Stuart Clark

Are you treating psychological hazards with the same seriousness as physical ones? Under Australian model WHS laws, businesses have an absolute duty to eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks, such as unmanageable workloads, poor role clarity, and workplace bullying. Don’t wait for a SafeWork inspector or a compliance gap to highlight your vulnerabilities. Centralise your risk management, track electronic policy acknowledgements, and deploy expert-vetted procedures using a platform built for modern Australian HR and safety. Streamline your WHS compliance now at https://astrowave.com.au/ #Astrowave #WHS #PsychosocialRisks #WorkplaceSafety #RiskManagement #MentalHealth #Compliance #SafetyFirst #HRTech #BullyingPrevention #AustralianBusiness

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Getting tangled up in psychosocial risks? The main thing I tell clients about psychosocial risk management is to bring in someone with genuine expertise and not just throw it to your safety team to manage on top of everything else. But as they still seem to keep doing it, the least we can do is give you a fighting chance. So, I joined forces with Sarah Lou Harmer to develop some guidance material (well, she developed it, I mostly spell checked it 😊) running her org psych, wellbeing and HR expertise through my health and safety lens. And today is publication day. 🎉 🎊 This isn’t repeating what’s already out there on doing risk assessments or listing hazards. It’s about developing a system that delivers better working environments that are sustainable in the long term. Guidance grounded in science (no fruit bowls and lunchtime Pilates), with a suite of practical working tools to help navigate the process. These tools alone could save you days and days of work. Oh, and don’t tell everyone, but if you subscribe to my blog https://lnkd.in/gK7Qk9bS, you might just be able to see the latest post that has a discount code in there 😊 https://lnkd.in/ev-cCXzs #psychosocial, #riskmanagement

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Learn how safety is really tested. Most safety training tells you what the law says, the basics, the theories. This isn’t that. Greg Smith’s Safety Literacy courses show what really happens when safety is tested and how to bridge the gap between law, theory, and practice. February 2026 in Brisbane, we’re bringing three high-impact sessions that cut through the noise: Proving Safety: Why many systems fail, what we get wrong in the name of safety, and how to build systems that genuinely work. Contractor Safety Management: How to manage contractors properly and confidently, without crossing the line. Legal Risk Management of Psychosocial Hazards: Practical strategies to manage high-risk scenarios in a way that’s both compliant and defensible. These aren’t your typical safety courses. No theory for theory’s sake. No generic slides or feel-good quotes. Just straight talk, real case studies, and strategies that work in practice delivered by one of Australia’s leading WHS lawyers and authors. 17–19 February 2026 | Brisbane $875 per course (ex. GST & booking fees) | Package discounts available Places are intentionally limited, once full, it’s not guaranteed these sessions will return to Brisbane. Full details and booking information links in the comments.

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If you’ve just seen the Safe Work emails about a “15-day rule” and thought “what now?” you’re not alone. Safe Work Australia has updated the model Work Health and Safety laws to expand incident notification requirements. One of those changes introduces the concept of a notifiable extended absence. Under the updated model framework, a worker absent for 15 or more consecutive calendar days due to a work-related injury or illness - including psychological injury - may trigger a notification obligation. Key points for decision-makers: • 15 days is the absence trigger, not the reporting deadline • The model framework requires notification within 14 days of the PCBU becoming aware of the extended absence (including anticipated absences supported by medical advice) • This is separate from workers’ compensation obligations It is important to remember that Safe Work Australia sets the model laws, it is not the regulator. These changes only apply once adopted by individual states and territories. For example, in South Australia where we are based, SafeWork SA’s current incident notification guidance does not yet include a requirement to notify based on a 15-day extended absence. The practical takeaway: ✔ Don’t assume ✔ Check your local regulator’s current requirements ✔ Ensure systems can track extended absences accurately ✔ Prepare for future adoption without over-reporting When it comes to WHS compliance, clarity at all level matters.

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✅ PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY SERIES: PART 4 – MANAGING PSYCHOSOCIAL RISKS Now for the practical part: How do you actually manage psychosocial hazards? The WA Work Health and Safety Act 2020 requires you to identify and manage psychosocial hazards just like any other workplace risk. Here's how: 1️⃣ IDENTIFY HAZARDS Conduct a psychosocial risk assessment. Ask your workers directly: → What stresses you most about your role? → Do you feel heard and valued? → Are workloads realistic? → Is communication clear? 2️⃣ ASSESS THE RISK Determine which hazards pose the greatest risk to your workers' mental health and your business. Prioritise based on severity and likelihood. 3️⃣ IMPLEMENT CONTROLS → Clear communication: Set expectations, provide regular feedback, keep workers informed → Workload management: Realistic deadlines, adequate resources, flexibility where possible → Worker consultation: Involve workers in decisions affecting their work → Leadership support: Train managers in supportive, empowering leadership → Mental health resources: EAP, mental health first aid training, peer support programs 4️⃣ MONITOR & REVIEW Track leading indicators: absenteeism, turnover, worker feedback. Adjust your approach based on what you learn. The key? Make it ongoing, not a one-time project. Tomorrow: Building a psychologically safe culture that lasts. #PsychosocialSafety #WHS #RiskManagement #EmployeeWellbeing #WesternAustralia

