Psychosocial Hazards: It’s Not Just Compliance – It’s Culture
If the term psychosocial hazards makes your eyes glaze over or sounds like something best left to the legal or compliance teams, or sends you into a mild state of panic, you're not alone. With Victoria the last state to legislate psychosocial hazards into Work Health and Safety (WHS), this is front of mind for many businesses.
But too often it’s viewed as a compliance issue, not a cultural one. Managing psychosocial risk isn’t just a compliance box to tick – it’s a culture conversation at its core. The way your people feel at work, the behaviours you tolerate, the support you provide, the expectations you set - all of it shapes your workplace culture. And that culture is what ultimately drives (or derails) wellbeing and performance.
What Are Psychosocial Hazards?
In simple terms, psychosocial hazards are factors in the workplace that can harm someone’s mental health. Think excessive workloads, a lack of role clarity, poor support from leaders, bullying, or feeling excluded. We talk more about this in our blog Navigating New Psychosocial Changes.
Recent changes to Australia’s model WHS laws—and now state-based regulations across jurisdictions like NSW and QLD and soon to be VIC—mean that businesses must manage these risks just as seriously as physical ones.
The good news? If you've built a strong People & Culture foundation, you're already doing much of the work.
From Paper to Practice: This Is About People
At Nine Yards, we see a risk: that psychosocial hazard management becomes a tick-box exercise, just another risk register and a training module.
But we see it differently. This is a chance to embed healthy culture practices that create safer, more productive, and more human workplaces.
Instead of asking: “How do we avoid a fine?”
Let’s start asking: “Are our people set up to thrive here?”
When leaders are clear on expectations, workload is reasonable, relationships are respectful, and people feel heard – you’re proactively managing psychosocial risk. That’s People & Culture 101.
What Businesses Need to Know (And Do)
Here’s what Australian organisations should keep in mind:
It’s now a legal requirement to identify and manage psychosocial hazards, not just “nice to do”.
Leadership capability is central. Poor leadership often is the hazard. Invest in your leaders.
Your culture is your first line of defence. A psychologically safe environment is one where people feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and be themselves.
Care comes first. Organisations who already care about their people and seek their feedback are well positioned to manage this transition as they see the value in the insights of their team in improving the work environment.
Eat the frog. Often businesses know the issues that drive low engagement or are friction points for employees, but instead of doing the work (or eating the frog) they avoid it, or focus on low hanging fruit instead. Take the time to focus on the real problems.
Where to Start
Not sure how to begin? A few practical steps:
Review your People & Culture practices through a psychosocial lens—from onboarding to offboarding. Many organisations already have strong feedback loops in place to understand key drivers of engagement (through surveys, skip levels, etc.) and the insights from this align closely with psychosocial hazards (so some of the work may already be done!)
Ask your team how they’re going (and really listen). Use them to help solve problems and mitigate potential risks.
Educate your leaders on psychological safety and inclusive leadership.
Build structures that support role clarity, workload balance and respectful communication.
Nine Yards partners with Productivity Matters to support clients with understanding their psychosocial risks and developing strategies to mitigate them. Using a people focussed approach, they understand the unique needs of the business and provide expert advice to address potential challenges.
As Stephanie Cassidy, CEO of Productivity Matters says, “don’t let the plethora of information about psychosocial risk management that is out there overwhelm you. A people led approach to hazards and curated work design principles will ensure your people are not only protected from harm, but provided with a workplace within which they can thrive.”
Let’s rethink the risk
Managing psychosocial hazards isn’t just about compliance. It’s about culture. If you’re prioritising people, listening to your team, and building trust, you’re already on the right track.
Let’s stop calling it a compliance exercise and start calling it what it really is: good culture.