Rethinking individual psychosocial risks: hazards in focus

Work should support people’s health, safety, and productivity. Getting the foundations right means focusing on risk, not just wellbeing, and understanding how work design impacts individuals.

Workers in low psychosocial safety climates take about 43 % more sickness hours and show 72 % higher performance loss, costing organisations an estimated $6 billion per year in lost productivity. (Becher & Dollard, 2016)

This session is part of our “Rethinking psychosocial risks” lunchtime thought-bite webinar series for business leaders, WHS, People and Culture, and HR professionals. It’s a 20-minute conceptual session designed to deliver immediate business relevance.

In this ‘thought-bite’ 20-minute session, we’ll:

• Clarify the common hazards that directly impact individuals, moving beyond vague notions of stress.
• Examine how work systems and design choices create and control individual psychosocial risk.
• Learn useful control measures to high-priority hazards impacting individuals for immediate risk reduction.

We will follow this content with a 10–15 minute Q&A focused on practical questions and sense-making.

📌 Attendees will leave with greater clarity on specific individual psychosocial hazards and confidence in applying practical control measures.

👉 This is Part 3 of our lunchtime thought bite series on individual psychosocial risk management, building towards deeper practical application.

Speaker highlights: