Preventing Psychological Harm: First Steps for Small Business

Fix the work, not the worker.

Every business in NSW must ensure the physical and psychological health and safety of workers.

An important part of this is to think about how work is done and how it affects workers.

What you can do

1. Talk to your workers

Your workers are the ones doing the work and often have good ideas for how to make work safer.
Ask them:

  • How is work going at the moment?
  • What is hard to cope with?
  • Do you have what you need to do the job? For example, the right skills and equipment?
  • Is there conflict at work? Why, when, and where is it happening?

Write down what they tell you so you can refer to it later.

2. Think about the experiences of your workers

  • What are they good at, and what do they struggle with?
  • Do you have extra insights on the topics you discussed with them?
  • Think about your own experiences – what did you find stressful and what was helpful?

Write down your thoughts. Look at these together with your workers’ feedback. Decide what is causing the most stress for your workers.

Remember: You should consider how you can respect an individual’s privacy and confidentiality when seeking feedback.

3. Make changes

Make improvements to the working environment by addressing the issues identified that are causing stress.
Do more than ask your workers to change their behaviour. Go further and consider changing who does tasks, and where, how and when they do them. This might mean changing things such as: rosters, reporting lines, areas of responsibility, deadlines, contracts with customers or suppliers, the facilities and location where people work, and what technology they use. For example:

  • roster on an extra worker at peak times, rather than ask workers to manage customers frustrated by long wait times
  • rotate difficult and boring tasks between workers, rather than wait for workers to ask for a break
  • review delivery timeframes, rather than expect workers to work overtime to meet deadlines.

By taking these simple steps, you are starting to comply with work health and safety laws.

Want more help?

Disclaimer

This publication may contain information about the regulation and enforcement of work health and safety in NSW. It may include some of your obligations under some of the legislation that SafeWork NSW administers. To ensure you comply with your legal obligations you must refer to the appropriate legislation. Information on the latest laws can be viewed on the NSW legislation website. This publication does not represent a comprehensive statement of the law as it applies to particular problems or to individuals or as a substitute for legal advice. You should seek independent legal advice if you need assistance on the application of the law to your situation.

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