Psychological Safety Management
Specialist advice and support to ensure your organisation meets its psychological safety and hazard management duties
Ensuring that your organisation meets its psychological safety management duties
Growing awareness, increased workers compensation claims and a better understanding of the impact of psychological injuries have led the federal and most state governments to put in place codes of practice and obligations for identifying and managing psychological safety hazards in the workplace.
Navigating the requirements can be complex as there are multiple codes of practice and compliance codes, plus a myriad of compliance information. However, in most states and territories (other than Victoria), employer's obligations are based on:
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The federal government’s amendments to the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011, which came into effect in June 2023.
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Safe Work Australia’s Code of Practice for managing psychological hazards at work.
Specialist psychological safety management advice and support
In recent years, Risk Strategies’ team of experienced safety management consultants has supported a variety of organisations across all sectors to develop and implement psychological safety management frameworks that allow them to effectively:
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Identify psychological safety hazards
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Assess psychological safety risks
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Develop and implement risk controls and corrective actions
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Review, evolve and improve psychological safety management frameworks within their workplaces.
Our approach is based on ensuring compliance with all applicable legislative obligations and the guidelines set out in AS/NZS ISO45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management, Psychological health and safety at work.
An all-encompassing solution for managing psychological and psychosocial hazards in your organisation
1
Investigation
We begin by spending time with your team and meeting with stakeholders to understand the existing hazard management frameworks and types of psychological safety exposures that may exist in the business.
2
Framework development
Once the requirements and parameters are well understood, a framework is developed in consultation with your team that sets out your organisation’s psychological safety:
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Policy
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Roles and responsibilities
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Risk management process
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how psychological hazards will be identified and assessed
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how controls will be determined and validated
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Reporting parameters
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Review and audit parameters
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Communication and engagement strategy
3
Framework implementation
Our experienced psychological safety management consultants work as an extension of your team to manage the framework’s implementation. This typically involves:
Hazard identification
There are multiple ways to identify psychological hazards. A staff survey, carefully designed to extend understanding of your organisation’s hazard profile and identify specific psychological hazards in your organisation, is our preferred way to start this process. There are other means, such as risk workshops.
Risk assessment and corrective actions
In collaboration with stakeholders and staff we work to:
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Validate the findings of the survey or workshops.
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Understand the level of risk associated with the hazards identified.
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Brainstorm, identify and prioritise corrective actions and controls.
Implement corrective actions
Various methods are used to implement corrective actions and controls, including but not limited to training, Employee Assistance Programs and reviews of processes, job design and systems. We are able to work with other trusted providers to deliver the required programs.
4
Review effectiveness
Post implementation, a review process allows the effectiveness of the controls and corrective measures implemented to be assessed and identify any further corrective actions or controls that may be needed.
Often this will involve:
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Repeating the hazard identification survey and/or
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Staff and stakeholder workshops.
Psychological Safety Management in Focus
In June 2024, we brought together a panel of workplace risk, psychological safety and management system specialists to explore and discuss:
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The frameworks and measures other organisations are using to manage psychological safety.
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What a best practice approach to identifying hazards, assessing risks, implementing controls and corrective actions looks like.
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The challenges and strategies for overcoming them that different organisations have applied in designing, implementing and evolving psychosocial safety management systems.
Testimonials
'In just seven months Risk Strategies halved
our workers compensation claims and implemented a clear management strategy for those remaining'
