What is psychosocial testing?

A psychosocial hazard can be detrimental to both an individual and the workplace if left unmanaged.

With the recent Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act 2020 in Western Australia and subsequent reforms to the Commonwealth WHS laws, organisations have prioritised the elimination of psychosocial hazards. As a result, numerous initiatives, including psychosocial testing measures, have been introduced.

What is a psychosocial risk and why is it important?

Edith Cowan University Mining Work Health and Safety Professorial Chair and Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety (MARS) Centre Director Tim Bentley said according to Safe Work Australia, a psychosocial hazard is anything that could cause psychological harm or negatively impact someone’s mental health.

“Typically, these hazards relate to the design, organisation and management of work,” he said.

“Under the model WHS laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must manage the risk of psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

“Psychosocial hazards can relate to a person’s workload, the design or scheduling of work, how much control a person has over their work, how work is led and managed, as well as interpersonal aspects of work such as bullying and harassment.

“These hazards often interact to increase the risk of psychological harm – for example, high job demands or workload, together with low control over the work or lack of support.”

Professor Bentley said research evidence indicated poorly managed psychosocial hazards impacted a workplace through lost time, long recovery periods, lost productivity, damaged morale, reduced work engagement and greater employee turnover.

“Moreover, employees are more likely to be attracted to workplaces with a good work environment and practices which prioritise and support mentally healthy work,” he said.

“Unmanaged psychosocial risk in the workplace can also result in prosecution, compensation claims and reputational damage.”

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford said Australia had reformed WHS laws to place new emphasis on mental health and psychological health dangers in the workplace.

“Traditionally, these weren’t taken as seriously as physical danger such as an injury or occupational illness,” he said.

“This was all in your head or people would have to toughen up and become resilient.

“However, research shows mental health injuries at work often result from very predictable or unsafe situations such as workplace bullying or workplace harassment.

“Those mental health injuries can be very severe, very real and very costly for the worker, the employer and the workers’ compensation system.”

Proactive management of psychosocial hazards

Professor Bentley said an organisation’s major challenge was how to manage psychosocial hazards proactively – through a risk management approach.

“Organisations are still trying to get to grips with how best to understand and manage psychosocial risk,” he said.

“Usually, psychosocial hazards are dealt with as they arise – or reactively – which often involves issues such as complaints or reports of bullying or harassment in the workplace.

“Once bullying or harassment has been escalated to a formal report, considerable damage has often been done to the mental wellbeing of the victim, alongside others impacted in their work team.

“Managing these issues proactively means creating mentally healthy workplaces where the potential for such hazards are assessed with preventive actions before problems arise.”

Professor Bentley said a key factor in managing psychosocial risk ahead of time was the development of relational leadership capabilities in organisations.

“Managers and supervisors with high relational leadership skills are more likely to create mentally healthy workplaces and to proactively work with their team to ensure risks are well managed,” he said.

“Inclusive and supportive leadership skills are fundamental to strong relational leadership, as are capabilities that can adapt as the nature of work changes.

“An understanding of how to effectively manage new ways of working is a strong example of such leadership, as is the ability to promote healthy work and wellbeing in workers.”

Dr Stanford said there was an essential and legally required onus on employers to evaluate their workplaces and introduce a proactive approach to ensuring and implementing mental, as well as traditional physical, health and safety.

He said this was happening through reforms to the federal model WHS laws, with Safe Work Australia working with participating states, including WA, to harmonise state legislation and change the Commonwealth WHS Act.

“WA has been ahead of the curve on this, reforming its WHS laws to include new protections and responsibilities around mental health safety back in 2020,” Dr Stanford said.

“Employers are now understanding and learning their new responsibilities and figuring out what kind of systems they can integrate into their workplaces to ensure workplaces are safe for mental health.”

Implementing communication and supervision systems, as well as providing safe channels for this communication and advocacy arrangements to allow workers to report psychosocial hazards without risk of being stigmatised or punished, are some of the ways Dr Stanford said organisations could stay ahead and monitor risk.

“It’s not enough to wait until you receive a complaint from someone, because they have had a mental breakdown or have had to leave work for a while, and by that time, the damage has already been done.” 

“The costs for the individual and employer from lost attendance and workers’ compensation are already there," he said.

