What needs to be included in a risk assessment for psychological hazards in the workplace? Industry Expert Tutor, Finbarr Stapleton takes us through the steps in this comprehensive article.
The guidelines in the new ISO 45003 standard on managing psychological risks may help in identifying these types of hazards. ISO 45003 Occupational health and safety management – Psychological health and safety in the workplace – Guidelines – is currently being developed and provides guidance on managing psychological risks. Organisations need to understand the underlying sources of harm before control measures are considered in order to improve the effectiveness of activities to manage psychosocial risk. The standard provides guidelines for psychosocial risk assessment in Clause 6.1.2 hazard identification and assessment of risks and opportunities, of ISO 45003. Organisations are required to maintain processes for hazard identification that are ongoing and proactive.
The organisation should identify hazards of a psychosocial nature mainly under the following 3 headings:
Aspects of how work is organised
Social factors at work
Work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks
1) Aspects of how work is organised
Roles and expectations
Examples of where roles and expectations could be a risk include:
Role ambiguity:
role conflict
duty of care for other people
scenarios where workers do not have clear guidelines on the tasks they are expected to do (and not do)
expectations within a role that undermine one another (e.g. being expected to provide good customer service, but also to not spend a long time with customers)
uncertainty about, or frequent changes to, tasks and work standards
Job control or autonomy:
limited opportunity to participate in decision-making.
lack of control over workload
low levels of influence and independence (e.g., not being able to influence the speed, order or schedule of work tasks and workload)
Job Demands:
underuse of skills
continuous work exposure to interaction with people (e.g., the public, customers, students, patients)
having too much to do within a certain time or with a set number of workers
conflicting demands and deadlines
unrealistic expectations of a worker’s competence or responsibilities
lack of task variety or performing highly repetitive or meaningless tasks
requirements for excessive periods of alertness and concentration
working with aggressive or distressed people
Organisational change management:
lack of practical support provided to assist workers during transition periods
prolonged restructuring
consultation and communication about workplace changes is lacking, of poor quality, untimely or not meaningful
Remote and isolated work:
working in locations that are far from home, family, friends and usual support networks (e.g., isolated working or ‘fly-in-fly-out’ work arrangements)
working alone in non-remote locations without social/human interaction at work (e.g., working at home)
working in private homes (e.g., providing care or domestic roles in other people’s homes)
Workload and work pace:
work overload or underload
high levels of time pressure
continually subject to deadlines
machine pacing
Working hours and schedule:
lack of variety of work
shift work
inflexible work schedules
unpredictable hours
long or unsociable hours
fragmented work or work that is not meaningful.
Job security and precarious work:
uncertainty regarding work availability
non-standard employment that is low paid and/or insecure
working in situations that are not properly covered or protected by labour law or social protection
2) Social factors at work
This can include issues such as the following:
Interpersonal relationships:
poor communication
poor relationships between managers, supervisors, coworkers, and clients or others that workers interact with
interpersonal conflict
harassment, bullying
third party violence
Leadership:
lack of clear vision and objectives
management style unsuited to the nature of the work and its demand
failing to listen or only casually listening to complaints and suggestions
withholding information
providing inadequate communication and support
lack of accountability
lack of fairness
inconsistent and poor decision-making practices
Organisational/workgroup culture:
poor communication
low levels of support for problem-solving and personal development
lack of definition of, or agreement on, organisational objectives
inconsistent and untimely application of policies and procedures, unfair decision making
Recognition and reward:
an imbalance between workers’ effort and formal and informal recognition and reward
lack of appropriate acknowledgement and appreciation of workers’ efforts in a fair and timely manner
Career development:
career stagnation and uncertainty, under-promotion or over-promotion, lack of opportunity for skill development
Support:
lack of support from supervisors and coworkers, lack of access to support services, lack of information/training, to support work performance
Supervision:
lack of constructive performance feedback and evaluation processes
lack of encouragement/acknowledgement
lack of communication
lack of shared organisational vision and clear objectives
lack of support and/or resources to facilitate improvements in performance
lack of fairness
Civility and respect:
lack of trust, honesty, respect, civility, and fairness., lack of respect and consideration in interactions among workers as well as with customers, clients, and the public
Work/life balance:
work tasks, roles, schedules or expectations that cause workers to continue working in their own time
Violence at work:
Incidents involving an explicit or implicit challenge to health, safety or well-being at work. Violence can be internal, external or client initiated, e.g.:
abuse, threats, assault (physical or verbal), gender-based violence
Harassment:
This includes unwanted, offensive, intimidating behaviours (sexual or non-sexual in nature) which relate to one or more specific characteristic of the targeted individual, (e.g. based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age)
Bullying:
Repeated (more than once) unreasonable behaviours which can present a risk to health, safety and well-being at work.
Behaviours can be overt or covert, e.g.:
social or physical isolation
assigning meaningless or unfavourable tasks
name-calling, insults and intimidation
undermining behaviour
undue public criticism
withholding information or resources critical for one’s job
malicious rumours or gossiping
assigning impossible deadline
3) Work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks
Work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks include:
inadequate equipment availability, suitability or maintenance
poor workplace conditions such as lack of space, poor lighting, excessive noise
lack of the necessary tools, equipment or other resources to complete work tasks
working in extreme conditions or situations, such as very high or low temperatures, or at height
working in unstable environments such as conflict zones
An organisation can identify psychosocial hazards in a number of ways for example by:
1) reviewing job descriptions;
2) analysing work tasks, schedules and locations;
3) consulting with workers, clients and other interested parties at regular intervals, including verbally or through documented information;
5) holding interviews, group discussions or using checklists;
6) carrying out workplace inspections and observations which help to understand how work is carried out, and how workers interact with one another; or
7) reviewing relevant documented information such as incident reports, hazard and risk reports, grouped occupational health statistics, workers’ compensation claims, worker surveys, absenteeism and worker turnover data.
Psychosocial hazards often interact with each other and with other types of hazards in the work environment. Human factors also need to be considered and, in some cases, specialised advice or knowledge may be required to identify these hazards.
The ISO 45003 draft international standard (DIS) is currently undergoing the public consultation stage of development and the final version of the standard is expected to be published in July 2021. We will keep you posted.
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