In this section

• Purpose of work design - a WHS perspective
• Common psychosocial hazards and how they can lead to harm
• Exposure to psychosocial hazards
• Good work design can help to reduce poor workplace behaviours

From a WHS perspective, work design is a methodical process which helps you understand your work context and then implement improvements to eliminate or minimise WHS risks to your workers.

Your work context is the environment and circumstances in which your organisation is operating and/or work tasks are occurring. It includes:

• financial pressures, type and size of the business activities, products and services, supply chains and contractual arrangements and labour market
• organisational structure, culture, and safety management systems
• environmental working conditions and locations, technologies that are used
• workers’ skills and attributes
• work content – what needs to be achieved by whom
• key tasks, activities, roles, responsibilities, work interdependencies, and performance expectations
• resources, equipment, and information
• current psychosocial hazards and risks, and
• effectiveness of current control measures.

Once you have a clearer understanding of your work context you are better placed to implement improvements to the design of the work and systems of work. These make sure any identified psychosocial and physical (biomechanical, chemical, and biological) hazards are eliminated or minimised so that they do not create a risk to workers’ health and safety.

Work design goals and processes may differ depending on an organisation’s motivations and objectives. Many different disciplines use work design to achieve their goals, such as WHS, public health, engineering, human resource, or industrial relations management professionals.

This guide’s focus is from a WHS perspective.

Purpose of work design – a WHS perspective

People are central to every organisation achieving its objectives. Work design can help organisations achieve their objectives safely and more efficiently. Effective work design processes use systems thinking to help duty holders understand what factors are supporting or eroding workplace controls, and – by extension – the health, safety and performance of individuals and teams.

Workers should receive the highest level of protection against harm to their health, safety and welfare from hazards and risks arising from work, so far as is reasonably practicable. Duty holders must have regard to a range of matters including how hazards and risks may interact and combine, and the sources of risk such as the poor design of work and systems of work.

Applying effective work design approaches means PCBUs are far more likely to comply with their WHS duties by eliminating or minimising hazards and risks at the source. They are also more likely to address psychosocial risks that may contribute to dangerous situations that may harm their people, equipment, operations, and organisational reputation.

Designing out psychosocial hazards and risks and ‘designing in’ positive features to boost workers’ resources can reduce stress, burnout, fatigue, work-related injury, illness and even death. It can reduce errors (and their costs), improve job satisfaction (and worker engagement and retention), and the organisation’s resilience to adapt and respond to changing operational pressures and incidents.

Common psychosocial hazards and how they can lead to harm

Psychosocial hazards at work are aspects of work and situations that may cause a stress response which in turn can lead to psychological or physical harm. They can stem from:

• the way the tasks or jobs are designed, organised, managed and supervised
• tasks or jobs with inherent psychosocial hazards and risks
• the equipment, the working environment, or requirements to undertake duties in physically hazardous environments
• social factors at work, workplace relationships and social interactions.

Psychosocial hazards are slightly different in every workplace and even between teams. They depend on the type of work being done, the controls already in place, and workers’ skills and attributes.

Some of the most common psychosocial hazards are noted in the following section. Some of these hazards may be hazardous by themselves, others may only be so if combined with other hazards.

Exposure to psychosocial hazards

Duty holders must consider the nature of psychosocial hazards exposure in their organisations including:

• Who is exposed?
• How often (frequency)?
• For how long (duration)?
• What is the likely consequence (severity)?
• Whether these factors combine or interact to cause harm.

These obligations are provided for in clause 55D(2) of the WHS Regulation.

There are two broad types of exposure to psychosocial hazards and risks - both lead to harm:

• cumulative exposures: these occur gradually and build over time which reduces a person’s capacity to cope and increases stress
• one-off highly stressful events: this includes experiencing, or being exposed to, a traumatic event such as witnessing a serious injury or fatality or experiencing threats of harm, serious injury, or sexual violence.

In practice, workers can be exposed to both types of psychosocial hazards and risks. The more psychosocial and physical hazards present at any one time, the more likely it is for harm to occur.

