Meeting the Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice

The Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 is now in effect across the Commonwealth jurisdiction in Australia, bringing with it key changes into how organisations manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

The code of practice emphasises the need for businesses to take active, practical steps in preventing harm from psychological and physical risks associated with work.

It also clearly states the benefit for both the employee and organisation in tackling these hazards:

“On average, work-related psychological injuries have longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work. Managing the risks associated with psychosocial hazards not only protects workers, it also decreases the disruption associated with staff turnover and absenteeism, and may improve broader organisational performance and productivity.”

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Our recommended steps

Navigating these new regulations can feel overwhelming, but Teamgage helps you take a proactive approach to staying compliant.

For example, a fully validated, research-backed Teamgage survey to take a deep-dive into your organisation and uncover any psychosocial hazards that may exist.

Next, we’ll tailor a regular 20-second question set, so you can keep a pulse check on how those psychosocial hazards are progressing, while also providing the 24/7 platform for your people to raise any new, emerging risks.

With that in mind, let’s go into some more detail on the new code and how we can help.

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Types of Psychosocial Hazards

The updated Code of Practice provides clear guidelines for employers (Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking - PCBUs) on how to identify and manage psychosocial hazards.

This includes clear and obvious areas, like:

• bullying
• harassment
• violence

It also covers more subtle psychosocial hazards like:

• ambiguous responsibilities
• unreasonable amount of supervision
• excessive time pressures

If your initial deep-dive Teamgage survey highlighted these areas above as concerns in your organisation, our Customer Success team would help you design a tailored 20-second question set to regularly engage your employees to help address these issues over time. This might look like:

• Role Clarity: Are your job responsibilities clear and do you feel confident about what’s currently expected of you?
• Trust: Are you feeling trusted to do your work and is the level of supervision appropriate?
• Workload: How is your current workload impacting your ability to get your tasks done without feeling rushed or overwhelmed?
• Respect: Are you being treated with respect and free from any form of bullying, harassment, or violence at work?

Remember, not all questions in Teamgage need to focus on hazards; they can be part of a wider, more engaging set of questions.

For example, Resonate Consultants who have achieved Great Place to Work® Australia New Zealand certification, used Teamgage to blend “organisation-wide goals, company values and specific focus areas.”

This resulted in questions that covered a broad range of topics including Safety, Career Satisfaction and Business Growth.

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“Use surveys” – a specific suggestion in the code

Now that you understand how subtle psychosocial hazards can be, it’s time to tackle the challenge of identifying all “reasonably foreseeable psychosocial hazards” linked to the work your business or organisation undertakes. And for that, you’re going to need regular employee insights.

In fact, the code within section 3.2 How to identify psychosocial hazards specifically says “use surveys and tools”.

Let’s dive deeper into some specific benefits of doing just that with Teamgage.

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Benefit - Identify real-time hazards before they cause harm

A major challenge of the new psychosocial hazard legislation is identifying risks before they cause harm. With Teamgage’s real-time feedback, you can stay ahead of employee concerns as they emerge at any level in your organisation at a glance.

Whether it’s workload pressure, unclear roles, job insecurity, lack of support or bullying; leaders gain a constant pulse on potential issues. This allows you to act quickly, addressing psychosocial hazards before they escalate into bigger problems.

As an Organisational Development Specialist at NEC Australia said about Teamgage:

“Insights provided help business leaders and business partnering teams identify and address issues early.”

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Benefit – Provide an always-on outlet for employees to anonymously raise concerns

The new code of practice specifically says that “anonymity is important” as they “protect workers from stigma or other adverse outcomes when reporting hazards or concerns”.

With Teamgage, you’ll be providing your people with an anonymous outlet to raise concerns 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Plus, it’s a trusted platform from an independent third party, secured with the latest enterprise-level infrastructure and encryption technology.

Andreea Visanoiu knows all about this. As an Engineering Practice Lead at SEEK, she’s been using Teamgage within the APAC Region and confirmed:

“I’ve found that people have openness and trust when using the platform, with comments updated in real-time and surfacing issues that might not appear in our regular retrospectives. It’s this kind of visibility that has meant that we’ve been able to identify issues early and ensure action is targeted at the right demographic and areas.”

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Benefit – Gain visibility over any demographics that may be at risk

On the subject of demographics, it’s a consideration you need to be aware of as it’s clear that some workers may be at a greater risk of psychosocial hazards than others.

As the Code states, this may be “due to their lived experience, or their confidence or experience participating in health and safety, or other organisational processes.”

With Teamgage, you can customise questions for specific cohorts, personalising the experience to suit your unique needs. Additionally, you can assign demographic tags, allowing you to filter and analyse results across different user groups.

Specific demographics mentioned in the Code include employees that:

• don’t speak English as their first language
• have a culturally diverse background
• are younger and have limited experience in the workplace

Chamonix, a leading national IT services business specifically use Teamgage within their Early Careers Program to provide these young people with a safe, secure and anonymous forum for:

• suggesting an idea or improvement
• asking a "silly question" that otherwise might be hard to raise
• raising a concern or frustration

We’ve also seen the City of Port Adelaide and Enfield include a question within Teamgage on Diversity and Inclusion, another demographic area the code suggests may be a risk.

