By Liz Van Deventer, Belgravia Group Health and Safety Manager
Psychosocial hazards aren’t a new concept; they began in Australia in terms of resolution over a decade ago, however COVID has forced us to rethink how we go about mitigating them.
Psychosocial hazards can be best defined as anything in the design, organisation or management of work that can contribute to stress or poor mental health. It is the circumstance where, due to the design or management of work, team members are exposed to circumstances such as (but not limited to):
- Bulling and harassment
- Low job control
- Occupational violence and aggression
- Poor organisational justice
- Job insecurity
- Traumatic events
- Work demands
- Poor organisational justice
(Please refer to Safe Work Australia resources for full description of the types of psychosocial hazards).
From a legislated perspective, Australia is a regulated market, and consequently most of our states and territories have defined employer obligation regarding the identification and management of psychosocial hazards. Whilst compliance is of upmost importance, there is a moral requirement, and it just makes good business sense, to understand and effectively manage psychosocial risks. So, why is it that many industries are finding it so challenging?
Why should the aquatic industry focus on psychosocial hazards specifically?
Each person will respond to hazards in differing ways. Individual differences that make some people more susceptible to harm from exposure to the same hazard include:
- Being a new worker
- Being a young worker
- Having an existing injury or illness
- Having previously been exposed to a traumatic event
- Workers who are currently experiencing difficult personal circumstances
Additionally, research undertaken by Deloitte toward the end of the pandemic indicated that insecure work and holding multiple jobs increased one’s susceptibility to psychosocial hazards.
The recently published National Aquatic Industry Workforce Report 2023 indicates that;
- 40% of the aquatic industry workforce are aged between 16 and 34 years
- 34% of the workforce work casually
- 61% per cent of workers perform more than one role in the aquatic industry
These prominent features of our industry heighten our requirement and moral responsibility to take action and understand how we can better mitigate psychosocial related risk to ensure that we have a strong workforce for the future.
How can the aquatic industry truly address psychosocial hazards
Taking a risk-based approach to understanding and managing psychosocial hazards is of upmost importance. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) released the ISO 45003 Psychological Health and Safety at Work – Guideline for managing psychosocial risk in 2021. This is the first global standard that provides specific guidance on the management of psychosocial risks and the promotion of wellbeing at work in a manner that is consistent with other health and safety risks in the workplace.
This guideline, a child standard of ISO 45001 Health and Safety Management Systems, was born out of the understanding that, whilst principles are similar, effective management of psychosocial hazards is different to the management of physical hazards.
Why is this important? By integrating the the measurement and management of psychosocial risks into the way that the industry already manages risk, the overall long term benefit and efficiency of application will be enhanced, optimising outcomes for the workforce.
So …. what are we doing well and where can we improve?
When considering any risk management approach, consideration to primary, secondary and tertiary controls specific to the aquatic industry is imperative to ensure overall wellbeing.
Tertiary controls
Tertiary controls are those that are implemented if there has been harm to health, with the aim of these controls being to restore the worker’s mental health.
When considering psychosocial risk management, actions including post incident debriefing, incident reporting and workers compensation tend to be the go to. Whilst effective supports are essential for the wellbeing of teams and their importance must not be underestimated, as we know from our effective management of physical and chemical related hazards, prevention is better.
Secondary controls
When it comes to psychosocial management, secondary controls are a little more difficult, but not impossible to leverage. Secondary risk controls refer to circumstances where the potential for harm is reduced, whereby these controls are about detecting and preventing ill effects of psychosocial risks.
What if we could leverage facial recognition CCTV to identify patron who is consistently inappropriate to lifeguards, before they made it to pool deck, allowing management to intervene? How about leveraging systems to flag to management when a team member is working excessive hours/overtime? These are examples of secondary controls that supersede tertiary controls in effectively preventing a negative experience.
Primary controls
Primary controls are aimed at the organisation and workforce and are implemented before hazards or harm to health are present. Great work design negotiated during the tender process, aquatic facility design to allow for optimal aquatic supervision, strong leadership and professional development opportunities fall into this category and is where focus must be applied to have any substantial impact.
The benefits to effective psychosocial hazard management are abundant. From workforce planning to community engagement and facility activation, everyone is set to reap the benefit. In our dynamic and ever evolving industry, it is essential to integrate the psychosocial hazard identification and management into day-to-day operations. Through collaboration with workforce (something that should be done for safety best practice anyway!), strong leadership and application of the risk based methodologies, a venue can better understand and respond to hazards more holistically. Whilst change will take time, if primary as well as secondary and tertiary controls are considered, the long term outcome for the workgroup will be excellent.
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