Not the most sexy topic – at least not on the surface – but we reckon there is something very attractive about companies who demonstrate their care for employee welfare. And so do job seekers.
Increasingly, at The Effect, we have been directing our professional focus to primary intervention approaches addressing psychological health and safety within workplaces.
What is a psychologically healthy and safe workplace?
““A workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to worker psychological health, including in negligent, reckless or intentional ways”.”
Primary approaches are proactive rather than reactive, and aimed at preventing and limiting mental harm to workers by understanding and managing potential psychosocial hazards present within the work environment and job design.
It is therefore with great pleasure that we can share the impending June release of the first International Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (ISO 45003).
What is a standard?
In essence, a standard is an agreed way of doing something, based on the knowledge of subject matter experts, and can cover a huge range of activities undertaken by organisations. It provides a reliable basis for people to share the same expectations about, for example, a process.
Standards can make workers' everyday lives easier, or in the case of ISO 45003, safer and healthier.
At the end of the day, without our mental health, we risk everything in our lives that truly matter to us – our enjoyment of the pursuit of the perfect eggs bene; our passion for interestingly coloured chickens with even more surprising looking eggs…No, just us? The fact is, we each have a version of the above! We all have hobbies and passions. Perhaps it is travel, crochet, family time, running…eating crispy fried chicken…
Ultimately, we work to live (most of us, at least) and wouldn’t it be so reassuring to know that our employers feel the same way? They want to get home safely too, with a healthy functioning brain that allows them to enjoy and participate in the things in life that are meaningful to them?
A bit of history
In 2013 Canada led the way in establishing a National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety. This was the first standard made available to organisations to help them manage employee mental wellbeing through promoting psychological health and preventing psychological harm. Based on national and international best practice, empirical data and Canadian case law, a group of 13 psychosocial risk factors for psychological harm were identified:
Psychological Support
Organizational Culture
Clear Leadership & Expectations
Civility & Respect
Psychological Competencies & Requirements
Growth & Development
Recognition & Reward
Involvement & Influence
Workload Management
Engagement
Balance
Psychological Protection
Protection of Physical Safety
Preceding Canada's National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety was Australia's implementation of the Work Health and Safety Act (WHS) in 2011, which provided a national framework for occupational health and safety protection, with safety including both the physical and psychological.
Introducing ISO 45003
Until now there hasn't been one globally applicable standard giving organisations practical guidelines for managing psychological health in the workplace: enter the International Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (ISO 45003).
This international standard is the product of ISO, the non-governmental International Organization for Standardization, and addresses mental and emotional safety. It is an occupational health and safety management system focussed on psychological health and safety at work.
ISO 45003 has undergone several stages of development to get us to the current stage (under publication), one small step away from publication, currently set to occur in June.
The standard includes:
Advice on how to identify psychosocial hazards that can affect workers.
Examples of actions that can be implemented to manage the hazards and improve worker wellbeing.
ISO 45003 - so what?
The ISO 45003 will help organisations put into place policies and processes to better guard the psychological health and safety of those at work. While in New Zealand it is not a mandatory or necessarily regulated process (yet), it is the promising start of agreed best practice for businesses on a global scale, not to mention an invaluable resource.
Supporting mental health within organisations has never been more important. With the events of 2020, the need for creating psychological safety for workers have become more widely acknowledged and accepted. Even before the pandemic, the World Health Organization estimated that poor mental health costs the global economy US $1 Trillion annually in lost productivity. Clearly, there is both a moral and financial incentive to get on board with psychological risk management in the workplace.
As well as helping to build a positive working environment, a framework for managing psychological health and safety can help to improve organisational resilience, with the side benefits of enhancing performance, productivity, and retention.
Further advantages not to be sniffed at are:
increased discretionary worker efforts (The Principle of Reciprocity means humans feel a need to balance the scales of give and take when they feel appreciative. For example, if workers feel they are being treated justly, possibly by observing tangible steps toward managing risks to themselves, they are more likely to exhibit organisational citizenship behaviours).
improved recruitment and diversity.
better employee work engagement (feeling absorbed and energised by work).
increased innovation.
reduced absence due to workplace stress, burnout, anxiety and depression.
legal compliance*.
*Legal compliance in regard to psychological health and safety at work
In New Zealand, the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) sets the expectation that business owners/employers take all reasonably practicable steps to prevent and limit harm – it is their duty, and this duty applies to psychological harm as well as physical.
At this stage regulations exist for how to manage physical health and safety risk, but not psychological risk. However, the same principles may be followed, i.e. weighing up risk likelihood and potential severity, and existing control measures vs. suitability and availability.
The takeaway here is that while it may be considered ‘voluntary’ by many to take steps to help promote worker wellbeing and manage mental health risks, ultimately the law is clear. If a worker was to be subject to psychological harm as an outcome of a poorly managed psychosocial workplace risk, the duty holder is accountable and will be evaluated to assess whether all reasonably practicable steps were indeed taken in a situation where risk of harm was known.
Leaders, if you can’t easily name the psychosocial risks present for you team, and the steps you’ve taken to manage them, it may be time to get a risk assessment done by an objective professional party, or to take a more serious look at resources such as ISO 45003.
When it comes to psychological health and safety, as with physical, prevention is always better than cure (which in many cases don’t exist!).
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I WANT TO KNOW MORE
Talk to us to learn more about managing psychosocial risks in the workplace.
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Blog by Ance Strydom