As their People and Culture Manager, Jodie Stevens explained:

“From having diversity and inclusion as a metric in Teamgage, it generated a lot of discussion. People and Culture have received invites into teams to talk about the meaning of diversity and inclusion. Everybody started talking about it.”

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Benefit - Foster a culture of trust and open communication

The success of any psychosocial hazard management plan hinges on the ability of employees to openly share their concerns.

Real-time surveys create a direct channel for employees to voice their thoughts and experiences regarding the workplace, from mental health challenges to issues related to fatigue or job demands.

This doesn’t happen overnight, but over time.

As Luke Havelberg, CIO at Flinders University explained about using Teamgage across his department:

“In the early stages it was variable. Some teams picked it up and ran with it and others that were really challenged by it. You’ve just got to stick at it. Do we have 100% trust across everyone to the level we want right now? Probably not. But we have come a long way and are now in a much better place through using the tool. It’s an ongoing process to keep building and hold onto that trust.”

By regularly collecting and acknowledging feedback within Teamgage, you continue to show your commitment to listening to employees and creating a workplace where their wellbeing is a priority.

This level of engagement is critical for meeting the requirements of the new Code of Practice, which emphasises risk management through “continuous monitoring and feedback.”

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Benefit – Establish a mechanism that encourages reporting

Sadly, most organisations in Australia today don’t offer any kind of anonymous means for their people to report a psychosocial hazard.

That’s why the Code of Practice stresses the importance of establishing that reporting mechanism for workers to report their hazards and concerns. It specifically states "Have a reporting mechanism and encourage reporting. You should establish a mechanism for workers to report hazards. This should protect the privacy of workers who make reports and allow for anonymous reporting where possible."

Real-time employee engagement surveys serve as that built-in mechanism for employees to report psychosocial hazards without fear of retaliation.

By ensuring anonymity, you provide employees with a safe space to voice concerns, which is essential for identifying risks such as harassment, fatigue, or poor organisational support.

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Benefit – Identify trends for further risk mitigation

The Work Health and Safety Code of Practice outlines a wide range of psychosocial hazards, from fatigue to poor organisational justice. Real-time surveys help organisations track these risks over time, revealing patterns in role clarity, job demands, workload, recognition, and more.

By customising survey questions based on any emerging concerns, you can gather ongoing, targeted data that aligns with the legislation.

This supports the recommendation to “identify trends in the information you collect,” helping pinpoint recurring hazards in specific tasks, roles, teams, demographics and more.

As Craig McSweeney, GM at Rackman Australia explained:

“I have found the Teamgage experience to be effective in raising issues that people may not necessarily raise in a group/meeting/toolbox scenario. The system also allows for easy reference to how we are trending in a variety of metrics, at this moment in time, and historically."

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Benefit – Provide evidence of compliance

Employers are now required to demonstrate compliance with the new regulations, and real-time surveys provide an ongoing record of employee feedback that can serve as evidence of your proactive approach to managing psychosocial risks.

These surveys not only help identify risks but also demonstrate the effectiveness of your interventions over time.

For example, at Mount Barker District Council, Nicole Newton, their Manager, People and Culture used Teamgage to ask what barriers and frustrations were getting in the way of people being able to just do their work.

“A standout moment was receiving 66 comments in Teamgage about what a barrier to performance our IT systems had become. It was clear we needed to act and after 3 months of focused effort from our teams, the number of IT-related comments dropped to just 6!

Those numbers and feedback can also feed through all of our other forums too, from our Health and Safety Rep Group, to our Enterprise Agreement Forum etc.”

Remember, we know that when frustrations or obstacles continually disrupt a person's work, tasks accumulate, time pressures mount, and their mood can decline. This can impact how they engage with their colleagues or team, who may also be experiencing similar frustrations from issues they haven't had an outlet to raise such as unclear roles or excessive workloads.

Left unchecked, a clear psychosocial hazard is now present.

For organisations using Teamgage, the benefit goes beyond simply identifying these risks. It provides access to real data that illustrates the scale of any issue, as well as how effectively and proactively it was addressed.

This coupled with all of the other data that can be exported out of Teamgage, can be invaluable if your organisation is ever audited for compliance with the new legislation.

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The next step

The Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 requires a shift toward a more proactive, continuous approach to managing risks related to psychological and physical health in the workplace.

Real-time employee engagement surveys offer an effective, actionable way to meet these new standards by fostering open communication, identifying emerging hazards, and ensuring that your organisation is always one step ahead in managing psychosocial risks.

By embedding regular surveys into your workplace culture, you can not only comply with the law but also create a safer, healthier, and more supportive environment for your team.

In the end, it's about more than just ticking boxes. It's about creating a culture of care and responsibility that benefits both the employees and the organisation as a whole.

We’re here to help you every step of the way.

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