Psychosocial Safety: Bringing the Right People into the Room
“Who owns psychosocial safety?”
It’s a question I hear a lot.
Is it Safety? HR? People and Culture? Operations? Leadership?
And increasingly, I’m wondering whether we’re asking the wrong question.
Because psychosocial hazards can arise from the way work is designed and managed, the work environment and plant, and workplace interactions and behaviours, perhaps the better question is:
“Who needs to be in the room?”
Getting Executive attention is only the beginning
I’ve recently been writing about the challenge of getting psychosocial safety onto the Executive agenda.
For many organisations, that can be the first hurdle. Competing priorities. Budget pressures. Operational demands. Restructures. A long list of things that feel more urgent.
And when we finally get Executive commitment, there can be a temptation to think:
“Great. Now we can get started”.
But what does “getting started” actually mean?
I’ve seen organisations respond by reviewing policies. Others develop training programs. Some launch wellbeing initiatives. All of these things have a place.
But none of them, on their own, necessarily change the work.
And that’s where I think we need to shift our thinking.
Psychosocial hazards are often connected to how work is designed, managed and experienced
Think about some of the common psychosocial hazards organisations are trying to manage:
Workload. Role clarity. Resources. Decision-making. Organisational change. Leadership. Support. Workplace interactions and behaviours.
Who influences those things?
Usually not the Safety team alone.
Workload might sit with Operations. Role clarity might involve HR and leaders. Resources might be determined by Finance and Executive leadership. Change management might involve HR, Operations and senior leaders. Workplace interactions and behaviours are influenced by leaders, teams and organisational culture.
Safety absolutely has an important role. It brings risk management expertise, governance, consultation and risk assessment. But Safety cannot, and should not be expected to, redesign the organisation or solve every psychosocial risk.
But Safety cannot, and should not be expected to, redesign the organisation or solve every psychosocial risk.
So who owns it?
Everyone who has influence over the work.
Safety, HR, Operations, leaders and workers all bring something different. Depending on the risk, so might Finance, Organisational Development, Technology, Workforce Planning or Industrial Relations.
The right people depend on the risk you’re trying to understand.
Shared ownership doesn’t mean everyone owns everything. And it certainly doesn’t mean nobody is accountable.
There still needs to be a central role, team or function with clear accountability for making sure the system works, the right people are involved and everyone is doing their part.
The people in the room matter
One of the simplest questions I encourage organisations to ask is:
“Who isn’t in the room that probably should be?”
If you’re discussing workload, is Operations there? If you’re discussing organisational change, is HR involved? If you’re trying to understand how work is actually being done, have you spoken to the people doing it? If you’re developing controls, have the people who will implement them been involved?
There is a real risk that we identify a psychosocial hazard in one part of the organisation and then ask another part to fix it.
Understanding the work and culture has to come first
Before we jump to the solution, we need to understand the work and the environment in which it happens. Not just what the policy says. Not just what the organisational chart says. Not just what the risk assessment tells us.
What is actually happening?
How is work designed and managed? What does the work environment look and feel like? How are people interacting with each other? Where are the pressures, frustrations and points of friction?
And what could we change that might reduce the risk?
Those conversations are rarely owned by one function. That’s precisely why the right people need to be involved.
What does this look like in practice?
If your organisation is starting, or restarting, its psychosocial risk work, I’d suggest three simple questions.
(1) What work are we actually trying to improve?
Start with the work, not the policy.
(2) Who has influence over that work?
Map the functions, leaders and workers who can help you understand and change it.
(3) Who isn’t in the room?
This might be the most important question of all.
Because sometimes the missing piece isn’t another tool, another policy or another training program. Sometimes it’s simply the right person having the right conversation with the right people.
From ownership to shared responsibility
No one function has all the answers.
And perhaps that’s the point.
Psychosocial safety isn’t created by one team.
It’s created when the people who influence the work are in the room, understand the risks, and work together to improve how that work gets done.
That’s where I think the real maturity starts.
So, who’s in the room?
If the answer doesn’t include the people who understand, influence and experience the work, that’s probably where I’d start. If you’re trying to work out what that looks like in practice, I’d be happy to have a conversation.
Connect with us
If you’re interested to learn more, please contact Jo De Groot, or our workplace psychology team below and we will be in touch within 24 hours.