Managing psychological health & safety
Managing psychological health and safety in the workplace is as important as managing physical health and safety. A psychologically healthy and safe workplace prevents harm to workers’ mental health and promotes mental well-being.
While many factors outside the workplace can affect mental health, it is an employer’s responsibility to address the factors that are within the control, responsibility, or influence of the workplace. These three principles help to create, support, promote, and maintain a psychologically healthy and safe workplace:
- Show leadership commitment
- Develop supportive managers and supervisors
- Ensure worker participation
Many employers already operate according to these principles, which are outlined in detail in our framework for success. Those who effectively promote psychological health and safety have greater productivity and employee engagement. Their workers experience less conflict and higher morale, and are less likely to leave.
Risk management model
The approach to managing psychological health and safety is similar to the approach for managing risks to physical health and safety: understanding risks, implementing safety measures, communicating safety information, and monitoring measures for effectiveness.
Begin by identifying the psychosocial hazards in your workplace, which are conditions that have the potential to cause psychological harm. These could include:
- Work conditions such as
- Unclear expectations for workers
- High or low job demands or task variety
- A work environment that enables or tolerates disrespectful behaviour
- A workplace that does not have policies and procedures in place to prevent and address harassment
- Exposure to violence or other traumatic events
- Lack of employer support for and communication about psychological health and safety
Consult with your workers about psychological risk factors they’ve encountered in their work. Consider surveying them anonymously, asking open-ended questions. If you have multiple work locations, identify the risk factors in each one and evaluate the level of risk each one presents.
The control measures you put in place will vary depending on the hazards and risk factors you identify, but can include the following:
- Developing a psychological health and safety policy and program
- Implementing policies and procedures for preventing and responding to harassment and violence
- Ensuring managers and supervisors model open communication and provide opportunities for workers to speak up
- Addressing injured workers’ mental well-being in their return-to-work plan
- Providing a peer support program for workers
Address the highest risk first. Be sure to involve your joint health and safety committee or worker health and safety representative (as applicable) in developing control measures, and seek feedback from workers on proposed control measures before implementing them.
- Make sure everyone is aware of your program to manage psychological risks. Provide managers, supervisors, and workers with orientation and training on the measures you have in place to control the risks.
- Ensure you have a process for workers to identify and report psychosocial hazards.
- If workers sustain a psychological injury related to their work, make sure they know they can file a mental health condition claim.
- Monitor the effectiveness of the control measures you have in place and improve those that are not working as intended.
- Look for new or changing risks whenever work processes or conditions change.
- Include psychosocial hazards in your regular safety inspections.
Resources
Psychological health and safety: A framework for success
Managing psychological health and safety in the workplace is as important as managing physical health and safety. This guide outlines three principles employers can follow to help promote mental health...
Mental Health Strategy
Our Mental Health Strategy outlines our overall approach to workplace psychological health and safety, both as the workplace regulator and administrator of the workers’ compensation system...
Our Mental Health Strategy — Overview
See a high-level overview of our Mental Health Strategy at WorkSafeBC, including our vision, focus areas, and intended outcomes.