1. Summary

In this section

• What this guide covers
• Who this information is for
• Key terms

This guide (the Guide) offers practical support for duty holders, including Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) and Officers, to use work design to manage the risk of psychosocial hazards. The information in this guide has been prepared to support duty holders comply with their obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) (WHS Act), the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 (NSW) (WHS Regulation), and align to the NSW Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work 2021 (the Code of Practice).

A PCBU must implement control measures to eliminate psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable. If that is not reasonably practicable, they must minimise psychosocial risks that may harm workers’ psychological or physical health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Duty holders can most effectively and efficiently eliminate or minimise psychosocial hazards and risks by improving the design of the work, workplace, and systems of work, so workers are not exposed to a psychosocial hazard as described in clause 55A(a) of the WHS Regulation.

The WHS Regulation requires duty holders to have regard to a range of matters when determining control measures to implement, including:

• How psychosocial hazards and risks may interact and combine to create harm; and
• The sources of psychosocial risk, including the design of the work, design and layout of the workplace, how work is organised, and other matters.

Many psychosocial and physical hazards and risks emerge from the same underlying causes or work systems issues.

This guide advocates using ‘systems thinking’ (as described in the ‘Key Terms’) to consider how the different parts of a work system combine and interact to create health and safety risks, and to support or erode the effectiveness of workplace controls. By applying systems thinking, duty holders can better identify and understand these interconnections to then design systems of work that align with the WHS Regulation. It can also help them identify which work design control options are the most important or critical to workers’ health and safety. The duty holder can start with these and then address remaining risks.

Work design as a control measure can therefore address the underlying root causes contributing to psychosocial hazards. This makes it a more efficient and effective risk management approach that is less reliant on human behaviour than other controls.

Users of this guide should first read the duties, requirements, and processes set out in the Code of Practice.

What this guide covers

This guide provides information on how to design work and systems to eliminate and minimise psychosocial hazards and risks as set out in the WHS Regulation and the Code of Practice.

Who this information is for

This guide primarily provides information for a PCBU, Officers (such as Board members and Executives Directors), senior managers and WHS Professionals who may be providing advice on psychosocial risk management to the PCBU and Officers.

The guide should also be read by managers from areas providing performance information to executives and senior leaders. It should also be used by areas within organisations involved in strategy and resourcing decisions that impact or may impact psychosocial risks and the use of control measures. These areas may include project management, information technology, engineering, procurement, WHS and human resources.

The guide will also be of interest to workers and their health and safety representatives (HSRs).

The Psychosocial Hazard Work Re-Design Tool (PHReD-T) (PDF, 1586.5 KB) was designed as an aid for developing skills, competency, and confidence in work redesign. The work redesign strategies are developed to prevent and manage psychosocial risks. It was originally developed for people with responsibilities for managing WHS, such as WHS advisors, consultants and managers, but is also relevant to a range of roles, including HR and any other managers with WHS duties. The PHReD-T is accompanied by a range of supporting materials that provide information about mental health, psychosocial risks, and work design. These include audio case studies, activities to complete, a fully worked example of the PHReD-T, and reading materials. The PHReD-T resources are practical tools to assist with applying the information in this guide.

Key terms

For the purposes of this guide:

• Work design and work redesign are used interchangeably, noting that redesigning work to prevent or respond to a situation is likely to be a more common circumstance for PCBUs rather than the design of entirely new jobs, projects and working environments.
• Work system is made up of the work tasks, organisation systems, working environment system and the human system that together will deliver the products and services to internal and external customers.
• Systems thinking is an approach used in work design that identifies and considers the dynamic relationships between key parts of the work system and how these can be designed to eliminate or reduce risks.
• Safe systems of work are the integrated continually improving set of activities that together ensure work tasks, work environments, and processes are designed and managed to systematically eliminate or minimise the risk of harm to workers and others.
• A WHS management system(s) is how the organisation documents, measures, and reports the safe systems of work including key roles and accountabilities.

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