There may be psychosocial hazards and situations used in this guide that are not relevant to your work, or relevant to your work but not included in this guide. You can identify these hazards through systematic hazard and risk identification processes as required under clause 34 of the WHS Regulation. The list below includes some of the most common psychosocial hazard types and examples:

High work demands:

• long working hours that do not allow adequate recovery time or with insufficient workers
• too much to do in a set time, unachievable task deadlines or expectations
• multiple tasks that require repeated rapid switching between each to complete them, so it is difficult to concentrate
• long periods of concentration
• responding to emotionally distressing situations or clients
• physically demanding work.

Low work demands:

• too little to do, and little task variety
• highly repetitive or monotonous tasks.

Exposure to traumatic events:

• where workers provide care to those experiencing a traumatic event or listen to, view, or read detailed descriptions of harrowing and traumatic events experienced by others or first responders.

Role conflict or lack of role clarity:

• uncertainty about tenure, roles or frequent changes to tasks, work standards and schedules
• important task information is not available to the worker
• conflicting job roles, responsibilities, or expectations like providing ‘good customer service,’ but with insufficient time allowed to spend with customers.

Low job control:

• where workers have little control over aspects of the work, including how or when a job is done.

Poor support:

• from organisational managers, supervisors, and co-workers.

Poor working environments:

• frequent work in poor quality or hazardous working environments to the extent that it evokes a physiological or stress response.

Remote or isolated work:

• limited access to other people, reliable communication, or technology to get practical and emotional support, if required.

Inadequate reward and recognition:

• worker’s efforts are not recognised
• workers’ skills and experience are under-used.

Poor procedural justice:

• where there are absent, inadequate, unfair or inconsistent applications of policies or procedures such as preferred shifts, or overtime.

Poor organisational change consultation and management:

• poor consultation or communication with affected workers about significant changes
• poor reporting and/or investigation culture like when workers report hazards or near misses and are disciplined for having made an error.

Conflict or poor working relationships:

• between workers and their supervisors/managers
• between co-workers.

Harassment including sexual harassment:

• single or repeated incidents of forms of harassment (including but not limited to being about a person’s race, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation) by managers, co-workers, clients, patients, visitors or others.

Bullying:

• a person or group of people repeatedly behave unreasonably towards another worker or group of workers, creating a risk to health and safety.

Workplace aggression and violence:

• verbal abuse, being hit, bitten, spat at, scratched, kicked, or threatened with or without a weapon by clients, patients, visitors, other workers, or managers.

Many organisations consider psychosocial and physical hazards separately. In reality, psychosocial and physical hazards combine or interact to create risk, such as the combination of low job control and high demands. Organisations often fail to identify the underlying causes of risk and many settle for inadequate and lower-order control measures. These are not only less effective but also waste precious time and resources. These organisations are not complying with their WHS duties effectively.

Exposure to psychosocial hazards can lead to stress – the psychological and physical responses that occur when a worker perceives that the work demands exceed their ability or resources to cope.

Work-related stress may not itself constitute a physical or psychological injury. However, if stress is prolonged and/ or severe, it can contribute to:

• poor mental health such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorders or other conditions which can cause an inability to react calmly and appropriately in difficult situations
• muscle tension leading to pain, strains, or sprains including bodily pain and discomfort, in turn leading to fatigue, headaches and insomnia
• impaired concentration, memory and decision making can lead to mistakes at work in turn leading to traumatic injuries
• high blood pressure, heart disease, gastrointestinal and other chronic diseases, and disorders
• poor health behaviours like smoking, excessive use of alcohol and other addictive or illegal substances, unhealthy eating patterns and relationship and family tensions.

Good work design can help to reduce poor workplace behaviours

Organisations often become aware of poor work design and management practices as they investigate complaints about unacceptable or harmful workplace behaviours. Harmful workplace behaviours (bullying, aggression, or any form of harassment) can be by-products of underlying poor work design, systems of work and organisational culture, as well as individuals’ own beliefs and attitudes.

Addressing poorly designed work, such as roles with excessive workloads, role ambiguity, or unclear systems of work, can help minimise contributing factors. These are under a PCBU’s control so good work design can ensure that harmful workplace behaviours will be far less likely to arise or, if they do, that they will be manageable.