Safety By Design
With new psychosocial safety regulations rolling out in Victoria in December 2025 - the subject is on the radar across most business media in recent days.
Most other states and territories regulate psychosocial hazards under their WHS legislation.
Cross-border businesses are already aware of their obligations - but should this health and safety area be managed any differently to your broader workplace health and safety obligations? I think not.
Like physical health and safety, psychosocial health and safety is an important cornerstone of “well workplaces” - and so it should!
Psychosocial safety, like all WHS, is more than a policy statement, RUOK days and Employee Assistance Programs.
These elements are all part of the critical structure every organisation should consider to address the potential of psychosocial risk but the key word is part - it’s not the whole.
Like all workplace health and safety risks, psychosocial safety management requires:
assessment
documentation
implementation
review
A workplace that has psychosocial safety embedded in its safety management procedure and its incident/injury management procedure along with regular training and discussions is immediately ahead of the game when it comes to addressing emerging psychosocial issues.
Having an established, consistent framework to respond to any workplace incidents as they arise is the key to delivering quality outcomes for the impacted worker - no matter what the incident. In the case of psychosocial incidents this is crucial.
A workplace that is a psychologically safe environment encourages:
early risk identification with rigorous data interrogation and action when required,
transparent documentation that informs problem solving and incident management,
open dialogue and training with regard to mental health “triggers’’ and strategies to address,
consistent review and measurement including strong data, workers’ voices being heard, trust in leadership and assessment of incident management at all levels.
Business Monitor has just completed an extremely engaging project for a client - moving through the iMind Risk Assessment to a suite of Risk Response Plans for the key psychosocial risk” triggers” identified by the business - we went on a complex journey that required brutal honesty and a lot of courage to come to a strategy that I would love to shout from the roof tops.
The goal of the leadership team was to create workplace wellbeing that was sustainable, was part of the workplace culture and went hand in hand with operational efficiency, worker resilience and business success.
The project wasn’t about responding to any legislative requirements, although that was built into the model.
It was about the company being a thriving workplace where workers felt safe, valued and the leadership were prioritising operational success and personal wellbeing in equal measure at every discussion from the Board Directors to toolbox talks.
Contact us to find out how you can bring psychosocial safety to the table in your business - not because you have to but because you want to!