Section 4 - Outcome 2 - 5-9pts

Your organisation has started to address health and wellbeing and views it as important, however, there are no formal plans or programs in place.

Workers are encouraged to report psychological hazards/risks but it is likely that there is no formal mechanism to do this so it tends to be word of mouth. Whilst there is some education around the prevention of bullying and harassment, this can be improved by formalising procedures and ensuring all workers are aware of how to report unreasonable behaviour.

What you can do to improve:

Plan your approach

There is increased awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing in workplaces, however, sometimes workplaces are unclear on how it can be addressed in a planned and proactive manner. This can be achieved by developing a formal health and wellbeing action plan/program. Important steps include getting management on board, reviewing what you have and don’t have in place, asking staff what they think is important to their health and wellbeing and then developing a plan/program of health and wellbeing activities based on this information. It is important to communicate this plan to workers so they know what activities they can be involved in. In this way, health promotion activities such as mental health, healthy eating, physical activity, drug and alcohol, etc. are regular events during the year, and address the needs of the workforce.

If you are looking for further tools and resources in this area, go to the Heads Up Website and SA Health “How to create a healthy workplace “resources and toolkit.

Ensure your health and safety system includes managing psychological hazards and risks

The employer has a legal obligation to eliminate or minimise risks to the health and safety of workers (as is reasonably practicable). Under the WHS laws, the definition of “health” includes both physical and psychological health. Therefore, it is important that workers are encouraged to report hazards that can contribute to work-related stress, such as high workloads, exposure to traumatic events, work-related violence, fatigue and poor workplace relationships. This should be integrated into standard incident reporting procedures so workers know how to report these types of issues, the incidents can be appropriately investigated and suitable control measures can be put in place.

One psychological hazard which is important to address and prevent in workplaces is bullying and harassment. Whilst your workplace may conduct some education on what is acceptable and unacceptable workplace behaviour, it is important that your workplace’s bullying and harassment policy and procedures and any code of conduct is part of induction procedures, and is reinforced through refresher training. Workplace bullying behaviours should not be tolerated and early reporting of these behaviours should be encouraged. Workers should have a clear understanding of what is bullying and harassment and how to report unreasonable behaviour. The workplace’s procedures should also include how reports of bullying will be appropriately investigated and responded to. If a worker considers they are being bullied, they will be more likely to report it if they know there is a transparent reporting process in place and that it will be followed as soon as a report is received.

For more information on managing work-related psychological health and safety, go to a Safe Work Australia “Work-related psychological health and safety. A systematic approach to meeting your duties”.

For more information on the prevention of bullying, go to Safe Work Australia “Guide for Preventing and Responding to Workplace Bullying”.