Workplace culture reviews can meet your OHS obligations to consult with your employees and assist you to control psychosocial risks in your workplace.
It seems like everyone is talking about safety at work at the moment. And much of this focus is now around psychological safety – employees saying that a comment from a co-worker or manager or an uncomfortable interaction is making them feel “unsafe”. This can lead to decreased engagement, people avoiding interactions, increased absences and complaints at work.
The obligation on employers to provide a working environment that is safe and without risk to health as far as is practicable is one of the highest obligations on Australian employers.
All states and the Commonwealth now have enforceable legal obligations to eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks as far as practicable.
In doing this, an Employer has a number of duties including:
- Monitoring health and conditions of employees and others in the workplace
- Giving information about workplace health and safety and keeping records; and
- Consulting with employees on matters that may directly affect their health and safety.
Psychosocial risks include high job demands, low job control, poor organisational change management, lack of role clarity, and workplace conflict. They also cover poor workplace relationships and interactions—things like bullying, sexual harassment, aggression, and victimisation. Employers are expected to identify the risk factors, assess those risks, put controls in place, and then monitor and review whether those controls are effective. By applying a workplace health and safety lens to behaviour, the law highlights the importance of systems thinking evidence-based interventions.
What this emphasises is that a healthy workplace culture is not just a “nice to have.” Building a culture that reduces conflict and manages these risks is central to compliance with the new regulations on psychosocial risk.
Consulting on Psychosocial Hazards
When employers consult with employees in mitigating the risk of Psychosocial hazards it leads to better health and safety outcomes.
This is because:
- As the people most directly affected by psychosocial hazards, employees are best placed to offer practical suggestions for improvement, and to detail how they are experiencing the workplace.
- Consultation can increase employees feelings of control and feeling supported at work.
Identifying and consulting on psychosocial hazards is not straightforward. Often employees do not feel comfortable in a conversation about psychosocial hazards because they are worried about repercussions, don’t trust that their concerns will be acted on, or the issues of concern may be closely tied to the existing workplace culture.
Employers need consultation processes that allow employees to contribute honestly and safely. Effective consultation should uncover the organisational, cultural and interpersonal factors that give rise to psychosocial risk in the first place.
Many organisations use People Matters or other organisation-wide engagement surveys to identify areas of concern, but these surveys in and of themselves are unlikely to contain the rich data needed to understand why risks are arising or what controls may be effective in addressing them..
A Workplace Review can be a powerful consultation tool. It is specifically designed to gather detailed information about employees experiences and perceptions of the workplace and the process is confidential and anonymous. Interviews undertaken by an independent reviewer give insight into what lies behind the responses — the organisational, structural, leadership and interpersonal factors that may be contributing to psychosocial risk.
Workplace Review as Psychosocial Hazard Consultation
Workplace culture reviews can provide insight into what is really happening with the workplace culture and why. Importantly, they provide a structured form of consultation that allows employers to hear directly from employees about the factors affecting their psychological health and safety. This may be very different from what the Team Managers may think is working well and what is not within the culture in the team.
A Workplace Review summarises and analyses what employees believe is the current state of their workplace and makes recommendations on how the organisation might be able to address any concerns expressed or build on any positive aspects of the culture.
It is entirely for the organisation to determine what response(s) it makes to the data collected. A range of interventions may be appropriate as a result of a review. These might include interventions such as examination of organisational structure, authorities, processes or delegations; clarification of roles and responsibilities; review of governance arrangements; individual or team training, mentoring or coaching; team building; team chartering; conflict resolution, mediation or facilitated discussion.
Workplace culture reviews provide an independent and effective way to consult with employees about the psychosocial risks in a workplace. By creating an environment where employees can speak honestly and exploring the drivers of workplace behaviours and experiences, a workplace review gives the depth of detail needed for organisations to meet their regulatory obligations and to make evidence-based decisions on meaningful risk control. A workplace review can become part of the necessary consultation with employees to help identify and address psychosocial risks, even before concerns arise.
If you have concerns regarding the workplace culture and the creation of psychosocial hazards in your organisation or within a particular team, Worklogic can help by conducting a workplace culture review. Reviews uncover the real issues and we can then work with you to implement recommendations to enhance the healthy aspects of the culture and help you implement solutions to improve the culture within the team.
Our team is experienced, sensitive and insightful and has the skills to give you the information that you need to manage the risk of psychosocial hazards.