“Employers have to be on the front foot and take responsibility to ensure relationships, stress levels and workloads are reasonable and safe, and that they have systems in place to address mental health injuries at the first sign of them.”

Psychosocial testing in question

Dr Stanford said psychosocial testing, unless handled carefully and with limits on how employers could use this data – both in hiring and retention decisions – might make things worse not better.

“Where employers are applying tests to their workers about psychosocial conditions and psychosocial fitness is a different issue and one which can be negative in its impact,” he said.

“One way some employers will try to respond to the greater attention on mental health injuries in the workplace will be to try and screen their workers, getting rid of employees who they think are more susceptible to mental health injuries at work.

“This is very much a blame-the-victim mentality, instead of looking at their workplace and trying to ensure it’s safe for everyone to do their job as best as they can without harassment, bullying, undue stress and unsustainable workloads.

“The idea of employers testing their workers for psychosocial fitness is quite perverse and should be limited in regulation.

“This shifts the responsibility away from the employers to have a safe workplace and instead places it on the shoulders of individual workers to toughen up and get resilient, and we know from scientific evidence that just telling people to be tough doesn’t help them to deal with mental health injuries.”

How can workplaces and leaders foster mentally healthy workplaces?

Professor Bentley said significant empirical evidence showed the creation of mentally healthy workplaces began at the top.

“Many studies have highlighted the need for employees to believe their organisation and top leaders prioritise their wellbeing above all else, and for this commitment to psychological health and safety to be well communicated through the organisation,” he said.

“Furthermore, under the model WHS laws, the organisation needs to adopt a risk-based approach to managing psychosocial hazards, as they would for physical hazards.

“Thus, hazards must be identified, assessed and controlled, with prevention being the priority.

“This includes the elimination of hazards through measures such as work design or redesign.”

According to Dr Stanford, a mentally safe workplace makes sure workers are free from mistreatment, bullying and harassment – whether it’s from a supervisor or colleagues, it is crucial to ensure workplaces are aware of dangers and have no tolerance for practices making it emotionally and mentally challenging to go to work.

He said this also included a need for education.

“Education is not only important in helping people who are suffering but also makes everyone aware it has to be taken seriously,” Dr Stanford said, adding that another key piece is union representation.

“Evidence is very strong that when workers have union representation and can be supported by trained union representatives for health and safety issues, including mental health injuries, they are more confident and able to make sure they are looked after.

“For all these reasons, employers have to conduct an audit of their workplace to look at how it is operating.

“And much like inspecting for obvious physical dangers, they now have to do the same thing for mental health risks.

“This is a very positive and welcome development, and workplaces in Australia will be safer because of it.”

Where to begin?

With the ultimate aim being to create a safe space, taking the first step to doing so – and doing it right – is critical.

According to AIM WA Learning and Development Specialist Helen Skeggs AFAIM, leaders in pivotal roles, such as directors, officers, leaders and managers, need to be equipped with the skills and resources to approach it effectively.

“The Psychological Safety and Psychosocial Risk course covers what leaders must know and should know, with an emphasis on taking practical steps to improve psychological safety and manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace,” she said.

“This includes responsibilities under WHS laws, skills to identify psychosocial hazards within a workplace environment, the creation of a psychosocial risk matrix to assess and prioritise workplace risks, as well as potential risk mitigation strategies and ways in which we can reliably measure the psychological safety within teams.

“Effective communication strategies for discussing mental health issues with team members are also explored together with planning and prioritisation to enhance psychological safety in the workplace.

“In addition to AIM WA’s WHS courses, psychosocial testing is also available.

“Participants have the opportunity to explore diagnostic instruments that effectively measure psychological safety.

“Debriefings for individuals and teams are then conducted, and again, a safe supportive environment is created where the team – with or without their line manager – can be supported to articulate their key strengths, beliefs and learnings, as well as their preferred future as a team.

“The team also agrees on actions they will take to hold themselves accountable.

“Learning and development initiatives are the focus, then at a later date – usually around four to six weeks later – a retest is undertaken.

“The assessment is a snapshot in time of the team’s psychological safety and only takes around five minutes; the value is in the conversations that can be undertaken, supported by the insights captured in the data.”