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Psychosocial risk management - is our profession missing an opportunity? As safety professionals, we spend a lot of time talking about our obligations around psychosocial hazards. Which is essential, because we are talking about protecting people's psychological health and meeting legislative requirements. Lately I've been wondering if we're overlooking something important. That effective psychosocial hazard management can unlock business performance. When we delve into underlying drivers and effective hazard controls, many psychosocial hazards such as lack of role clarity, poor change management, role overload, and poor leader support, are the very things that frustrate employees and stifle productivity. While they might not be as appealing as quick fix "yoga classes and fruit bowls" (credit to Lucas Finch), addressing the true causal factors can lead to: -Processes becoming simpler and cleaner, increasing efficiency and productivity while reducing frustration -People becoming more engaged and more connected to their work, reducing absenteeism and presenteeism -Discretionary effort going up, because barriers to doing good work are reduced -Management operating systems improving, as leaders get clearer on roles, accountability, and performance expectations. People know what "good" looks like. These aren't wellbeing outcomes, they're business outcomes. Which suggests psychosocial risk management has the potential to be a powerful enabler of productivity and performance, as well as improving culture. I'm not saying this is easy, and every organisation is different. I am curious to learn from my network: How are you seeing these connections made in your organisation? Have you seen examples where psychosocial risk work has lifted performance or simplified the way people work? What's helping or hindering the conversation where you are? I'd love to hear different perspectives, as we're all learning as we go.

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ISO 45003: A Practical Way to Evaluate Your Psychosocial Safety Framework Psychosocial health and safety laws have now been in place for some time. Many organisations have implemented policies, processes and risk assessments to respond. Now it’s time to ask: Is your framework actually helping you proactively manage psychosocial risks? Effective systems should do more than meet regulatory requirements. They should help organisations identify psychosocial hazards early, manage risks proactively and create workplaces that protect and promote workers’ psychological health and safety. ISO 45003 Psychological health and safety at work, Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks provides practical guidance for doing exactly this. It helps organisations evaluate whether their current approach is effectively identifying, managing and reviewing psychosocial risks within their broader safety management system. At Verus, we help organisations assess their psychosocial risk frameworks against ISO 45003 and identify opportunities to strengthen their systems. Learn more: https://www.verus.com.au

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We don't want to miss these three top psychosocial hazards commonly overlooked in change impact assessments. As at November 2024, three more of the "top" psychosocial hazards were added, bringing the total number to 17. These align with both Safe Work Australia's guidance and the global standard of ISO 45003. I have listed the new, yet often missed hazards in the graphic below. In a Practical Sense: 🔻 When it comes to FATIGUE, it's not just about long hours; it's about considering capacity in work design, job design, and operating model or organisational redesign. The latter two, in particular, have recently been investigated by the regulator and featured in the AU media of late. From a change and program perspective, we must consider people's capacity to take on new initiatives, particularly the use of Change Champions and SMEs. Is the expected capacity reasonably built into their workday? For SMEs, is there backfill for the parts of their existing role they cannot reasonably complete? We also can't forget leaders. We are asking them to help enable changes, but does a stretch in their capacity create a hazard around fatigue? The key here is to be intentional about how we leverage support through change, rather than use a tick-a-box of things that sound good. 🔻 JOB INSECURITY is a big consideration for the gig economy and operating model change that impacts roles. While we acknowledge the pros and cons of freelancing and contracting, this doesn't negate an employer’s responsibility to set clear expectations and be respectfully transparent in communication around contract end dates. 🔻 INTRUSIVE MONITORING is one for our times, and it directly links to our innate need for autonomy and control. People simply lack trust in leadership that acts like big brother. Being clear about the how and why (so people feel aware and in control), ensuring data privacy is considered, and dealing with it in accordance with the law, are all givens. We also need to consider AI when it comes to intrusive monitoring. Even if AI is not monitoring at an individual level, the perception might be that it is. This is another example of why we must think of change and hazards from all angles and consider the likely perception. Remember my post of last week about perception being reality? If someone perceives a psychosocial hazard as distressing, it has the potential to cause harm, regardless of whether it can be objectively proven or not. This demonstrates the utmost importance of clear, concrete, and well-thought-through messaging (minus the abstract and jargon), as well as sense-making with those impacted by change. Words mean different things to different people - communications on a page might not be enough. This also hits home the importance of bigger-picture thinking and M-shaped skills (for change practitioners). Are you considering these hazards in your workplace and mitigating them before they become risks? #BrainsOnChange x #SaferChange 🧠

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