes workplace bullying or harassment. 

If poor workplace relationships or conflicts arise within your workplace, you can begin to manage this by revisiting your workplace Code of Conduct. Ensure your Code of Conduct is up to date, covering how you wish your employees to behave during the workday. 

Then, look to combat the issue. Comcare offers some tips:

• Ensure workers know that they are subject to a code of conduct and know where to access the Code so that they are aware of appropriate work behaviours. Ensure these standards are implemented to demonstrate that there are consequences for poor behaviour.
• Provide conflict management training to all workers to teach them how to diffuse difficult or confronting situations.
• Provide training to managers that show them how to identify a conflict situation and resolve it early.
• Show commitment to workers by being willing to confront issues and manage their resolution.
• Encourage workers to share their concerns about work-related conflict at an early stage by supporting open communication.
• Develop formal and informal confidential complaint handling processes to enable the reporting of inappropriate behaviour.

Teams and individuals can also mitigate poor workplace relationships by:

• Promoting a team culture in which workers assist and support each other.
• Promote the idea that differences in workers are positive.
• Create a culture where colleagues trust and encourage each other to perform at their best.
• Encourage good, honest, open communication at all levels.

If poor interactions and conflict go unresolved, it may result in another psychosocial hazard known as workplace bullying. This was addressed earlier in this blog. 

Mitigating psychosocial hazards

Organisations are responsible for identifying and mitigating these risks for the health, safety and wellbeing of their employees.

Some hazards, like FDV, harassment and bullying have very strict criminal repercussions if these are not eliminated from the workplace. Employees have paths of recourse should they experience these hazards within the workplace. 

Controlling and mitigating psychosocial hazards is an important step in reducing risks. However, not all psychosocial hazards have strict rules regarding when and how an organisation should reduce or resolve a psychosocial risk that exists in the workplace. 

For psychosocial hazards that are not deemed criminal, if an organisation does not comply with reducing or removing psychosocial hazards from the workplace, it may face many challenges, especially around recruitment and retention of both employees and customers

Through their Psychosocial Safety Survey (PSS), Xref Engage can help organisations: 

1. identify risks, 
2. assess the risks, and
3. monitor the effectiveness of implemented controls

The Xref Engage PSS offers a flexible approach with two options for conducting your survey.

1. Stand alone with a concentrated focus, explicitly positioning the survey within a Work, Health and Safety (WHS) framework. 
2. Be incorporated into an existing Xref Engage employee engagement survey. 

Final thoughts

In recent times, the list of psychosocial hazards has grown. This comprehensive blog offers information on all 18 psychosocial hazards, how to identify them and either eliminate or mitigate their impact in your workplace. 

Your employees deserve a workplace that facilitates good health, safety and wellbeing as this will positively impact your organisational success. 

Give your employees a voice and drive real organisational change with Xref Engage, who have decades of experience improving workplace culture. Find out more here.